Posted on 11/12/2018 12:38:46 PM PST by ETL
American adventure-athlete Colin O'Brady, 33, and British Army Captain Louis Rudd, 49, embarked on the perilous, 921-mile trek on Oct. 31 — both carrying sleeping bags, freeze-dried food, cross-country skis, hand-held satellite phones and modems, a GPS tracker and portable solar panels.
In order for the journey to be considered unsupported, the competitors cannot accept any help from the few people they might encounter, not even a cup of hot tea. They have, however, raised north of $200,000 each from corporate sponsors and private donors in an effort to help with their trip.
According to the New York Times, the last person to attempt a solo unsupported crossing was Ben Saunders, who gave in after covering 805 miles in 2017; prior to that, British explorer Henry Worsley covered 900 miles before dying from an infection only days after being rescued and a mere 30 miles from the finish line. ..."
Both men trained and prepared intensely for the journey. Rudd put in hours of powerlifting and O'Brady gained 15 pounds of muscle, the newspaper reports.
The weather in Antarctica, which according to the Times is considered relatively "balmy" at minus 25 Fahrenheit, could also see temperatures drop to minus 50, with high winds and storms possible. Each man has five days' of reserve food in case the weather keeps them inside their tents.
That's not even considering the chance of hypothermia, frostbite and a chafing condition known as "polar thigh."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Each has their own website covering the event...
Colin O’Brady:
https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst/
______________________________
Lou Rudd:
https://lourudd.com/2018/10/04/spirit-of-endurance-teaser/
Wimps, doing it in summer.
How can it be SOLO if there are two of them? Unsupported yes, but SOLO?
Solo?
It can’t be “solo” if they are together.
Two words: Ernst. Shackleton.
I get the shivers just thinking about it.
They're competing against each other. Not traveling together.
I winter camp a decent amount. My coldest was -7 overnight. I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed because I only had a +15 degree sleeping bag. Very uncomfortable night.
But, my cell phone and camera batteries all died quickly. Several car batteries also needed a boost in the morning.
The guy on the right sure seems to carry a lot of electronics. I wonder how they keep them warm and charged.
It looks like their jackets might be Aerogel. IIRC, 1 mm thickness Aerogel is the same insulation as 30mm of down.
Well, that’s just stupid.
The polar bears will eat them.. oh, wait ...
GPS...
They both know that if there’s trouble, the cavalry will come and rescue them.
Both of these men will die.
Rudd announced in April that he would make the attempt. Then, in mid-October, with just weeks to spare, O’Brady, who had also been preparing for months, revealed on Instagram that he planned to do the same.
Both men hope to conquer a continent that has become the new Everest for extreme athletes, though they represent two vastly different approaches. ...”
At around noon on Nov. 3, Rudd and O’Brady boarded a Twin Otter ski plane that took off over Mount Rossman and banked east. After a 90-minute flight, they landed on the Ronne Ice Shelf.
O’Brady got out first and collected his gear. “Good luck,” Rudd told him, “I think we’re both going to make it.”
They hugged goodbye, likely their last human contact for at least two months.
Then, while O’Brady strapped into his sled, the plane drove about a mile away to Rudd’s parallel starting point. (That means O’Brady technically had about a 10-minute head start, but it will likely prove negligible over such a long distance).
The Ronne Ice Shelf is 600-feet thick, floating in the ocean yet fused to shore. They began three miles away from their first way point and the beginning of the Antarctic continent. That’s where O’Brady set up camp, on the lip of the continent, after a three-hour haul.
The sky was still blue — there are 24 hours of daylight in the Antarctic summer — and it was a relatively balmy minus 25 Fahrenheit (minus 32 Celsius), without a trace of wind. ...”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/sports/antarctica-race.html
Redundant GPS and sat phones. I-phone to keep his sponsers and followers updated (promo/ $$). If it was me - I would have duplicate paper maps and at least three standard compasses of various types.
I wonder if there is a place where you can store the stuff at -10 degrees for awhile to test it on your own that it will still work?
By the way, if -15 is balmy, how does global warming melt the ice and snow down there? (Well - bad example, as in Antarctica the levels are actually increasing.)
Who pays for the rescue?
LOL! You!
I hope that is what their corporate sponsorships are for, not taxpayers.
Messner Start (Ronne Ice Shelf) – South Pole – Leverett Glacier (Ross Ice Shelf)
Since a solo, unsupported and unaided coast to coast crossing of Antarctica has never been completed, the route is open to be trail blazed.
Colin will attempt to complete the route from North to South. He will be dropped off on the Ronne Ice Shelf, on the edge of the frozen Antarctic continent, at the Messner starting point. The beginning of this route is inspired by Reinhold Messner’s 1989 epic Antarctic crossing to the South Pole, for whom the starting point is named. Colin has long admired Messner, an Italian mountaineer, adventurer and explorer. Messner was the first to climb Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen with Peter Habeler, and the first to ascend all fourteen 8000 meter peaks.
Colin will traverse 566 mi (911 km) from the starting point to the South Pole and then continue South.
It’s another 360 miles (578 km) to reach the Leverett Glacier at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf on the opposite edge of the continent. A coast to coast crossing that has never been completed before.
UPDATE: Colin was dropped off at his starting point on November 3, 2018 around 3pm local Chilean time.
British Captain Louis Rudd is also attempting to complete a solo, unsupported, unaided crossing of Antarctica. Originally planned for a different route - Hercules Inlet to Leverett Glacier via South Pole - Rudd elected to change his route to the Messner Start, and as such Colin and Rudd were dropped off just miles apart from one another to begin their individual crossings. Best of luck!
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