Well; to be accurate; ANY way you leave the South Pole heads you North!!
Yeah - I was trying to figure out a way to say that.
Amazing adventure. And VERY scientific. I’ve been reading up on the American (Colin) and on his Twitter (he posts every day on his trip - day 18 or so now).
He worked with some food company that made some food bars especially for his body. A guy just awhile ago died 900 miles into the 960 mile trip! He radioed for help, but by the time they got there he was dead. Still had plenty of food. An autopsy revealed that he had some immune response due to the food he was eating. It caused a slight iritation in his stomach. Not a big deal under normal conditions, but crossing the pole his body couldn’t handle it.
Somehow they did all sort of tests on Colin and figured out what might irritate his stomach and stayed away from that.
Of course that is just ONE thing that might kill you out there. The bars make up half of his 8,000 calories a day. Oatmeal and freeze-dried food make up the rest.
A couple of guys went across together and had 5,000 calories a day each, but still lost 40 to 50 pounds of weight each. They burned an average of 7,000 calories a day. The pair had some way of testing how many calories they burned.
The Scott party, that made the South Pole, but died as they returned, ate something like 4,500 calories a day.
And there is a balance between how much calories you carry (food), and how many calories you will burn carrying it.