Stew Edge, Mostafa Salameh and Shahrom Abdullah. Plus news about Henry Worsley.
(Correne Coetzer) Canadian Devon McDiarmid is about to embark on his fifth full route expedition to the South Pole; that is from a land-edge/coastal start point. But that’s not all, this season Devon is not going to stop at the Pole, he is going to pick up kites and kite-ski North.
Devon will be guiding for ANI again. He will be leading three men from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf (Messner) Start point, inside 82 degrees South, 890 km in a straight line. The team will be unassisted (no resupplies) and unsupported (no kites) on the route from the coast to the Pole. Team mates on this leg are Stew Edge from London, UK, Shahrom Abdullah from Malaysia and Mostafa Salameh from Jordanian.
Stew Edge will be the only one in the team traversing Antarctica with Devon north to Hercules Inlet (1130km). He is an avid kite-surfer and has 10 years experience with kites. Previously Stew sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and climbed Mount Everest.
Shahrom Abdullah wants to become the first Malaysian to ski unassisted to the South Pole. He will be flown out at the Pole back to ANI’s base camp on Antarctica, Union Glacier.
Mostafa Salameh wants to become the first Jordanian to ski to the Geographic South Pole. From there he will fly with Shahrom to Union Glacier. In 2008 Mostafa became the first Jordanian to climb Everest and completed the 7Summits in 2012. In 2014 he skied the Last Degree of Latitude (110km) to the Geographic North Pole. Watch this space for an Interview with Mostafa.
Traverse from Gould Bay to Shackleton Glacier:
The runway at Union Glacier is completed. In Punta Arenas, Henry Worsley is still sitting it out, waiting for a favorable weather window for the Ilyushin-76 to take him to Antarctica. A small possibility for Monday night (9th) otherwise the 10th.
Previous in the link below: Meet Carl Alvey’s ANI South Pole team.
