Dixie Dansercoer
Dixie (Dirk) Dansercoer (born 12 July 1962, Nieuwpoort, Belgium) is a Belgian explorer, endurance athlete and photographer. He has held records or won prizes for high altitude mountain biking, windsurfing, ultramarathon running and expedition film-making.
As a student, he spent a year in Moscow, Idaho, United States with AFS Intercultural Programs in 1980.
In 1997–98, he made a record-breaking crossing of Antarctica with Alain Hubert. In 2006, the European Space Agency commissioned Hubert and him to measure snow cover in the Arctic to calibrate measurements taken with the CryoSat 2 satellite.[1] The two left Arctic Cape, Siberia on 1 March 2007. They reached the North Pole after 55 days and Greenland in another 51 days, the first time anyone had walked from Siberia to Greenland. In 2008, he led the 'In the wake of the Belgica expedition', a re-enactment of the de Gerlache expedition.[2] In 2011-12 he ski-kited with Sam Deltour on the Antarctic ice cap on a pioneering 5,013 kilometres (3,115 mi) circular trajectory.[3] In 2014, Dansercour and Eric McNair-Landry completed the first full circumnavigation on the Greenland ice cap with 4,040 kilometres (2,510 mi) as final distance.[4] During all of his expeditions parallel scientific missions were executed.
He provides polar guiding services through his companies Polar Circles and Polar Experience, with trips to both the Arctic Polar Regions and Antarctica.
Dixie Dansercoer co-founded with Eric Bonnem and a few explorers (incl. Gilles Elkaïm, Philippe Frey, etc.) Expeditions Unlimited in 2011.
Together with ultra-runners Erik Michels and Christoph Vandewiele, Dixie Dansercoer also co-founded the renowned Polar Running Expeditions in 2018, a new type of fast-paced polar expeditions.
References
- ^ "Scientists and polar explorers brave the elements in support of Cryosat-2". ESA. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ^ "Dixie Dansercoer arrives in Antarctica". Expatica. flandersnews.be. 4 January 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ^ "Flemish polar explorers break record". Flanders Today. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
- ^ Furniere, Andy (16 June 2014). "Dansercoer finishes record-setting expedition in Greenland". Flanders Today. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
- Explorers Attempt Longest Arctic Crossing. National Geographic Magazine
- Interview: 100 days on thin ice. New Scientist, 17 November 2007 p. 54-5
External links