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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Snow Kiting Distance World Record Smashed

Sebastian Copeland, and his partner Eric McNair-Landry (pictured right) have just smashed the Snow Kiting world record by traveling over 595 kilometers in 24 hours.




The two are currently on trek across Greenland to raise awareness for global warming. The team had experienced some bad weather that saw them pinned down in their tent for 6 straight days earlier in their expedition.

Waking up the morning of June 5th they had near perfect conditions of moderate winds and good snow. After the first hour they had covered nearly 100 kilometers putting the record in reach. “Let’s go for it” said Eric and they did.

Kiting for 2 hours at a time and taking 15 minute breaks for food and hydration they continued on throughout the night. With the old record held by Norwegians Hugo Rolf Hansen and Bjørn Einar Bjartnesat standing at 518 kilometers they had a daunting task in front of them.

Seventeen hours later they had the record in hand but only after having to switch to smaller kites due to the increasing winds. With muscles aching and 5 more hours of kiting in front of them they switched to 45 minutes of kiting and 15 minutes of resting. Sebastian (46) and Eric (25) had been awake for over 31 hours and now kiting for 24 hours straight and when they stopped to look at their GPS the reading was 595 kilometers - a new world record.

The team collapsed into their tent and proceeded to sleep 13 hours straight. But sleep is something of a luxury on an expedition like this, so they rose the next day to press on. The team still has 16 days left and 750 kilometers to cover in order to make their pick up zone in Qaanaaq, Greenland. When the expedition completes they will have covered over 2300 kilometers from their starting point in Narsarsuaq.

VIA: Technorati.com

Dibutil: I wonder, what was the previous record and who set it?