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Author: Timothy Kalton
Photography: Posovisual
"I think I'm already two hundred years old because I dedicate three or four years of preparation to each expedition, and I've completed fifteen expeditions."
A born multi-sportsman, as well as a firefighter, expeditioner, polar explorer, and entrepreneur, Antonio de la Rosa (Íscar, Valladolid, 1969) boasts an overwhelming resume in solo and unsupported extreme sports. As a raider, he excelled for a decade in the global elite of Adventure Races (AR), five-day 'non-stop' events. His passion for great challenges has led him to undertake sea crossings, including the first navigation in the Arctic Circle – 800 km rowing along the West coast of Greenland – in 2016, and other Atlantic adventures by canoe. In 2019, he covered the 4,700km of the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco Bay (California) and the Hawaiian Islands, a feat he accomplished in 76 days rowing standing on a 'paddle surf' vessel. Additionally, he has traversed the thousand miles (1,600 km) of the Iditarod Alaska – between Anchorage and Nome – with skis and a sled. And recently, in 2025, he reached the Geographic South Pole in 39 days of expedition under extreme temperature conditions, skiing and with a 70kg sled. These days, he is preparing to embark next summer on what will be the greatest and most unusual challenge in his impressive history: a solo rowing expedition on a 'paddle surf' board – a prototype capable of transforming into a sled – to cross the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic Ocean, a feat accomplished a hundred years ago by boat by the mythical Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. To achieve this feat, at the limit of what is imaginable, Antonio de la Rosa will mark a before and after in self-sufficient navigation. To learn more, his latest book: 'I am water' (2026) published by Editorial Desnivel.
Looking at your profile, I see a versatile athlete, a person you don't know where to approach. There isn't a sport that hasn't tempted you...
Yes, I am very involved in the world of competition. Since I was a child, at 11 or 12 years old, I practiced different sports. I started with swimming, then played rugby in Valladolid, where I lived until I was 18. Later, at 13, I started kayaking, which is the official competitive sport I did for many years. Then, once I moved to Madrid at 19, I continued with kayaking, got involved in triathlon and quadrathlon (which adds kayaking to triathlon), so I started participating in European quadrathlon cups. I was Spanish champion several years. I went to six World Championships between 1992 and 1998, I got a third place in a European Championship and a seventh in the World Quadrathlon Championship. I have never focused on a single sport because, in addition to climbing, I have done diving and a lot of mountain skiing in winter.
Then you went all in on adventure races (AR)
Yes, I tried them with a good friend who was a firefighter. We had signed up for an AR in the Canary Islands in 1996, and we really liked the vibe. Because in the end, that's what we're passionate about: contact with nature, long distances, combining several sports. And I told myself: "Damn, this is the sport I really like." It's the sport where I truly felt elite. I started competing in 1997, Red Bull's sponsorship followed – I was the brand's first athlete in Spain – and from there, it was years of glory with my team.
We created an almost unbeatable team anywhere in the world. We competed in events until about 2007, at a really serious level, always in the top three. We stayed at the top globally for about nine or ten years. That helped me travel, get to know many places, and enjoy the environment and the sport.
Until Red Bull's sponsorship came along, it was very difficult to make a living from a discipline that wasn't as popular as AR. Did you treat it as a hobby?
Yes, it was my hobby . At 19, in 1989, I got a firefighter position in the Community of Madrid. I'm a professional firefighter and I worked as such until 2003. The truth is, I never thought I could make a living from sports, although at a certain point I realized we had the possibility of getting good sponsorships with Red Bull and PlayStation. Those were years when a good athlete was valued financially. Nowadays, they're not valued at all and it's very difficult to get money. Back then, raids were more or less known, but not more known than they are today. There are still raids ; in fact, I organize a World Cup with significant participation, forty teams of four sign up.
It's still a sport with media coverage...
Yes, it really took off, especially after Discovery Channel got involved and created a reality show around an event called Ecochallenge, which was the best event in the world. What they did was invest a lot of money, attract big sponsors like Mastercard, create an event worth 30 or 40 million dollars, and make a four or five-hour reality show with the adventure racers. Let's say it made us known. In 1998, we finished third in Morocco, and in 1999, we were second in the Ecochallenge in Argentina.
At what point did everything change? Did the team dissolve and you move on to more personal challenges?
I've had two major periods as a rider. One period with my first powerful team; then a second team also of a high level, almost the same, because we won many events. Until 2002, we had two or three bad results. We were very competitive, we wanted to win, and due to internal circumstances, the team broke up. I then created another formation with three great runners, Mònica Aguilera – who won the Marathon des Sables and was a world champion in O-BM (Mountain Bike Orienteering) –; with Franco Costoya, an extraordinary athlete, and with several other people. We created a second team and competed until about 2007. And we were making money.
Then came your passion for canoeing and kayaking...
When you race in a team with a chance to be at the front and you're not doing well, you basically become a burden to the rest. That's why I decided not to be a drag for anyone or drag anyone along. So, in 2008, I decided to stop racing AR. From then on, I set myself a personal challenge, which was to travel the eight Canary Islands in eight days by kayak. I had met a friend a few years before on the island of El Hierro, and decided to take on that challenge with him. But unfortunately, he passed away, and I decided to carry it out in 2009 in his honor, especially for a good friend. It's my way of staying active in sports and nature, without being dependent on a team and a specific physical condition.
How do your projects arise, like the one you're preparing for this coming summer, crossing the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Ocean?
Like everything in life. Just as I have business projects, I have sports projects. You see a report on television about a place, a spot on the map, an activity someone has done... and maybe it connects with you. Years ago, I read about Amundsen, and I've been to the South Pole just like Amundsen was. The Norwegian explorer was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage with a ship a hundred years ago. And from there, you think, you study, you see what that Passage meant, that it was a passionate adventure. And you tell yourself "if I like paddleboarding, why not do it on a paddleboard?" You start researching and "damn, I think it can be done. Let's try it." And that's how the idea comes about. Then, you think about the most suitable type of boat, how to get to the starting point, etc. You need to build a boat, you look for someone who can do it, who wants to get involved with you with sponsorships. It's a job. I think I'm already two hundred years old because each expedition takes me three or four years of preparation and I've done fifteen expeditions.
I'm also thinking about an expedition in the Indian Ocean, the only one I have left to complete all the oceans, which I might do in 2027.
Do you find it difficult to recover from the psychological and physical exhaustion upon returning from expeditions?
No, it doesn't cost me. If it has been very exhausting, basically, your head is not there to think about the next day. When I came back from the South Pole, completely exhausted, with very low salt and protein levels, it took me two or three months to essentially recover and be able to start exercising again. Although I am noticing it more and more. I am almost 57 years old and today I believe I can take on any physical challenge, but in five years there will be sports goals that my body will not be ready for. I will have to consider projects that do not demand as much physical strength.
Your next challenge is the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. Is it the most complex you've faced so far?
I think this one has an important variant that I haven't had to consider before: wildlife. In those 3000 km of expedition, there will be days when I will encounter them. Maybe I'll have to defend myself from a wild animal, something that hasn't happened to me to date. It's true that when I did the Iditarod crossing, 1700 km, and crossed Alaska from Anchorage to Nome, passing the coasts of the Bering Sea, in the last few days there was a possibility of encountering a grizzly bear waking up from hibernation.
I carried pepper spray, but a grizzly, which will flee if it hears you, is nothing like a polar bear, which is a brutal predator. They don't eat people, we're not their food, but in a moment of need, they could attack you.
I'm also concerned about the ice I'll encounter, the advance of the pack ice – a layer of floating ice formed by the freezing of seawater in the polar oceans – to confirm that it will start to open in July and I can pass through.
You are the first person to attempt to cross the Northwest Passage, and on a vessel only 7x1.5 meters...
Yes, there have been some people who have tried and had to be rescued. They managed to do about 300 km. There have also been a couple of other people who have tried, but they only did a small part. I am going to try to complete the entire 3000 km crossing.
Considering that there will be days when I may not be able to row, it could take me two and a half to three months. I want to start as soon as possible to try not to go beyond October.
How do you approach nutrition, replenishing energy stores, always staying strong and maintaining psychological and basic well-being?
The most important thing is to try to carry as little weight as possible. You have to look for food that has a lot of calories and very little weight. For fifteen years I have carried dehydrated or freeze-dried food on all my expeditions. You simply need to boil water and eat.
What I do is carry gas cartridges or liquid fuel. I consume between 4,000 and 5,000 calories daily. I use three hot freeze-dried meals. This time I will bring that great Spanish product called ØKRE. This will not fail. I have been able to verify that a large part of the freeze-dried food on the market is actually very bad in taste and, on top of that, it contains a lot of additives, colorants, and artificial things that are ultimately not even healthy. And on an expedition like this, where energy expenditure is brutal, you need all the energy that enters your body to be clean and not harm you organically. That's why it is very important to bring quality food.
Today it seems that the terms expedition, exploration, and adventure are used interchangeably... isn't there a certain semantic confusion?
Yes, you hear about adventurers, explorers, expeditioners... I think an adventurer is someone who likes adventure, which means stepping out of their comfort zone and seeking limits, seeking complex environments.
An expedition or exploration is something else and much more difficult because there you have to do something that no one has done. An adventure is a weekend in the mountains. A nice adventure: you go to a place, step out of your comfort zone, and expose yourself a little to the environment.
Many people tell you: "I'm going on a weekend expedition to climb Aneto." That's not an expedition, it's an adventure. You've done a sports activity, not an expedition. I think that word is very overused nowadays. In an expedition, you have to take a series of risks, you have to do something innovative, something different. And today it's already difficult because many people have done everything; almost everything has been explored.
Since there are no more maps, since there are no more blank spaces on maps, it is very difficult to explore.
Your extensive biography in solo expeditions is inspiring and still shows today that extraordinary challenges can be accomplished...
There are still places that are virgin, exploring places where no one has been, or doing different activities in a different environment as I am doing. I don't know if I consider myself an explorer, but I do consider myself an expeditioner because I am carrying out activities that involve, that entail risk, in complex environments and alone, without any kind of safety in many cases, without backup. Exposing yourself to risks is intrinsic to the concept of expedition or exploration. So, yes, I am taking those risks and I do consider myself an explorer.
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