Fire and Ice

In part two of our interview, Santi Corella – the first person to skydive over the South Pole – tells us about loneliness, the dangerous volatility of the death zone, and why his next plan is to parachute over a volcano.

You completed the first free-fall over the Antarctic together with two long-time team-mates, Toni Lopéz and Álvara Bultó. Which of you actually came up with the idea?

The idea for Proyecto Alas – Alas means “wing” in Spanish – is something we came up with together seven years ago. The idea behind it was to complete free-falls over all the elements. We’ve already completed the first stage – water and ice – with flights over the Straight of Gibraltar, the North Pole and now the South Pole ...

So now it’s fire?

Exactly, we’re planning a parachute jump over an active volcano. We haven’t fully decided which one it will be and exactly how we’re going to pull it off. We may even choose a different project first – a flight over a rainforest.

At least there you don’t have to worry about snowstorms and temperatures of 70 °C below zero, like you recently experienced in the South Pole. What was the most dramatic experience during the project?

The failed first attempt. A tiny cloud on the horizon had turned into a terrible snow storm in a matter of minutes. So we cancelled the jump and a helicopter was supposed to pick up our ground team. But he couldn’t land because visibility was so bad.


What happened then?

We had no other choice but to leave the nine-man crew on the ice overnight. They survived the storm in snow-holes that they built themselves, in constant radio contact with the rest of the team so that they didn’t fall asleep in the deathly cold. Next morning the helicopter was able to rescue the men – who were weakened but uninjured.

Meanwhile you’re back in the normal routine – you only find ice swimming in your Cola, where it belongs, and by looking at you, nobody would know that you’ve just been through such a death-defying experience. That you’re the first man to fly over the South Pole, that you experienced things during this project that nobody except your team-mates can empathise with – does it make you proud or lonely?

I could talk for hours about our experiences – but when I do, it becomes clear every time that just like photos or films, words are not enough to convey what we really experienced. But that’s not so important – just as the historic dimension of the project isn’t important. What counts for me is not that we were the first, but that we carried out a project that everyone thought was impossible exactly the way we planned it. This experience will stay in my heart forever ...