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From left, ALE Chef Ronny Finsås, and the Norwegian ski team, Rune Midtgaard, Christian Eide (leader), Morten Andvig and Mads Agerup at Patriot Hills. Written in the snow: “Happy New Year! ThePoles.com”. Live image over CONTACT 4.0 courtesy of expedition Eide (click to enlarge).
Canadians Ray Zahab, Richard Weber and Kevin Vallely at the Ceremonial South Pole. Live image over CONTACT 4.0 courtesy of southpolequest.com (click to enlarge)
American Todd Carmichael at the Geographic South Pole. Live image over CONTACT 4.0 courtesy of subzerosolo.com (click to enlarge)
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“Happy New Year! ThePoles.com”: 2008/2009 Antarctica speed records and new season roundup
Posted: Nov 24, 2009 10:49 am EST
(ThePoles.com) Last season was a great year for human milestones at Antarctica and ExWeb even got a very special New Year's greeting (check snow in the top image).
Several speed records for the Geographic South Pole (90° South) were broken; from Hercules Inlet as well as from the Ronne-Filchner (Messner).
Here a quick check of the current status, plus an Everest summiteers' count:
Fast and strong
The fastest time from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole (1130 km) is currently 33 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes by Canadians Richard Weber, Kevin Vallely and Ray Zahab.
The fastest solo from Hercules Inlet is 39 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes bagged by American Todd Carmichael.
From the Ronne-Filchner (Messner) start point, a distance of 840 km, the speed record is 24 days 8 hours and 50 min done by Norwegians Christian Eide (leader), Rune Midgaard, Mads Agrup and Morten Andvig - averaging a very fast 36.87 km/day.
Amazingly, none of the teams/skiers used airdrops or sails for their record-breaking performances.
2009-10
Fewer teams are on the ice this season than resent seasons. Strikingly are the many women; 11 out of the 17 skiers.
5 skiers summitted Everest: Cecilie Skog, Ryan Waters, Meagan McGrath, Bill Hanlon and Arnold Witzig.
5 out of the 17 skiers are Canadians or Canadian residents.
Links to 2009-10 ski teams:
Cecilie Skog and Ryan Waters (Norway and USA) Berkner Island Start
Meagan McGrath (Canada) Hercules Inlet
ANI Hercules Inlet team Eric Larsen (guide, Canada), Dongsheng Liu (Canada) and Bill Hanlon (Ireland/Canada)
Julio Fiadi (Brazil) (Brazil), Hercules Inlet Start, no updates
Kaspersky Commonwealth team Felicity Aston (United Kingdom, leader), Dk Najibah Eradah binti P. A. M. Al-Sufri Pg M-L Kahar or ‘Era’ (Brunei Darussalam), Stephanie Solomonides (Cyprus), Helen Turton (UK), Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu (India), Kim-Marie Spence (Jamaica), Kylie Wakelin (New Zealand) and Sophia Pang (Singapore) – Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf
ANI Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf team Hannah McKeand (guide, UK) and Arnold Witzig (Swiss/Canada), no updates.
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