Article in EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) magazine "Wind Directions"

Explorer Dixie Dansercoer is hoping to set a world record by travelling 6,000km across the icy wastes of the Antarctic next year, his sled and skis pulled only by kites that will harness the wind to power his journey.

After many gruelling expeditions in the Antarctic, Arctic, Greenland and Canada and various narrow escapes from prowling polar bears and enraged walruses, Dansercoer is familar with the constant physical and psychological preparation needed for a life as a polar explorer.

An initmate knowledge of Arctic winds, a gruelling training routine, yoga, a high-calorie, unchanging diet: all this is necessary to ensure the expedition has the greatest possible chance of success.

But Dansercoer is more than a lover of the wind and snow: he also has set up a travelling exhibition alerting visitors to the perils of climate change. In his travels, he sees firsthand the problems of thinning and melting polar ice caused by a warming planet, and he wanted to spread the urgent message of the need to act.

The exhibition, "Antarctic Matters" will be in Prague from September 2010, and more information can be found her: www.antarcticmatters.org

Dansercoer's full story can be read in the latest Wind Directions.

(By Sarah Azau, EWEA)

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The best place to train for a long haul Antarctic kite expedition is in some of the coldests environments on the planet. Dixie and I just back from a Last Degree expedition to the North Pole. Time and weather only allowed for one good session of kiting. On my 11m Frenzy, I was able to travel far and wide from our camp on the frozen Arctic Ocean. Because of the complexity of the ice conditions, the surface for kiting is challenging at best. But the temperatures, clocking in at -28C allowed for some excellent testing of equipment and routines.

After the expedition, we found ourselves stranded for a week in Lonyearbyen, Spitsbergen, due to the Iceland volcano. With no possibility of getting off the island, the only thing left to do was kite and test gear. Six days of kiting in full on winter conditions allowed for some perfect testing of kites, aerial cameras and sleds. Spitsbergen offers an endless array of mountains, flat plains of snow and no trees. Perfect testing grounds in preparation for Antarctic Matters, the Expedition.

"Dreams, dreams,
always dreams with you,
never common sense"

(From "Gone with the Wind")

The true inspiration for (Ant)Arctic Matters The Expedtion.