Ice Care News at Berner Zeitung

Von Paris nach Lauterbrunnen mit dem Velo
Von Martina Maurer. Aktualisiert am 19.06.2009

Am Freitag starten zwei Portugiesen eine Radtour von Paris nach Lauterbrunnen via Jungfraujoch und Aletschgleschter. bernerzeitung.ch hat José Tavares vor der Abreise getroffen.

José Maria Soares und José Tavares werden insgesamt fünf Tage im Rahmen des Projekts «Ice Care» unterwegs sein. Die 600 Kilometer vom Hauptsitz der Unesco in Paris bis nach Lauterbrunnen auf dem Rad und der Weg über das Jungfraujoch und den Aletschgletscher zu Fus stehen im Zeichen der globalen Erwärmung. Die beiden wollen mit der Tour aufzeigen, dass die Erderwärmung forgeschritten und die Konsequenzen bereits sichtbar seien.
Mithilfe eines GPS-Gerätes wollen Soares und Tavares über längere Zeit den Rückgang des Gletschers beobachten und daraus Schlüsse über die Klimaerwärmung ziehen. Das Projekt wird von Unesco, WWF Portugal und Guides von GrindelwaldSports unterstützt und begleitet.
Die Fortsetzung des Icecare-Projekts erfolgt im Dezember dieses Jahres mit der Besteigung des Kilimanjaro Gletschers (Tanzania) und in den nächsten Jahren mit dem Besuch der Gletscher des Ilulissat Icefjord (Grönland-Dänemark), Sagarmatha-Everest (Nepal) und Huascarán National Park (Peru).
Unter http://icecare.blogspot.com kann die Tour live mitverfolgt werden.

http://www.bernerzeitung.ch/region/thun/Von-Paris-nach-Lauterbrunnen-mit-dem-Velo/story/15267721

Q&A

When are you leaving?
Zé Diogo is there already. I’ll join him on the 19th. Nuno Frazão (environmental engineer) and Sandra Sousa (doctor from HPP Saúde) will meet us in Switzerland and we’ll cross the glacier together.

What’s the roadmap?
19th morning: Meeting at UNESCO’s HQ with the Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre.
19th afternoon: start cycling the 650 km between Paris and Switzerland
20th until whenever: we will be crossing France on our bicycles, sleeping on the floor, doing an average of 130km per day (hopefully)
Around the 24th, 25th or 26th: we will start crossing the Aletsch on foot…it should take us 2 days to do so
We should be back to Portugal on the 30th

How can one follow the expedition?
Having the back-office support of SAPO and TORKE in Portugal, we’ll try to keep the flow of information as updated as possible.
We’ll be uploading fotos, videos, texts and GPS coordinates. This content will be available at several on-line platforms:
. www.icecare.org – official website, with fotos, videos, maps, text, etc.
. http://icecare.blogspot.com – English version of the blog with fotos and videos
. http://icecare.blogs.sapo.pt – Portuguese version of the blog
. http://fotos.sapo.pt/ - fotos
. http://videos.sapo.pt/ - videos

How can the melting be tracked?
Mainly using technology known to everyone…GPS
Glacier upper and lower limits and altitude will the registered using GPS (by GARMIN). Altitude will also be cross-referenced using met stations (by SILVA).
In the following years the same limits will be measured for comparison.The information will then be shown over satellite images, to make the retreat visible.

Getting ready....

Portugal Bike Tour 09

The day of our departure for the 600 km between Paris and Interlaken (Switzerland) is almost there. After that we’ll be crossing the Aletsch glacier (the longest in Europe, where the retreat of the ice is flagrant). We need to be in good shape and know all the equipment given by the supporting brands. As a preparation this tour through the interior of Portugal revealed itself useful, although this wasn’t the only motive to ride almost 1.000km. The promotion of the Ice Care project and crossing the country to meet a dear friend in Chaves, and hand to her my recent book ‘Aventura ao Máximo’, were also among those. Yes, revisit a person whom I had not seen for many years, seemed to me the best reason to justify the destination …
On the 14th of May I’ve left from Setúbal on a morning ferry. In Tróia I’ve started to ride, and ride, and ride, … for 8 days without stopping! From 6 to 8 hours per day. Until I’ve arrived … !!! Not without changing some of the initial plans: I wanted to reach the Algarve, but bad roads demanded more time. So, instead of reaching the Santa Clara dam (Algarve’s border) I’ve started to turn southeast in Ourique. Passed Almodôvar and only had a glimpse of the ribeira de Vascão, before turning north and continued through Mértola. Then, I followed always along the border, next to some of the Oldest Villages and, after Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, I rode strait to Chaves – my final goal (more photos at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=117593&id=613684777&ref=mf ).
If I managed to conquer the attention of 4 or 5 persons to follow our site and blogs, I’ll be happy. The equipment from brands such as Berg, Silva and TrangoWorld, had to be tested in real conditions, adjusted and optimized. The physical condition and the logistics – a sort of autonomy with stages longer than a 100 km – had to be proven. And they were! At last, a special word of thanks to the Firemen of Portalegre and Vila Flôr (respectively Mr. Alberto and the Chief Commandant), and to Quim (Firemen of Idanha-a-Nova), big fan of mountain biking, for their time and support given.
por José Tavares

Equipment
TrangoWorld: mountain clothing (polar and waterproof garment) and camping gear (‘Mountain TR 30’ sleeping bag and ‘skin micro-lite’ self-inflated mattress); Berg (bicycle ‘Torah 9.5’, helmet ‘Raden’ and other gear); Dual Brand (‘Ranger 3’ compass and head lamp Silva, Gerber multi-function knife).

Playlist

In less than 30 days, we'll start the 1st of the 5 expedition to glaciers in the world.
We will be cycling all the way from UNESCO's HQ in Paris, to Switzerland and then across the longest glacier in Europe, on foot.
It's time to start organizing the last arrangements for the trip…including, obviously, the expedition's sound track! ah ah
Care to give us a hand with it?
We'll basically need 2 kinds of playlist:
1. Power songs – energizing music, for cycling and walking over glaciers
2. Introspective music – for the mere contemplation of landscape and the human condition
I'm sure you all have at least one favorite song for both cases – share it with us!
We welcome any kind of suggestions, regardless of music gender!
Thanks for your support!!

second part of the interview

interview May the 12th

Live interview with Jose Abecasis Soares, about the ICE CARE project, for the Portuguese news channel TVI24 (part I)


....it's in Portuguese....sorry

HPP Saude training video

As promised, here’s the video of HPP Saude training.
We have organized a short trekking event to evaluate the skills of the candidate doctors.Based on this tour and on a personality questionnaire, 2 doctors were selected to join the 2009 expeditions to Switzerland and Tanzania.

Press Conference

We've been working for ICE CARE for sooooooo long….it’s about time we start talking about it!
Official press conference at CulturGest, next Monday! (May the 4th)
‘Pequeno Auditório’ at 18:00h
Followed by a brief acoustic concert by Tiago Bettencourt (who will join us for the Tanzania expedition).
Enjoy!

HPP Saúde Training

HPP Saúde – Official Health Service of the Ice Care project, will send a doctor along with the expedition’s team. Last April the 18th we all went for a 4km uphill training to select the person who will join us in Switzerland and Tanzania. Tough call! All the doctors showed good climbing capabilities and great interpersonal skills.

Dream team picture!
Training video will be posted soon.

If we could see….

This UK TV advertisement, suggest: ‘…if you could see the effect we are having on our planet, you’d do something about it!’
But…we CAN see it!!
That’s exactly the purpose of the ICE CARE project!
We will travel the world, climbing the glaciers that are affected NOW by climate change - You will be able to see it happening TODAY!

Miguel Arrobas becomes the 1st Ice Care ambassador

Sportsman: Open water and marathon swimmer.
Has completed several unique crossings in Portuguese waters and aims to swim the great crossings around the world.
Holder of the fastest time overall of 2008 for the English Channel Swim, completing the distance between England and France in 9h30m.

“In the crossings I have done and those which I plan to do in the future, I have always added an ecological dimension to my sporting achievement. Seas, rivers, dams and lakes are the stages for my challenges. As such I use the media coverage I attract to raise awareness about issues such as water pollution and the need to preserve marine ecosystems and endangered species. This is why I was nominated in 2008 as the UN Ambassador for the Year of the Dolphin. I therefore see in the Ice Care Project a perfect alliance between a sporting event and a clear environmental intervention, a shout for help to halt climate change and global warming. This is why I am happy to be associated with this project.”

http://miguelarrobas.blogspot.com/