Back in February, just as the 2018-2019 Antarctic expedition season was coming to an end, I shared the story of a four-man Spanish team who had spent 52 days out on the ice, covering a remarkable 2538 km (1577 miles). Better yet, they did it without the use of motorized vehicles, instead choosing to use kites to travel through a largely-unexplored area of the east Antarctic. At the time, we knew that the group of explorers used a very different kind of kind, employing something called the WindSled to move more than 2000 kg (4409 pounds) of gear and supplies across the frozen continent. What we didn't know was that the WindSled was like a big, comfortable, recreational vehicle built for polar environments.
The video above, which comes our way courtesy of our friends at Explorers Web, gives us a better sense of what traveling and living in the WindKite is all about. While dealing with subzero weather, howling winds, whiteout conditions, and endless snow is always a challenge, if you do have to spend time in a place like Antarctica, this is the way to do it.
The WindSled was used to travel between two research stations and visited the seldom explored Fuji Dome. But, this was hardly the vehicles first rodeo as they say. In fact, according to ExWeb, it has been used on 11 expeditions since it was first created back in 1999, crossing Canada and Greenland, in addition to the frozen continent. Over the course of those missions it has wracked up more than 20,000 km (12,427 miles) in total distance.
In its article about the WindSled, ExWeb shares a few additional photos that are worth a look too. This is a unique way to explore the cold and wild places of our planet to say the least.
