Had a graded, well-marked road too.
Still, it was difficult. And stupid.
“Had a graded, well-marked road too.”
I guess you haven’t been following him on the net.
Something called sastrugi (sp?) that sounds like frozen waves in the ice (caused by the wind). 1 to 2 feet tall and spaced 3 to 4 feet apart. Up and down, with a 300+ pound sled.
Several days doing it in whiteout conditions where he couldn’t even see his skis (or feet). Eyes glued to a hand compass for 12 hours a day to stay on course.
An amazing adventure. He had planned on 65 days iirc. (I wonder how he feels now about carrying all that extra food he didn’t need?)
Note that if you look at their routes it is not across all of Antartica (that is 2000+ miles). The journey started at the head of an inlet nearest the pole, then they took a 90 degree turn to the right to get them to the other nearest inlet.