Two Chilean kayakers/climbers, Cristian Donoso and Mario Sepúlveda, will attempt a unassisted kayak voyage and climbing expedition at the Antarctic Peninsula.

Next month, Cristian and Mario will cross the Drake Passage on board the ship ‘Antarctic Dream’ to get to the Antarctic Peninsula from where they will start their expedition.

According to their website: “These two explorers will seek to complete an itinerary of 1600 kilometers, following a maritime and terrestrial route never tried before that will take them for the coast and the highest summits of the Mountain chain of the Antarctic Andes.”

That will be 1600 km on sea and snow! The approximate distances will be, in kayak, 850 km, on land/snow 750 km; total, 1600 km. Estimated time 80 – 110 days.

“The main goal of this expedition will be to alert the public about the effects of global warming on the Antarctic coast,” they stated, “In order to achieve it we will make a photographic and audiovisual register of landscapes and wildlife of this Antarctic region, from the deep and non-disturbing perspective of a kayak expedition.”

The photographic material will eventually be put together in a documentary film, a book, articles and a website that will show the consequences of global warming on the wildlife and sceneries of the Antarctic Peninsula.

In 2008-09 Cristian Donoso and Claudio Scarletta (from Argentina) explored the Antarctic Peninsula by kayak.

However, the 2009-2010 route, according to their site, appears to be even more challenging:

Crossing Drake’s sea and passing among the Islands Shetland of the South, the ‘Antarctic Dream’ will leave the explorers in Portal Point, located on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, where they will establish the first Base Camp. From there they will climb the Antarctic Andes up to the Foster Plateau, where they will leave a deposit with food.

Back at the sea, they will kayak to the north end of the continent. Passing though Antarctic Channel and Erebus and Terror Gulf, they will get to Pitt Point, close to the base of the Victory Glacier, where they will establish the second Base Camp.

From there, they will cross the glacier and it’s field of cracks, raising the kayaks and other equipments up to the Detroit Plateau, where they will start a terrestrial voyage of 700 km.

Following the line of the levels and the highest summits of the Antarctic Andes, and getting supplies at the deposit left in the Foster Plateau, the explorers will advance with skis and crampons up to Bay Daisy, dragging the kayaks like pulkas.

In Margarita Bay, they will paddle through the edge of the same mountains, which summits before explored, will advance towards the north up to reaching the Petermann Island, where they will be picked up by the Antarctic Dream.

They anticipate completing their journey by Janunary 2010.