Polar expeditions

Today’s blog is dedicated to some pretty inspiring people: first, Hannah McKeand. She just broke the “unsupported skier to South Pole speed record.” She skied over 600 miles, finishing in just under 40 days. The previous record was 42 days (the three fastest times are all held by women). Its hard, even for me who has been here at the Pole, to imagine what those days must have been like. She skied for 12 hours a day, for 39 days, dragging her sled across the most inhospitable landscape on this planet. All alone. No re-supplies. No human contact. Very inspiring. And she is very fun to talk to also; she has a great sense of humor. You can read more about her here.

Also at Pole are an expedition of 4 chaps from the British Royal Marines and Royal Navy. These guys skied about the same distance, but in 47 days. They were also very cool to talk to. Because they were not after the speed record, they took a somewhat more leisurely pace. They also took alot more pics (2000 as opposed to Hanna's 13!) and some video that is going to air on Discovery and National Geographic. Their sleds weighed about 200 pounds when they started. Imagine pulling a 150 pound sled for 47 days, in the freezing cold. These guys brought people here at Pole down to earth. A friend of mine who wintered over was talking about how you can be emailing someone telling them its -100 F outside and you think you are all hardcore but you are sitting at a desk in your room in your underwear. Well, these guys, and Hanna especially, are the real deal…

Pole is actually quite crowded…another expedition from the Indian Navy rolled in yesterday…they “only” skied the last two degrees, about 97 miles. They were quite a large team of 11 members. The interesting thing though, is that most of them were novices at this kind of thing, and quite young (one of the guys was only 20). Their leader though was quite tough…he’s summited Everest 3 times and has climbed 6 of the 7 highest on each continent.

So, even today, getting to the Pole is still enough of a challenge that countries and militaries view it as something to do to instill national pride (or for whatever reason they do it). Hey, I claim I do it for the science, but is that really more justifiable than those who do it for the adventure?