The last major expedition of the wind sled to date has just ended: the SOS Arctic WindSlead 2024. 23 days and 1,500 kilometres aboard the four modules, each measuring 20 metres, which are now the kite-powered vehicle perfected over 25 years. A mobile laboratory made available for scientific research in the planet’s polar regions. Next destination: Antarctica in 2025.
Between Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica, do you keep track of how many expeditions you have already done?
Well, between the big projects and the smaller ones, it can get a bit confusing. Let’s say there will be about 15 big expeditions and then dozens of others of a slightly smaller level.
He crossed Iceland on skis at 19 and travelled around the Arctic for three years. How did he manage to get his parents to accept him doing such daring things at such a young age?
I think they ignored me at first and then, only when they saw that I was really serious, they supported me in some way. Even though they were not from the mountains and had nothing to do with the world of nature, not at all, they were completely urban. The truth is that they did not try to dissuade me.
What drives a person in the 21st century to venture into inhospitable territories, even at temperatures of 50 degrees below zero?
First and foremost, you have to be passionate and fascinated by the world of wild nature. You have to feel it a bit like your home, like a place that attracts you and takes you out of the world you are in and into the norms of nature. It is like you are going to another planet and another dimension of everything. You have to have that desire for contact with wild nature in your blood.
There will be many differences between his first expeditions and the current ones, apart from the technological possibilities.
Obviously, they have nothing to do with each other. The incentive in those was exploration and adventure. With them I did my first big projects, in Greenland and the Arctic. I immersed myself in that world, I learned the Inuit language, their philosophy, how to build sleds, etc. It was a total immersion for three years, during which there was no GPS, no satellite phones, no Internet.
What did the incorporation of technologies mean for exploration and expeditions?
These are the three things that change everything, they define a line. A before and after. Luckily.
I understand that there are many differences between the first expeditions he made and the current ones.
They have nothing to do with each other. The initial motivation behind them was exploration and adventure. With them I did my first big projects in Greenland and the Arctic. I immersed myself in that world, I learned the Inuit language, their philosophy, how to build sleds, etc. It was a total immersion for three years, during which there was no GPS, no satellite phones, no Internet.
Another point of interest has been the wind sled. What has it taken to develop and perfect it to what it is today?
It has been a matter of going from having a concept of adventure and extreme experience to seeing if it was really viable as a research vehicle. It was precisely when we were with some researchers that they asked us: have you realised the potential that this has for research? It has been a 25-year process of adaptation until reaching the maximum potential: being able to transport 3,000 kilos and eight people. It was about making it possible to travel thousands of kilometres without using any fuel, with zero emissions and only with the help of the wind, so that scientists with their instruments can carry out experiments in places that would perhaps be very difficult to do. And I dare say that it is practically impossible in a more sustainable way.
Have you seen any difference in the landscapes of the Arctic and Greenland since then?
Yes, it has been a very gradual perception. Along with the retreat of the glaciers, there is also the reduction of the sea ice (the floating layer of ice in the Arctic Ocean). Thirty years ago I went on a dog sled trip on the sea ice. Today, that would not be possible. The permafrost (the permanently frozen surface of the ground) is also thawing and buildings are starting to fall down, runways are starting to turn. Processes are triggered that are linked to one another.
You have been to unexplored places, are there still places untrodden by humans?
A lot. There are many mountains in Greenland that have never been visited by the local population, there are no records of anyone doing so, and they have no names. In addition, new mountains have emerged due to the melting of ice caused by global warming.
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A life at 50 degrees below zero
When he is not crossing the frozen continents of the south or north on board the wind sled, he is at home in southern Greenland, where he has lived part of the year for 25 years. There he is the head of Polar Lands, his adventure travel company for everything above the Arctic Circle. Because, as he says with humour, “being an explorer is great, but you also have to work.” Although his passion for wildlife, adventure, ice and very low temperatures is obvious, who knows where the difference is for him.