Colin O’Brady is 28 days into his second first solo crossing of Antarctica. He continues to report whiteout or near-whiteout conditions with only brief interruptions. O’Brady says he’s only making 8-10km a day.
He hasn’t been reporting his overall distances, but based on his current position, he’s covered around 250km out of his planned 2,865km route. He’ll have to average more than 30km a day moving forward in order to finish the crossing.
Every day, his heavy sled becomes lighter, but his map indicates that he has been forced to return to arduous double-hauling for at least a few days due to the soft snow. Double-hauling forces him to do three kilometers for every kilometer of actual progress.
The whole “secret” of polar travel, and how someone can drag 100kg or 150kg, is that the cold and wind transform the snow into a hard, styrofoam-like surface over which the sled glides fairly well. You can’t haul that weight through the soft snow that most of us are familiar with. Even a skiff of new snow makes hauling much harder. Very cold temperatures increase friction on the snow and make hauling harder, too.
Colin O’Brady in whiteout conditions. The days of sensory deprivation, he admitted, felt “like torture.” Photo: Colin O’Brady
Frozen in the doldrums
Matthieu Tordeur and Heidi Sevestre are approaching the South Pole of Inaccessibility. Winds were cooperating on Tordeur’s 34th birthday on December 4, but then their luck had changed. Only 216km from their first goal, the pair was practically becalmed by light winds, just four to six knots.
They’ve spent two days stuck in place, but used the time to study weather charts, repair equipment, and prepare for the final push. Sevestre also used the time to prepare a software update to their radar system, which would allow it to penetrate from 40m to 100m below the surface. Currently, the team has sent back 1,300km of data from their progress so far.
Matthieu Tordeur and Heidi Sevestre remain at camp while they wait for the wind to pick up. Those red tunnel tents that everyone uses in Antarctica are the Hilleberg Keron 3, which are very good in strong winds. Photo: Under Antarctica
Progress from Hercules Inlet
On December 9, Monet Izabeth crossed the 81st parallel, marking her first major milestone on her solo ski journey from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole. She reports that choppy sastrugi still impede progress, but the painful friction rash she developed early on is now under control.
Andrea Dorantes is 17 days into her own expedition and is making steady progress.
Dorantes on her 15th day in Antarctica. Photo: Screenshot
Sebastian Orska successfully reached Thiels Corner on December 7 and was able to resupply, picking up enough food for an additional five days. Thiels Corner was his halfway point. He now has just slightly over 450km to go. In the days leading up to the resupply, he’d struggled with poor sleep and bad surfaces. The “resupply party,” as he calls it, seems to have brightened his spirits, however.
Tom Hunt is still neck and neck with the ghost of Vincent Colliard, who set the speed record on this route in 2024. However, the surface conditions he’s encountered so far are much better than those that Colliard had.
If Hunt hopes to beat the record, he’ll have to match Colliard’s second-half speed increase. That means averaging just over 60km per day from now on — a tall order. Hunt’s updates continue to be chipper with no report of major issues.
Other expeditions
Hoddi Tryggvason successfully reached the South Pole on December 10, after a kiting journey of 2,300km. He is now headed for the Bay of Whales, toward the Kanses and Reedy Glaciers.
Ian Hughes has just crossed the 87th parallel on his Messner Route ski expedition. At 583km out of a total 911, he is now solidly over halfway. However, his progress has been hard-won.
Despite his attempts to avoid them by veering west, he’s now hit an area thick with bumpy sastrugi. Poor sleep and bad surfaces have also slowed down his push. Hoping for a better surface, he’s decided to head further west rather than stick closer to his planned route. So far, this seems to be working out, as he was making good progress at his last check-in.
The multigenerational Norwegian duo of Kathinka and Emma Gyllenhammar continues in high spirits. They try to set a consistent daily pace, skiing for an hour and then taking a 10-minute break. This sequence is repeated eight times, then they make camp. In the tent, they take turns on kitchen duty. Every day, they listen to a Christmas song and play cards.
Moment of excitement still interrupt their routine. A few days ago, they crossed paths with Tom Hunt around 83 degrees south. The sastrugi have returned, and when temperatures hit +5˚C on December 11, they were uncomfortably warm and contemplated the human impact on Antarctica.
