REVISTA DAP AVENTURA 2015-2016

Aventura al fin del mundo 2015 - 2016
ANTARCTIC
MARATHON
A
race
against ice
Photos: Marianne Klock
Without a doubt, whoever decides to hold an
outdoors activity in Magallanes, must count
on a bit of luck with the weather. More so,
if the plans involve Antarctica, where once
again in 2015 –as in the past two years-
DAP held this special extreme running test.
Two were the groups for this year’s event, that
in this opportunity had the additional flavor
of staying the night in the White Continent,
with a camp specially built for this activity.
But the feat was not without difficulties;
the first group was meant to take off from
Punta Arenas on a Saturday early morning
to race right after landing, then spend the
night and fly back on the Antarctic Airways’
BAe 146-200 that would bring the second
group over –whom would repeat the same
scheme Sunday through Monday.
However, climatic conditions were all but
great; the plane took off from Punta Arenas,
but just moments before arriving at King
George Island, Antarctica, it was forced to
fly back because of new complications with
the weather.
Weather is always a factor –explains Nicolás
Paulsen, commercial submanager at DAP-,
which is why everyone who expects to fly
into Antarctica is informed beforehand of
the need to save at least a 4 day window
to realize their trip, in case the flight needs
to be delayed.
Disappointed, but expectant of the call from
DAP’s agents in charge of the flights, the
runners waited in Punta Arenas for decent
weather conditions.
Organizers (Marathon Adventures) were
expectant, but at ease; this is our third
marathon with them, and they know of the
effort we are putting into carrying out the
plans in the best way possible – Paulsen
continues. The result was very positive,
however: from a total of more than 100
signed runners, only three decided to quit.
Finally, the first group was able to fly on
Wednesday, spending the night at the
“ice camp”, and switching with the second
group that arrived on Thursday, to stay in
Antarctica until Friday night. The smiles,
hugs and emotions of satisfaction abounded
between the participants, organizing team
and the DAP crew, whom expectant of the
flight conditions barely slept the whole week.
The first group was the “7 Marathons on
7 Continents in 7 Days” challenge, who
unfortunately were not able to succeed in
their objective due to the impossibility of flying
to Antarctica on the original date. But even
so –explains Marianne Klock, supporting
guide working for the activity- they told me
they felt like they had achieved the goal.
They were so happy.
Adventure at the End of the World
9