Ski the last degree to South Pole

Starting Point: South 89: 02.038, West 94:27.811,

Ending Point: South 90:00.000

Distance: 107 km

Date: Jan 3 - Jan 9, 2008, 7 days’ hard work.

I underestimated the workload of last degree ski before the trip. I never imagined the sled would be so big:

We started the trip with the sled weighing 50-60 kilos, and it looks even bigger than me. Though Antarctica is generally a big flat plain, it’s full of “sastrugi’, the snow drift. Though they may not be so high most of time, they are enough to hold up my sled from time to time. In addition to the snow drift, the journey is a gentle uphill all the way.

This trip is as much a mental game as a physical game. The big white plain, nothing else. You need a lot of patience to get through each “boring” day:

My skis point to due south

The average temperature for the trip is around -25 C, even with bright sunshine and blue sky. A light wind of 5-10 kts would bring significant wind chill effect. That makes cool picture though:

The last day was the hardest day. A constant head wind of 15-20 kts brought the wind chill to -40C:

We could see the destination from 7 miles away. What seemed so close was still many hours away:

South Pole Station on the horizon 3-4 miles away

It was the goal that kept me going even though I was very exhausted already:

I finally pulled into South Pole!

I bet no one expected such a modern structure at South Pole!

US Amundsen-Scott Station at South Pole

This entry was posted on January 16, 2008 at 12:43 am and is filed under Antarctica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.