Explorersweb

The Cycle Race for the South Pole kicked off

Posted: Dec 03, 2013 03:26 pm EST

(By Correne Coetzer) “Have to admit I am not very jealous of the bicycle guys when they start their journey. Lots of soft snow and steep hill will give them some interesting experiences!” writes Vesa Luomala, the solo skier from Finland, about the conditions out of the Hercules Inlet start on his second day.

After flying at about 6 pm out of Union Glacier to Hercules Inlet on December 2nd, Daniel Burton has started his cycling attempt to the South Pole. He explained about his competitor, Juan Menendez Granados’s game plan, “He has skis and I've been told he plans to put his bike on the sled and ski in the deep snow. That should be a lot faster than my hike-a-bike method. My goal is to never put my bike in the sled.”

Daniel described the conditions, “The snow in Hercules inlet was soft making travel difficult, but that was what I was expecting. Just outside the Inlet is a steep climb.” He covered .89 miles in 55 minutes late yesterday.

Juan’s home team told ExplorersWeb that he will be flown to Hercules Inlet today, December 3rd, and has decided to do this expedition unassisted, that is with no resupplies, as originally planned. The sled behind his bicycle weighs “more than 80 kg”. In a press release, Juan stated that he plans to complete the 1130 km in 35 days. [Ed: the distance given here is measured in a straight line to the South Pole.]

Daniel will receive resupplies along his route [Ed: probably the usual three resupplies that the ALE Twin Otter pilots drop.]

Vesa reported the following weather conditions out of the Inlet in his latest dispatch:

Temp: 10ºC

Wind 7m/s SE

Weather: Sunny

All the coast to Pole (and some beyond) skiers are on the ice. No new news from Richard Parks, who turned around, although Burton reported that his cache with supplies waits for him at Hercules Inlet.

Follow daily South Pole blog updates (with RSS feeds) in the News Stream on ExplorersWeb and the Pythom App.

2013 South Pole teams

Unassisted, unsupported:

Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpiniere, UK, UK/FR, Cape Evans return journey

Richard Parks, UK, Hercules Inlet, solo

Vesa Luomala, FI, Hercules Inlet, solo

Antony Jinman, UK, Hercules Inlet, solo

Marty and Chris Fagan, USA, Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf start

Juan Menendez Granados, ES, Hercules Inlet, solo cycle

Unassisted, Supported (traverse):

Geoff Wilson, AU, Novo Runway - GSP - Hercules Inlet

Faysal Hanneche, FR, Novo Runway - GSP - Hercules Inlet

Assisted, Unsupported

Daniel Burton, USA, Hercules Inlet, cycle

Carl Alvey (ANI guide) and Lewis Clarke, UK, Hercules Inlet

Devon McDiarmid (CA, ANI guide), Joshua Hodgkinson (AU), Arabella Slinger (UK), and Wen Yuan (China), Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf

Assisted, Supported

Doug Stoup (US, guide), Parker Liautaud (UK), car driver, Eyjólfur Már Teitsson (Iceland), cameraman, Paddy Scott (UK) and Nathan Hambrook-Skinner (comms operator). Leverett Glacier

Partial route:

Walking With The Wounded, last three degrees from Novo side (guides, Eric Philips, Inge Solheim and Conrad Dickinson. Three teams racing to the Pole. Price Harry with them.) Arctic trucks support team: Emil Grímsson, Pálmi Baldursson,Torfi Jóhannsson and Ari Hauksson.

Other

Australian Mawson Centenary Expedition Spirit of Mawson website

AAE 2013-2014 Interpret Science website

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/ANI base camp, Union Glacier

79° 45'S, 083° 14'W

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

The bottom of the Leverett Glacier, at the Ross Ice Shelf, is located at about 85ºS, a distance of 550 km from the Geographic South Pole.

The Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf (Messner) start is 890 km in a straight line from the Pole.