An Italian adventurer is planning to spend a year on an iceberg in a specially designed capsule. His icy sojourn is set to begin this winter, when he will ride a huge mass of ice until it melts.
Alex Bellini, 36, has already single-handedly sailed across two oceans in a rowboat and run through across America. Now he wants to live on an iceberg until it breaks up. He plans to start the project he calls ‘Adrift’ this winter, in December or January, by casting off the coast of Greenland on an iceberg.
“I believe that ‘Adrift’ is much more than an adventure, much more than a journey,” Bellini told RT.
The researcher said the message related to the scientific purpose of this experiment is: “We want to make people bear in mind how important it is to recognize nature.”
Bellini also told RT he wants to show people that “whatever you do in your life, whatever adventure you take, your life is first and foremost a great chance to explore yourself.”
Bellini plans to start his journey at the Ilulissat Glacier, a place where most of the Atlantic icebergs are born. There he will find a suitable candidate being taken south by the ocean’s currents.
The Italian needs an iceberg some 200-300 meters long. This is big enough to ensure it doesn’t flip over unexpectedly. It won’t be a hard task to choose, because there are hundreds, if not thousands of them in this location.
Alex Bellini made his first great journey a decade ago, crossing the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in a single-sail boat, crossing 11,000 kilometers in 227 days after two previous unsuccessful attempts. He wanted to explore self-imposed isolation and the feeling of loneliness.
Among other escapades this experienced adventurer has chalked up are the 156-mile Marathon des Sables through the Moroccan desert, a 1,250-mile sled ride across the Alaskan tundra. In 2008, he attempted to cross the Pacific Ocean in a rowboat. Starting from Peru bound for Australia, a distance of 10,000 nautical miles, he fell short by a mere 65 nautical miles.