Dirk "Dixie" Dansercoer (12 July 1962 – 7 June 2021) was a Belgian explorer, endurance athlete and photographer. He held records or won prizes for high altitude mountain biking, windsurfing,

ultramarathon An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of . The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running. Various distances, surfaces, and formats are raced competitively, from the ...

running, and expedition filmmaking. Poolreiziger 02

Biography

* In 1980, as a student, Dansercoer spent a year in

Moscow, Idaho Moscow ( ) is a city and the county seat of Latah County, Idaho. Located in the North Central Idaho, North Central region of the state along the border with Washington (state), Washington, it had a population of 25,435 at the 2020 United States ...

, United States with

AFS Intercultural Programs AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS, originally the American Field Service) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations, each with its own network of volunteers, professional ...

where he got his ''Dixie'' nickname. * He was a graduated translator-interpreter. * He served for 13 years as an air Steward with Sabena, the Belgian airlines. * As a prize-winner he flew to Alain Hubert basecamp and befriended him. * In 1997–98, he made a record-breaking crossing of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

with

Alain Hubert Alain Hubert (born September 11, 1953, in Schaerbeek) is a Belgian explorer.State, P. F., ''Historical Dictionary of Brussels'', 2nd ed. ( Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)pp. 209–210 He is a certified mountain and polar guide, a civil ...

. * In 2006, the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

commissioned him and Hubert to measure snow cover in the Arctic to calibrate measurements taken with the CryoSat 2 satellite. The two left

Arctic Cape The Arctic Cape (, ''Mys Arkticheskiy'') is a headland in Severnaya Zemlya, Russia. With a distance of 990.8 km to the North Pole, the Arctic Cape is sometimes used as starting point for expeditions to the North Pole. Geography Stretching ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

on 1 March 2007. They reached the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

after 55 days and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

in another 51 days, the first time anyone had walked from Siberia to Greenland. * In 2008, he led the 'In the wake of the Belgica expedition', a re-enactment of the de Gerlache expedition. * In 2011–12 he ski-kited with Sam Deltour on the Antarctic ice cap on a pioneering circular trajectory. * In 2014, Dansercoer and Eric McNair-Landry completed the first full circumnavigation on the Greenland ice cap with as final distance. During all of his expeditions parallel scientific missions were executed. He provided polar guiding services through his companies Polar Circles and Polar Experience, with trips to both the Arctic polar regions and Antarctica. Dixie Dansercoer co-founded in 2011 with a few explorers a travel agency. Together with ultra-runners he also co-founded 'Polar Running Expeditions' in 2018, a new type of fast-paced polar expeditions. Dansercoer was a father of four. One of his children was born in 2002 while he was away on the ''Ultimate Arctic Crossing''.

Death

Dansercoer died on 7 June 2021 during an expedition in Greenland at the age of 58. He went missing after falling into a glacier gorge. It is unclear if his body can be recovered. A search and rescue team descended into the crevasse and located his sled at a depth of 25 m, but was unable to find him after descending a further 15 m. No further rescue attempts were undertaken. Dansercoer recorded in his last journal entry at 443 km of the destination

Qaanaaq Qaanaaq (), formerly known as New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. The town has a population of 646 as of 2020. The population was forcibly relocated from its former, traditiona ...

"nice temperatures, terrain wonderful and perfect visibility". According to his partner Sebastien Audy, Dansercoer was manhauling the sled when the accident occurred and aware that the duo had strayed into a crevasse zone.

References

External links

*
Polar Circles

Polar Experience

Polar Running Expeditions

Listen to an interview with Dixie
1962 births 2021 deaths Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Denmark Belgian explorers People from Nieuwpoort, Belgium {{Belgium-bio-stub