Taking advantage of their break from racing in the different competitions they compete in, Marc Coma & Dani Pedrosa have accepted the Desafío Extremo – Extreme Challenge – offered by Jesús Calleja and they are now ready to climb the highest mountain in The Alps. They are also accompanied by another motorbike rider, Héctor Barberá, and in the next few days the expedition will face their tough challenge, something that will later be shown on the Cuatro TV channel.
This adventure started last Monday when Jesús Calleja and his team arrived at Marc Coma`s home, in Avià province of Barcelona, to spend the night. The following day Coma and the rest of the team travelled to Chamonix, France, where they met up with Héctor Barberà. Chamonix, one of the cities where mountainerring began, will be the camp base and nerve centre as the team and others prepare their climb. Chamonix is situated at a height of 1 100 metres and the team has already made some excursions to get acclimatised as well as to learn all about safety in the mountains, very necessary for the final ascent, following a detailed plan prepared by Jesús Calleja himself.
The Repsol team members have little experience in the mountains and the two are under the constant supervision of the team that is captained by the TV presenter from Cuatro; made up of his brother Enrique, assistants Jesús López & Adolfo Arturo López, and Emilio Valdés, long-suffering cameraman who is sure not to miss the best moments and images during this “Desafío Extremo”.
On Wednesday the two Repsol team members did some acclimatisation work so as to get used to the altitude, climbing l’Aigüille du Midi 3 842 metres above sea level. They stayed there the whole day so that their bodies could acclimatise to the lower atmospheric pressure and avoid hipoxia, that is a lack of oxygen. This is because at high altitude less oxygen passes from the air breathed in to the blood, compared to the percentage at sea level. This means you have to breathe more often and the heart has to beat faster to transport the same amount of oxygen to the blood.
Yesterday, Thursday, the second day of their preparations, Marc Coma, Héctor Barberá, Jesús Calleja and the rest of the “Desafío Extremo” team did a 200 metre climb using all their equipment to reach to the Mer de Glace glacier, an enormous area of permanently frozen ice. There the whole group learned how to use crampons, cross fissures in ice and to abseil for the first ever time, they went down walls of ice and then got back out using piolets and crampons, all at a height of 1 900 metres. At night the team welcomed Dani Pedrosa and said goodbye to Marc Coma for a short time, who for personal reasons will not be back until Sunday.
This morning Dani Pedrosa, Héctor Barberá and Jesús Calleja`s team crossed the famous Mont Blanc tunnel, from France to Italy, to catch the funicular railway in Courmayeur (1 224 metres) to ascend to Helbonner point, 3 462 metres. There they were able to practise with crampons and ropes as well as to get better acclimatised to the conditions, a positive day for all concerned.
Unfortunately the weather forecast is not too encouraging, and after three sunny days and good temperatures, the conditions will worsen from Tuesday onwards as a mass of polar air arrives. This means the schedule has been brought forward and so tomorrow the whole group, except Marc Coma, will climb to the first refuge, the Tete Rouge at 3 167 metres. The following day, and with Marc Coma present, the team will sleep in the Gouter refuge, at 3 863 metres, and then start their attack on the summit between Monday and Tuesday.
