The problem of designing a nonlinear feedback control scheme for variable speed wind turbines, without wind speed measurements, in below rated wind conditions was addressed. The objective is to operate the wind turbines in order to have maximum wind power extraction while also the mechanical loads are reduced. Two control strategies were proposed seeking a better performance. The first strategy uses a tracking controller that ensures the optimal angular velocity for the rotor. The second strategy uses a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm while a non-homogeneous quasi-continuous high-order sliding mode controller is applied to ensure the power tracking. Two algorithms were developed to solve the tracking control problem for the first strategy. The first one is a sliding mode output feedback torque controller combined with a wind speed estimator. The second algorithm is a quasi-continuous high-order sliding mode controller to ensure the speed tracking. The proposed controllers are compared with existing control strategies and their performance is validated using a FAST model based on the Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART). The controllers show a good performance in terms of energy extraction and load reduction. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.