Basque Trio : Cruising Speed Reached
Published on 26.12.2011 - TransAntartika 2011
Despite a terrain that continues to be the worst ever, everything is OK for the Basque Trio. Even with such a bad surface, they have broken their own record last Thursday with 155 km in 11 hours.
Since few days, for the Basque trio everything goes about figures and kilometers. No wonder ! They have finally encountered better weather, favorable winds and milder temperatures -differents factors that help them to go faster.
The only false note in this sum up : the terrain and the ice and the sastrugis that go with it. " Its still horrid', said Mikle Zabalza on 22 December on the sat phone. 'One had told us before we left Novolazarevskaya that from this latitude on the ice would be a lot better, smoother and with less sastrugis drawned in it. But where is this soft terrain ? Here we have only sastrugis fields, smooth snow and most irregular surface. If we had here the terrain we had in Greenland, with the wind we have now, we would certainly reach a 200 km pave a day..."
Nevertheless, the last days recap is not that bad : Alberto Iñurrategi, Juan Vallego Llanos Juan Vallego Llanos have done their record on last Thursday with 155 km in 11 hours ; the next day (23 December), they were devouring another 124 km in 10 hours kite -wich is almost 280 km in two days (despite the fact that they have to change sails at least four or five times a day).
This puts them at no more than 400 km from South Pole. They have travelled 1.770 kms so far.
