Three Norwegians are now attempting speed records along the Hercules Inlet to South Pole route. Arne-Kristian Teigland is hoping to beat Frenchman Vincent Colliard’s record of last year, while Kristin Harila and Hege Victoria are both vying for Preet Chandi’s women’s record, also set last year.
Crossings
Ashkay Nanavati notched a win on his ambitious unsupported 110-day, 2,736km full crossing after passing the Wujek Ridge, the steepest portion of his route.
“The three days on Berkner were still the hardest part of the trip,” the solo skier noted in his most recent update. Nanavati lost valuable time on Berkner due to the unexpectedly deep snow. “But it is still great to be done with [Wujek Ridge],” he continued.
Nanavati took an “active recovery day” after making it up Wujek’s incline. He still skied a full day but purposefully moved more slowly to let his legs recover from the effort. Despite soft snow, Nanavati has managed to log some longer distances lately (17km to 20km daily), something he will desperately need to increase if he hopes to complete a solo, unsupported full crossing. Currently, he’s 40 days in.
With his recent run, Nanavati has inched his daily travel up to 14.5km/day from last week’s 14km/day. To complete a 2,736km journey in 110 days, he needs to average almost 25km/day.
Nanavati’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Youngmi Kim is creeping ever closer to her South Pole resupply point on her solo, supported inland crossing. The South Korean began at Hercules Inlet and will finish at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, a journey of 1,700km.
The last week of her travel featured difficult terrain. Her update from December 14 says it all in just three words: “Sastrugi, sastrugi, sastrugi!”
But in her December 17 post, she mentions the wind-sculpted features have abated for now. Forty-two days in, Kim has skied 919km.
Youngmi Kim’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Hercules Inlet to the South Pole
Norwegian Arne-Kristian (AK) Teigland finally began his attempt on the men’s Hercules Inlet to South Pole speed record this week. Vincent Colliard set the record last year. Teigland will need to travel the 1,130km route in under 22 days, 6 hours, and 8 minutes, or roughly 54km a day.
Teigland’s tracker isn’t showing the daily or total distance traveled. However, Teigland’s map shows each of Colliard’s camps, and the Norwegian has been slightly ahead of the Frenchman at each nightly stop.
Teigland’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Teigland recently suffered a poor night’s sleep and a corresponding disappointing showing the next day. But he still ended that day ahead of Colliard.
Norwegian Kristin Harila still has not formally announced her intention to set the women’s speed record on the same route, but judging from her pace, we assume that she is. Harila is 11 days into her push. On day nine, she noted that she faced strong winds, only managing 30km in 10 hours.
Harila’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Day 10 saw improving conditions, allowing Harila to use her skiing background to rack up 45km in 14 hours. She has generally put in 30km+ days, with many over 36km. That puts her in a decent spot to grab the record. Chandi averaged 36km/day when she set her record of 31 days, 13 hours, and 19 minutes last year.
However, for the last week, Harila has mentioned persistent lower back pain. That this injury hasn’t resolved itself is a worrying sign for the athlete’s effort. The coming week will give us a better idea of Harila’s chances.
Hege Victoria rounds out the Norwegian speedsters. She is also attempting to beat Chandi’s female record. Her only voice update so far was from December 16, on the morning of day six of her attempt:
“My body is good, the first four days have been tough. A lot of snow you have to wade through, and the sled is still heavy, so it’s been a bit of a struggle,” she said, echoing typical sentiments shared by Hercules Inlet skiers. “But now that I’m coming up, hopefully it will be harder and more slippery so I can cover even more kilometers.”
In the past, skiers attempting to break records have sometimes been cagey about their daily distances and locations. ExplorersWeb can’t find any tracking information on Victoria, and she didn’t include hard numbers in her update.
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In his update at the end of day 25, Satish Gogineni mentioned he’d logged 27km, his best so far. Gogineni is about 410km into his South Pole expedition. He’s pleased with his gradually increasing daily distances, and improving snow conditions are making things easier for him. He did mention that his sled flipped a few times yesterday — a typical issue around sastrugi.
“Every time it did, I got a break [from skiing],” he said, looking on the bright side.
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Danish skier Rasmus Kragh has picked up the pace after struggling last week and seems to be in better spirits than he was in our last update. He managed to squeeze in a few 25km days, a much-needed improvement given that last week he reported diminishing food supplies. Just over the 84th parallel, he’s covered 475km in 29.5 days. That’s a current average of 16km/day.
Kragh’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
English skier Catherine Buford started on the same day as Kragh and is a little behind him at 448km.
Buford had a rough mental day, she reported in her most recent update. Nightmares led to poor sleep. Then, like several other skiers in the last week, her sled flipped on ice, and she had a “minor, could have been a major, disaster when I had a fuel leakage,” she reported.
Her audio signal dropped out when she noted how much fuel she lost but picked back up in time for ExplorersWeb to learn that no food was contaminated. Judging by her description of the leakage as “minor,” we can guess that she still has enough to reach the Pole.
Buford’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Of the skiers on the Hercules inlet route, Norwegian Karen Kylleso is the farthest along. She started on the same day as Buford and Kragh, so she’s 29.5 days in and has covered 523km, averaging almost 18km/day.
Kylleso’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Messner Start to South Pole
Turkish skier Ali Riza Bilal has crossed the halfway point of his journey, covering 470 of the 911 kilometers along the Messner Start to South Pole route. He’s 29.5 days in. A malfunctioning ski binding has been the bane of Bilal’s existence for the last few weeks, and his updates during that time were uniformly dour. But four days ago, he finally got some relief.
Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions left Bilal a ski binding and five days’ worth of food at a fuel depot, and the gear fix has made a world of difference to the skier. His daily distance has bounced back to roughly 25km/day.
Bilal’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
English skier John Huntington crossed the 86th parallel a few days ago and is more than halfway through the route. After a physically demanding start, Huntington has settled into a 20km+ daily groove and is happy with his progress.
Huntington’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
Berkner Island to South Pole
“It’s been a good few days of skiing. It’s flattened out quite a bit,” Frederick Fennessy reported on the night of day 34. The English skier is on a 1,400km Berkner Island to South Pole route and has about a month more travel ahead of him. He’s skied 755km, which puts him close to his halfway mark.
Fennessy has been on a steady 20km+/day pace for the whole expedition so far.
Fennessy’s tracker. Photo: Screenshot
