Into Clean Air – Atacama Desert Expedition is seeking two female teammates to join a 4 person team for a 3-week expedition in Spring 2025.
Dates: 24th April - 25th May 2025
This expedition seeks to demonstrate that remote and challenging vehicle-based expeditions can be accomplished using a cleaner, carbon-mitigating strategy in the form of biofuel and solar power. We will be taking three 4x4s into the depths of the Atacama desert, path-finding a route using existing tracks and fully off-road sections to navigate the spectacular mountainous and arid volcanic terrain of the Andes, crossing Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni – the largest salt pan in the world, as well as traversing the desert plains and pampas of central Chile.
We are planning to partner with a scientific institution to collect data while on the expedition and are currently reaching out to research groups active in the area.
Key Objectives:
To cross the Atacama and other arid regions of Chile and Bolivia by using off-road tracks
To employ a feasible carbon mitigating strategy by using bio-mass fuel and solar energy to power the vehicles and equipment respectively
To engage in data collection for research into the human impact on atmospheric or ground pollutants in the desert regions of eastern South America.
Website: https://www.intocleanair.org/
Sponsorship & funding:
We have already secured significant sponsorship funding which will go towards the general costs, vehicle procurement and specialist 4x4 training (in the UK). We also have sponsorship in place with a solar panel company that will be supplying solar panels for each vehicle as well as heavy-duty expedition tents, and we are seeking further sponsorship and general financial support.
At present, without any additional sponsorship, we are each committing to a maximum of £1300 of our own money to cover the necessary costs, however, we are forcefully going after further funding and expect to cover some if not all of that amount through additional sponsorship. Therefore any new teammates would need to be willing to commit to some possible self-funding.
About the team:
The team is made up of Alex, Garry, Alan & Chris – all UK based – and we each have expertise in one key area such as desert navigation, expedition mechanics, photography/filmmaking and business development/sponsorship and we have been working together for two years on expedition planning (initially for another expedition in the middle east) – now focuses solely on getting to Chile in 2025. We are a friendly group that all equally love adventure and remote travel and are keen to explore this distant part of the world in a conscientious way, limiting the carbon output of traditional vehicle-based expeditions. More info about the existing team members is on our website.
New teammates:
As the team is currently made up of three males and one female (Alex), we are seeking to maintain gender balance by bringing on two female members. We are seeking additional team members who are:
Familiar with remote independent travel and comfortable camping at high altitude (ideally with some basic camp craft experience)
Comfortable with driving off-road in 4x4s (with some additional training)
Willing to be an active member of the planning process inc pursuing sponsorship leads
Ideally have some experience in expedition medicine
Conversational Spanish would be useful but not essential! (One of our team is learning)
Press contacts are also bonus!
Timeline: We are aiming to recruit by mid-July
Many thanks & we look forward to hearing from you –
Alex, Alan, Garry & Chris