Roaming Romanian Radu receives Polartec grant
31/01/2014
Diaconescu Radu will embark on a nine-month human-powered solo journey from his home in Bucharest to the summit of Khan Tengri, a 7000-metre peak in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, and back again.
The annual Polartec Challenge Grant awards seek to assist “frugal, low impact teams who respect the local culture and environment and serve as role models to outdoor enthusiasts worldwide”. Performance textiles developer and producer Polartec has run the programme since 1991 and calculates that more than 100 expeditions have won funding so far. It evaluates applications on the basis of their vision, commitment and credibility.
Other winners in 2014 include Canadian-based team Holly Walker, Marcus Waring, Vince Shuley and Emilie Stenberg who will follow the flow of the Fedchenko, the largest glacier in the world outside of the polar regions, on an unsupported six-week mountaineering expedition in Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, US group Meghan Kelly, Pip Hunt, Nat Segal, McKenna Peterson, Karissa Tuthill, and Martha Hunt will attempt to ski first descents in Greenland via a sailboat from Iceland, and Jim Harris will cross the 550-kilometre length of the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap by ski, traction kite and packraft, while documenting the remote landscape’s deteriorating glaciers.
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