With less than 100km to go, Hege Victoria has aborted her attempt to break the woman’s speed record to the South Pole. She will still finish her expedition, though at a slower pace.
The Norwegian woman had been attempting to ski the 1,130km Hercules Inlet to South Pole route in less than 31 days, 13 hours, and 19 minutes — the time set by Preet Chandi last year.
During Victoria’s first few weeks on the ice, she lagged just a few kilometers behind Chandi. Early last week, she pulled even, then slightly ahead. But the lead she managed to eke out wasn’t significant enough to overcome the slowdowns since the 86th parallel. Sastrugi, whiteouts, and, above all, weather played their part in the last-minute failure. Eventually, the outcome was obvious.
“89 degrees south. Hege Victoria chose today to calm down with some rest when she realized that it was not possible to reach the South Pole within the record time,” her team wrote in an Instagram post. “The weather is the rule, and she can’t do anything about it. According to [explorer and polar travel coach] Lars Ebbesen, she has been unlucky and has had a lot of demanding weather since 86/87 degrees.”
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No records this year
With Victoria’s effort halted, the speed record season in Antarctica draws to a close. Arne-Kristian Teigland’s push to break Vincent Colliard’s 22-day, 6-hour, 8-minute Hercules Inlet record from last year ended after 932km. Tiegland was medically evacuated after a fainting spell. Until the incident, he’d remained ahead of Colliard’s pace.
Shortly before that, fellow Norwegian skier Kristin Harila bowed out after logging monumental early days on the ice but incurring a back injury in the process. After skiing through the pain for weeks (and running out of painkillers), Harilia called it quits after 20 days.
Unlike those two, it appears that Victoria will continue toward the Pole — this time, without the pressures of a ticking clock.
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