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US explorer Colin O'Brady completes first unaided solo trek of Antarctica US explorer Colin O'Brady completes first unaided solo trek of Antarctica
(35 minutes later)
An American has become the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible. An American explorer has made the first solo unsupported trek across Antarctica, an epic feat of endurance that took nearly two months and ended with an extraordinary sprint.
Colin O’Brady, of Portland, Oregon finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile (1,500-km) journey on Wednesday as friends, family and fans tracked his progress online. Colin O’Brady covered the final 77.54 miles over 32 hours without sleep, a trek he described as an Antarctic ultramarathon, then called his family to tell them tearfully, “I did it!”.
“I did it!” a tearful O’Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw. “Something overcame me,” O’Brady said in a telephone interview with the New York Times. “I didn’t listen to any music – just locked in, like I’m going until I’m done. It was profound, it was beautiful and it was an amazing way to finish.”
Antarctic diary records horror at finding Captain Scott's body He had spent 54 days in conditions that pushed his body to its limit, battling hunger, cold and solitude, often trekking almost blind through driving snow, struggling over treacherous terrain and pulling weeks’ worth of supplies on a sled. The total journey was 932 miles.
“It was an emotional call,” she said. “He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say ‘Thank you’ to all of us.” O’Brady, 33, had called his trek “the impossible first”. In 2016, Briton Henry Worsley died after calling off the same trek only 30 miles from the end. Another explorer gave up the quest at the south pole last year.
O’Brady could not immediately be reached for comment. Adding to the pressure, O’Brady was racing Briton Louis Rudd – a friend of Worsley – across Antarctica, in a competition with echoes of the famous contest to reach the south pole more than a century ago. The two men set off together, with Rudd taking an early lead, but by Christmas Day he was more than 80 miles behind his American rival.
The 33-year-old O’Brady documented his journey, which was almost entirely uphill and which he called The Impossible First, on his Instagram page . He wrote on Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles (129km) in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. O’Brady decided to make a final push for the finish line on Christmas Day. He finally stopped near midnight – but took only 90 minutes to boil water and eat a double ration of dinner.
“While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady posted. He told Jenna Besaw, his wife and expedition manager, that he wanted to keep moving. She and other close relatives questioned O’Brady to check that exhaustion and hunger were not affecting his mind.
The day before, he posted that he was “in the zone” and thought he could make it to the end in one go. “We had an open and honest and smart conversation with him,” Besaw told the New York Times. “And he totally delivered.” He set off again into the light of an Antarctic midsummer, and reached the edge of the landmass – buried beneath ice but clearly marked – on Boxing Day.
“I’m listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe,” he wrote. “I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife I promised them I will stop when I need to.” One of the biggest problems for the two men was dragging enough food to keep themselves warm, and moving. They expected to get through about 10,000 calories a day, and the length of the trip meant it was hard for them to drag enough food at the start.
Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. O’Brady took 280 personally tailored “Colin bars”, drawn up after tests by a nutrition company looking for the smallest allergies, that supplied more than 1,100 calories each, Outside magazine reported.
In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley’s friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley’s honor and was competing against O’Brady to be the first to complete the feat. They made up half his daily diet, but even so, O’Brady began wasting away, he reported on Instagram. “I’ve lost a ton of weight,” he wrote, six weeks in. “So much so that I am afraid to take a close look at my body. My calves feel more like the size of my arms at this point. My watch is starting to slide around on my wrist and I’ve had to tighten the strap.”
O’Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on 3 November. He had to haul 170kg of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. The cold also bit more as he got weaker; later photos show O’Brady with black tape on his nose and cheeks, used for insulation when frostnip – a warning of more dangerous frostbite – set in.
“Not only am I pulling my ... sled all day, but I’m pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind,” he wrote in an Instagram post on 12 November. “It’s a frustrating process at times to say the least.” Both men also had to resist temptation when they reached the south pole, where there is a small scientific station. If they had gone inside, or accepted even a cup of tea from the team working there, their trip would no longer have been considered unsupported.
On Day 37, or 9 December, O’Brady wrote about how much he’s changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat.“I’m no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?” he wrote. “I’ve suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I’ve laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration.” Other explorers have made the journey across Antarctica alone, but using food supplies dropped along the route for them to collect, or with giant kites that helped them harness the power of the polar winds to cross the continent.
Though O’Brady had initially thought he’d want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. O’Brady was the first to make the journey using only the power of his muscles; Rudd, if he completes the trip, will be the second.
For all the intense hardships, O’Brady also celebrated moments of joy and beauty, including sightings of a circular rainbow “glistening overhead”, he wrote. “It was stunning. I’ve only ever seen this phenomenon in Antarctica and I’m curious why it happens.”
He also got a call from the American musician Paul Simon, who had heard that his album Graceland was helping O’Brady make it through the long days and shared his number with the explorer’s support team.
The two men talked about creativity and commitment. “Though his expression is music and mine endurance sport, we both could relate so much on the mindset required to attempt to perform at that level,” O’Brady wrote.
With his trip finished, he was looking forward to sleeping. He plans to wait until Rudd catches up with him so the two men can fly out together.
“I’m delirious writing this as I haven’t slept yet,” O’Brady wrote in a final post. Quoting Nelson Mandela, he said: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
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