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Challenges to meet
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| Far from meaning war or conquest, we use the term challenge to signify the goals we have set ourselves to meet so as to better understand the land and ourselves. Aside from the journey itself, other challenges will be to perform scientific research that cover not only the terrain but how humans resist psychologically in total isolation and extreme climatic conditions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > Athletic Challenge > Human Challenge > Exploration > Environnement > Science | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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For several months Christian Clot and Mélusine Mallender will have to be autonomous in a territory that is barely known and in extremely abnormal climatic conditions. They will have to adapt to a terrain of unpredictable mobility and to a highly temperamental climate, both excessive to the extreme and very hostile to Man. Travelling despite these conditions will be the price to pay for a successful expedition.
They will need to kayak across thousands of kilometres of water, man-carry hundreds of kilos on land, journey through instable glacial lands with dire changes in altitudes They will have to create tracks and retrace their steps several times to carry their equipment from one point to the other, thus dramatically rising the distance to cover. Moreover they will constantly have to change terrain, from sea to mountains, from rocks to ice. This will call on all their experience of extreme terrains, on both technical and physical aspects. If kayaking, walking or climbing are basic means of travelling for explorers on their journey to discovering and understanding new worlds, they nevertheless represent major physical and athletic challenges. |
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Survive Under Difficult Climates Climatic conditions will be the most difficult problem to face. We are in the famous «furious fifties» and very close to the Cape Horn. This means the whole territory undergoes the same conditions. Unpredictable squalls of wind and not so infrequent 180 km/h gusts. Temperatures can easily fall under –30°C (-22°F) and when they rise, they couple with high humidity. Man needs to resist to these temperatures which haphazardly change from on extreme to the other and always at staggering speed. Persevere Despite Wrecking Conditions ! Climatic conditions have shaped a particularly tortured and mobile environment. Abundant rainfalls modify the surface of oceans and glaciers from day to day and overnight 2 meter high snowfalls at low altitude are not uncommon. In glaciers, crevasses open and fill rapidly and summits, often made of blown snow, see their slopes and access modified constantly. Tracks which were opened the previous day need to be opened again or reinvented. Abrupt slopes, dense primeval vegetation and stormy waters create a terrain where progression on foot or by kayak is highly hazardous. |
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Outside the deep sea beds and the earth’s crust, it seems that our planet is well known and mapped. Yet there are still open territories where man has hardly trodden. Hielo Continental is one of those. Although mapped, many areas have never been visited and scientific data for these is near to non-existent. One of the goals for this expedition is to bring back exploitable scientific data. |
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