With 2 days to spare before their pick-up deadline, they completed the traverse in 74 days
(By Correne Coetzer) With 2 days to spare before their pick-up deadline, French long-distance-running married couple, Stéphanie and Jérémie Gicquel, completed a 2,020 km traverse of Antarctica from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf to Hercules Inlet, via the Geographic South Pole (90ºS), in 74 days.
The first 40 days, skiing uphill to the South Pole at app. 2,800m, the couple, together with team mate Are Johansen, averaged app. 23 km per day south to the Pole. Then turning their compass north and 1,130km to go, the race started, Stéphanie and Jérémie explained to Explorersweb. “As it is the case when running ultra trails, the race only begins when you have done at least half of the distance.”
Exweb caught up with them in France. They tell about their biggest challenges, how that experienced the “very long effort in an extreme environment”, gave three top tips for a traverse, and tell about the effective polar skirt, which is growing in popularity.
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