UPDATED First Polish Lady to attempt South Pole Ski

Małgorzata Wojtaczka from Poland is about to start from Hercules Inlet. Good weather at the Inlet allows current skiers to gain miles and altitude. UPDATE: Finland solo return skier progress

November 18 UPDATE

Vesa Luomala reported from Finland to Exweb/Pythom about his fellow countryman, Risto Hallikainen, who are attempting a solo return journey: Risto reported his third camp is here: S80.3047, W080.6208. Yesterday he skied 19 km. “After three days he has same pace as I had with lighter sledge, so in that sense he makes good progress so far. Of course is yet the beginning”. Risto’s sled weighs about 180 kg, with all his food, fuel and gear for his return journey (2260 km).

Regarding the Polish lady, she is not only the first Polish lady to attempt a solo to the South Pole, but also the first Polish lady to attempt to ski to the Pole. See Polar Statistics. Malgorzata plans a 50-60 day ski. According to her tracker, she is still at Union Glacier.

November 17:

Explorersweb/Pythom has received word from Jakub Karp from Poland that a Polish lady, Małgorzata Wojtaczka, has landed at Union Glacier yesterday. She is about to attempt a solo, unassisted (no resupplies), unsupported (no kites) ski from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, in 50-60 days. The distance over the 10 degrees of latitude is 1130 km in a straight line. She is the first Polish lady to attempt to ski solo to the South Pole. The first Polish man to ski solo to the South Pole was Marek Kaminski in 1995-96 season.

Malgorzata has done expeditions in Iceland, Svalbard, Norway, Cape Horn, and more. She likes cave climbing and took part in discovering new caves in the Picos de Europa mountains in Spain, and made it to the bottom of the deepest cave in this range: Sistema del Hou de la Canal Parda at -903 m/-2963 ft. She climbed in winter, wearing cross-country skis, Newtontoppen, the highest peak of Svalbard at 1717 m/5633 ft. above sea level, hauling a sled with the expedition equipment and food. Malgorzata skied solo with a sled for 120 km across Hardagervidda in Norway. An experienced sailor, she took part in many polar sailing expeditions where they circled, among other, Svalbard, Cape Horn, and sailed to the Antarctic. She is also a keen canoeist.

Update on Hercules Inlet solo skiers currently on the ice

Johanna Davidsson has covered almost 20 km on her first day, yesterday. Lou Rudd and his team has covered 10.3 nm (19 km) in 8 hours on their second day, yesterday. They climbed over 1000 feet. The sun was out, with a bit of a strong headwind to start with but that died down and left them with a pleasant day.

From the Novolazarevskaya side

Michele Pontrandolfo is still battling with unfavorable kiting winds. He hopes to make enough progress the next few days to get to the mountains, which is halfway to the plateau.

Follow team blogs in the Dispatch stream on pythom.com

South Pole 2016-17 Interviews on Explorersweb/Pythom:

Cycle Antarctica: Hank van Weelden Pole to Coast attempt (Interview)

[UPDATE 2] Risto Hallikainen, solo South Pole return ski attempt (Interview)

1989: Arved Fuchs traversed Antarctica, with Messner (Interview)

Ryan Waters to guide Fuchs-Messner route (Antarctica 2016-17 interview)

Canadian Sébastien Lapierre to attempt solo ski to South Pole (Interview)

1989: Arved Fuchs traversed Antarctica, with Messner (Interview)

Emma Kelty: speed ski and return attempt (Exweb South Pole interview)

Exweb South Pole Interview with Johanna Davidsson: kite return attempt

Previous/Related:

(UPDATE 2) First Hercules Inlet skiers set off to South Pole

Interactive Map: Antarctica Skiing Routes

ALE and ALCI open Antarctica season

Michele Pontrandolfo to attempt solo Antarctic Traverse again

2016-17 Antarctica Ski Expedition List – updated

Antarctic Researcher died in the field (October 2016)

Antarctica Current: Polar How-To-Guide Heads-Up

Explorers House map with interactive South Pole ski routes

HumanEdgeTech Expedition Technology (e.g.CONTACT software)

AdventureStats.com for Polar Statistics and Rules. Note that a solo claim has to be unassisted,

therefore no supplies carried by pilots or car drivers, or anything (food, fuel, etc) received from any person along the way. A solo person may be wind supported (kites/sails). Claiming to have ‘skied to the Pole’, a full route (from a coastal start point) has to be completed, without flying part of the route.

Hercules Inlet is located at 80°S near Union Glacier, 1130 km from the Geographic South Pole.

The Fuchs-Messner start is 890 km in a straight line from the Pole.

Novolazarevskaya to South Pole of Inaccessibility (POI) is 1610 km in a straight line.

South Pole of Inaccessibility (POI):

2011-12 position: S82°06.696, E055°01.951 (Copeland/McNair-Landry)

On Dec. 14, 2014 Frédéric Dion reported the position the POI (at Lenin’s bust) as S82º 06.702′ E55º 2.087′ at an elevation of 3741 m.

Geographic South Pole (GSP): 90 degrees South

Gateway port Cape Town, South Africa:

To ALCI /TAC base camp Novolazarevskaya / Novo

70° 46’37”S, 011° 49’26”E

Gateway port Punta Arenas, Chile, South America:

To ALE base camp, Union Glacier