American athlete Colin O’Brady started from the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf last November, aiming to ski across Antarctica via the South Pole. He planned to finish at the tip of Berkner Island on the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf, a total distance of over 2,800km. On February 11, he arrived at the South Pole after 91 days, well behind schedule and with limited food and fuel to complete the remaining 50 percent of the crossing.
O’Brady continued from the Pole, but it now appears he has changed course. He has turned away from his planned route to the coast and is instead heading along the usual Hercules Inlet-South Pole route (though in the opposite direction).
O’Brady’s original route in red. Berkner Island is at the top of the red line, and the Ross Ice Shelf is at the bottom. The blue line shows O’Brady’s 2018-19 truncated ‘crossing’ that avoided the ice shelves. His latest tracker data appears to show he is heading toward Hercules Inlet/Union Glacier camp. Map: Netflix
O’Brady appears to have turned away from his planned route, moving toward Union Glacier or Thiel’s Corner for pickup. Photo: Colin O’Brady’s Tracker
No mention of an Antarctic crossing
O’Brady has not announced a change of plans, but he has not mentioned his crossing for some time either. Instead, he has celebrated other “world records” with various levels of caveats.
“Today I stepped into the history books as this expedition now officially set the world record for: Longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey,” O’Brady wrote in his most recent Instagram post. Preet Chandi of the UK made a similar claim in 2023 when she failed on a partial crossing but continued a few more meaningless kilometers beyond the South Pole in order to squeeze some record, any record, out of her journey.
O’Brady has worked hard and persisted despite difficult travel conditions. It was a good try at a significant crossing, and it’s too bad he feels the need to rebrand his expedition along these lines rather than simply admit he fell short of his goal.
“Am I done now? Not quite yet. I promised myself that as long as I had food and fuel and could keep moving safely, I’d keep pushing. I still have a little of both left…so for now, I keep raising the bar of the final tally,” O’Brady wrote in the same post.
Understandably, after more than three months in Antarctica with few rest days, O’Brady seems burned out by now, covering just 40-odd kilometers in three days beyond the South Pole.
