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The Last Desert 
Explore world's best races If you can conquer a 250 km footrace, are you able to conquer Antarctica's extreme weather conditions?
At a glance
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Location
Antartica
Happening in:
November
Race categories:
Ultramarathon
Next on:
November 18th, 2016
Race websiteFacebook page |
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The race
Antarctica is the great last desert - a polar region with little precipitation, no lakes and no rivers. It is, in fact, the driest continent on Earth where visitors can witness vast landscapes of snow, ice, mountains, volcanoes and ocean.
The race uses a polar expedition ship as its base, traveling to the different course locations on the Antarctic Peninsula and offshore islands based on the prevailing sea and weather conditions, with competitors transferred from ship to shore by zodiacs. Since 2010, this segment has been held biennially to minimise its environmental impact, and usually takes place around the end of November.
The unique challenges of The Last Desert (Antarctica) include having to cope with the severity of the weather conditions that can include gale force blizzards and temperatures down to −20 °C (4 °F). Competitors also have to deal with the unpredictability of daily stage lengths and start-times, as the prevailing environmental conditions dictate where and when stages might begin.
Route map(s):
