The home stretchWe’ll stop complaining about the snow conditions, but it’s possible that skiing 50 km is far easier in other parts of the world. Here it took us nearly 24 hours. In other words, we have turned our normal rhythm upside down and are doing everything in our power to reach the South Pole by the fourteenth. We have two days and 80 kilometres to go. It ought to be doable.
“Our best day up here. It has been calm for most of the day – with burning sunshine. The going and terrain have been the same. ”– Amundsen on this day 100 years ago (Read more …) 
Helmer Hanssen once wrote “The theosophists apparently believe that after we die we come back in some other form. For my part, I most fervently hope that I do not return as a sled dog on a polar expedition.” Today this assertion has been rewritten to state that it wouldn’t be much fun to be reborn as a modern polar traveller with a severe lack of time. Position: S 89 16.826, W 178 15.363
Temperature: -30°C Wind: Calm Elevation: 2960 metres Distance traversed: 50 km Distance behind Amundsen: 22 km Total distance traversed: 1231 km Distance remaining to the South Pole: 80 km Did you know that glaciers at the edges of the Antarctic ice cap flow like sluggish rivers towards the coast?
When the glacier reaches the sea, the ice starts to float. This huge, thick floating tongue of ice is called an ice shelf. |
South Pole 1911–2011 is an informational outreach project run by the Norwegian Polar Institute
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