French adventurer Jeremy Josserand became the first person to cross Iceland on a snowkite
Black and White Heaven (GG on Iceland) – Teaser from Film IT on Vimeo.
French adventurer Jeremy Josserand became the first person to cross Iceland on a snowkite on Friday. By having a kite pull him on skis, he reached a speed of 60 kilometers per hour at one point and completed the journey in eight and a half hours.
“The last 30 kilometers I had become so tired that I couldn’t feel my legs,” Josserand told dv.is. “The first 50 kilometers were fine, the weather was good and there wasn’t much wind. But after that the wind started blowing and I couldn’t see much.”
Josserand was accompanied by a film crew who documented his journey from Mýrdalsjökull glacier in the south to Bárdardalur valley in the north.
The director, Jure Breceljnik, said he usually follows Josserand on a snowkite but this time it was too dangerous. “But we followed him all the way on snowmobiles, from the beginning until the end.” He expects to premiere the film in Iceland at the end of this year or early 2012.
“It is an amazing achievement. I can hardly believe that he made it,” commented Gísli Steinar Jóhannesson at Paragliding who assisted Josserand. “The wind reached a speed of 20 meters per second at one point; for comparison, I pack my bags when it reaches ten meters per second.”
Josserand is famous in the world of extreme sports. He holds the world record in snowkite jumping: 455 meters. He is now preparing to open a snowkiting school in Iceland. Visit his website, jerome-josserand.com, to learn more about his stunts.
The documentary Black and White Heaven by Breceljnik, which will be published next month, shows Josserand gliding on a snowkite on the ashes of Eyjafjallajökull and on the glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón, among other places.