South Koreans across Great Basin Desert

Posted: Oct 10, 2013 10:07 am EDT

(By Kyu Dam Lee, ExplorersWeb South Korea, updated Oct 11, 2013, 2:49 am EDT ) 

Mr. Young-Ho Nam (36, KOLON  Challenge Team) walked across Great Basin Desert (the largest desert in North America), from Salt Lake, Utah, to Reno, Nevada, with Mr. Chang-Hyun Ryu (40) and Mr. Jae-Cheon Jeon (33). 

Updated Oct 11: Mr. Nam informed ExWeb that only he walked the total route. Mr. Jeon and Mr. Ryu had support roles (supply and photos) and walked with him occasionally, and Mr. S. W. Lee was returned to Korea because he lost membership of the expedition as of Sep-30-2013 (in local time).

The men departed Korea on September 3, 2013 for the States and left Utah on September 12, and arrived at Reno, Nevada on October 6. The team walked total 700 km (including wild field, wet field, salt lake and mountains) and took 25 days to cross the desert on this route.

Completing Great Basin Desert was the 5^th project for Mr. Nam, who desires to cross 10 big deserts in the world with only human power, not using any external power.

Mr. Nam already has done (updated Oct 11):

- Taklama Khan, China (in 2009) - [Taklamakan desert is not included on his list for 10 great deserts]

- Gobi, Mongolia (in 2011) [he just crossed by walking 1100 km of total 1600 km in ‘Gobi desert in Mongol’]

- Great Victoria, Australia (in 2012) 

- Empty Quarter, Arabia (Oman, not Saudi, & UAE, in 2013)

The team had to climb across mountains of almost 3000 m in altitude along their route.

The manager of Kolon Sports (who sponsors Mr. Nam) provided more information about the Great Basin Expedition:

“The expedition (Nam, Ryu, Jeon) left Salt Lake, Utah on Sep-12-2013 (local time), and arrived at around 14:00 on Oct-06-2013 (local time) to Reno, Nevada after 700 km walking in the desert..

“In beginning of expedition, several days from Sep-12-2013, there were very heavy rains, so much so that a motor race in desert was canceled. The heavy rain changed the desert into a mud field like a seashore.”

“The hardest work was that they had to take detours to avoid crossing huge private land. Also, they had to climb many mountains (almost more than 10; altitude are in range of 2500~3000 m) which the men had to cross as they stood as hurdles in their path across the desert.”

“The expedition team returned to Korea at 15:05 on Oct-09-2013 through In-Cheon international Airport from San Francisco, USA. Kolon Sport supports Mr. Young-Ho Nam (expedition leader) from the beginning of this year (2013) as a member of his challenge team.”

Mr. Nam told ExplorersWeb he had planned to start his expedition from Salt Lake City, but he changed his original plan a little bit because the military site in Salt Lake Desert strongly oppose of his route near to the site. He changed his original plan, and decided to start from the far northeast of Salt Lake desert to not enter the military site (about 45 km NE from Wendover city and some more than 100 km NW from Salt Lake City.

Oct 11: Previously Young-Ho Nam crossed Urasia (from China to Portugal : 18,000 km) by cycling (2006), and completed a crossing with no-motored-power in Ganges river area (2510 km, in 2010).

Mr. Nam said that he got married and he will be a father of a child soon. 

Previous/Related:

ExWeb interview with Young-Ho Nam, life is like crossing a desert

#trek #greatbasindesert #mr.nam #young-honam