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ANTARCTICA EXPEDITIONS 2007/08
Antarctic Crossings
Peter Valusiak's Solo crossing - 2800 km
EXPEDITION POSTPONED TO 2008
Slovak Peter Valusiak will attempt a solo, unassisted (no resupplies) crossing from Berkner island to McMurdo, via the South Pole. Peter is a true veteran; in 1998 he did a 118 days crossing of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Canada with a team of Russian explorers. The expedition received no resupplies - the only reason they didn't get the first unassisted unsupported crossing tag, was due to an emergency evacuation.
Expedition website: www.polarneextremy.sk
Irish Beyond Endurance - and Beyond the Pole
Irish Pat Falvey and his team from Eire have now received funds to go beyond the South Pole - the question is still how far. Members are Clare O’Leary, Sean Menzies and Jonathon Bradshaw and if successful, they will become the first Irish team to reach the South Pole. Pat and Clare are Everest summiteers - Pat has topped-out twice; Clare was the first Irish woman to achieve the feat.
Expedition website: www.beyondendurance.ie
Pat Falvey website: www.patfalvey.com
South Pole Unsupported Unassisted
Sub-Zero Expedition - 1130 km
British Jason De Carteret and American Todd Carmichael are headed to the South Pole in an unsupported and unassisted, two-man team. Jason is of Voyage Concepts fame, including the overland Antarctic record (Ice Challenger), Todd reports. Together the two explorers have several “degrees” under their belts, both Arctic and Antarctic.
Expedition website: www.subzeroexped.com
ANI South Pole Quest - 1130 km
Guided by ANI’s guide Canadian Devon McDiarmed, this team will be unsupported unassisted and include a number of Everest summiteers.
Evelyne Binsack became the first Swiss female to summit Everest in 2001, in a guided expedition. She bicycled to Punta Arenas, in a 16 months-long trip.
Dubai resident British Adrian Hayes summited Everest from the south side on May 25, 2006 in a guided expedition. He reached the North Pole from Canada on April 25 this year, in a team guided by Richard Weber (one resupply). With the SP, he hopes to bag the fastest 3 poles yet (20 months).
Lebanese Max Chaya summited Everest as a member of the Himex controversial "Everest beyond the limit" north side climb in 2006.
Norwegian cross-country skier Hans Foss rounds of the expedition.
Binsacks Expedition website: www.binsack.ch
Hayes Expedition website: www.adrianhayes.com
Max Expedition: Www.thethreepoles.com
Hans Foss Expedition: www.southpole07.com
Sibusiso Vilane and Alex Harris for the Pole - 1130 km
In 2005, British polar icon Ranulph Fiennes, 62, turned around on Everest in his first high-altitude experience, and only two years after suffering a heart attack. Another member of the guided climbing team, Sibusiso Vilane from South Africa, became the only black person to climb Everest from both sides. Lagging behind his mates, Sibusiso offered a Sherpa $100 to help him down, "but he wanted $150. My money was at Base Camp, so he abandoned me," he said. Fiennes later topped out Eiger and Sibu is now headed to the South Pole, together with British Alex Harris; a fellow Everest summiteer in 2005.
Expedition website: www.alexharris.co.za/
Northwinds South Pole expedition - 1130 km
John Huston leads Sumiyo Tsuzuki (climbed Everest and Cho Oyu, starred in Everest IMAX) and Peter Blaikie to the Pole. At 70 years, Peter will be the oldest to make it if he succeeds.
Expedition website: www.northwinds-arctic.com
Hvitserk South Pole expedition - 1130 km
Bengt Egil Rotmo leading the six Norwegians Jens Kristian, Ann Trude, Gro Mette, Bjorn, Truls and Lars from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole.
Expedition website: www.hvitserk.no (Norwegian)
Norwegian women for Vinson and South Pole via new route - 1300 km
Rita Glenne and expedition leader Ine-Lill Gabrielsen will fly straight to Mt. Vinson. After climbing to the summit, the two will drop the crampons and mount their skis, heading for the South Pole straight from Vinson's old BC. The 1300 km path will be a new route to the pole, which the women will attempt to ski without support. In addition to winter activities in Norway, the women have prepared in Alaska and on Denali. They climbed the Polish direct route on Aconcagua in December 2006, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, alpine peaks in Kaukasus and a number of mountains over 4000 meters.
Expedition website: www.friluftsaktiviteter.no
Doug Stoup's new route - 1060 km
American polar veteran Doug Stoup, married to former ANI head Ann Kershaw (the widow of the late polar adventurer Giles Kershaw who started the business two decades ago and then crashed his gyrocopter on the Antarctic ice) will be guiding Brits James Fox and Richard Dunwoody MBE (champion jockey) unsupported via a new route from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf to the South Pole. The team flies in from South Africa.
Expedition website: www.iceaxe.tv
South Pole Assisted
Eric Philip's Messner route partial repetition - 1060 km
Australian polar veteran Eric Philips is guiding a team in a partial repetition of a route previously chosen by Messner and Fuchs following a logistical mishap. Messner's route started at 82°04.99'S, 71°58.46'W, just over 100 km inland from Ronne Ice shelf, at about 500 meters of altitude. The two traveled with resupplies and parasail.
Eric Philips will move the starting point to 65W, where the Ronne ice shelf inlet stretches inland. The new starting point at the coast line validates the expedition as a complete SP trip (contrary to Messner's). About 240 km shorter than the Hercules inlet path, Philips route from Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf runs close to the new route that took a Norwegian team to the South Pole in only 34 days two years ago. The team is unsupported and includes journalist Bernice Notenboom who, if successful, will become the first Dutch female to ski to the South Pole.
Expedition website: www.icetrek.com
Bernice Notenboom website: www.arcticalert.com
Optical Express South Pole challenge - 1130 km
British Cameron Hudson and American John Huston are headed for the South Pole in part to research the effects of 24hr daylight on human vision with particular respect to the human body clock/cicadian rhythm. "The results of this study may provide novel insights into the cause and treatments of a number of visual disorders, including glaucoma," Cameron told ExplorersWeb.
Expedition website: www.oechallenge.co.uk
Julio Fiadi to the pole in first ever live-in sledge
EXPEDITION ABORTED
“The first rigid, habitable sledge seen in Antarctica - is Brazilian,” Julio Fiadi proudly reported from Patriot Hills this past Antarctica season. Julio came up with the idea during his last degree trips to both poles. “There is still a long way to go, a lot to test and to improve, but the invention clearly poses an option to take into account, for all those wanting to move across the Antarctic plains in a more comfortable way,” Fiadi said. It's not clear yet if Fiadi will be ready for a full SP trip this season.
Expedition website: www.juliofiadi.com.br
Antarctica Sailing Expeditions
In the wake of the Belgica: Dixie Dansercoer’s Antarctica sailing expedition
After skiing across a sizeable chunk of the Arctic ice this past spring, Belgian Dixie Dansercoer is now headed for the opposite side of earth - swapping skis for sails. Dixie hopes to retrace the spur of Adrien de Gerlache’s 1897-99 expedition, and bag some first ascents on the way. The project, ‘In the wake of the Belgica’, is scheduled to start before end September and to last four months. Skipper Jan Wouters, a first mate (still to be selected), photographer Laurent Dick, cameraman Troy Henkels, and communications operator Pieterjan Kempynck round off the "Euronav Belgica" crew.
Expedition’s website: www.inthewakeofthebelgica.com
Hannah McKeand - From the southern Ice to the Southern Ocean
After breaking the speed record for a solo, unsupported trip to the South Pole, Hannah McKeand is getting ready for an unsupported, solo NP attempt. Currently though she is roaming the Southern Ocean together with David Pryce, an experienced Antarctic and Southern Ocean sailor. Blizzard Expeditions are exploring the Southern Ocean regions including Antarctica, South Georgia, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego as well as Cape Horn and the Beagle Channel.
Expedition website: www.blizzardexpeditions.com
Fedor Konyukhov to sail non stop and solo around Antarctica in the Southern Ocean
Fedor Konyukhov, 56, is the current record holder for unassisted Atlantic E-W solo row. He climbed Everest in 1992, did a North Pole Crossing (resupplies) from Russia to Canada in 1988, from Russia to the NP in 1989 (emergency resupply only), again in 1990 (resupplies) and the South Pole unsupported solo from Hercules Inlet in 1995. Add to this crossing the Atlantic 12 times, climbing the seven summits, four circumnavigations of the world in a sailboat (twice against the prevailing winds and once in a solo race around the world), traveling from Vladivostok to St Petersburg by bike, an Iditarod, and riding the Great Silk Path on a camel. In 2005, Fedor was among the winners of the ExplorersWeb awards for W-E route single-handed non-stop "sail around Antarctica” - for the most part of the time doubling the ice continent in prevailing winds - alone on an 85 ft maxi-yacht normally operated by a crew of 10-12.
In January, Fedor plans to set a benchmark record as a prelude to the 14,600 nautical mil Antarctica Cup Race planned for 2009/10. Fedor plans to claim the inaugural world record for sailing solo and non-stop, around the track, which circumnavigates Antarctica in the Southern Ocean.
Fedor's website: http://konyukhov.ru/eng/pressc/photo/65/index.shtml
Scientific Antarctic Expeditions
British Fuchs Foundation 2007 Antarctic Expedition - Teachers on ice
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition in 1956/8, the Fuchs Foundation is supporting four teachers (Philip Avery, Ruth Hollinger, Amy Rogers and Ian Richardson) on an expedition to the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica during November and December 2007. The teachers, led by two guides from Steve Bull's outfit, will research different projects (Temperature Torture; Naked in Antarctica/and loving it; There’s No Way to Degrade a Tardigrade; Take only photographs, leave only footprints) and, once back home, give a series of talks and workshops. The team hopes to board ALE's first flight of the season to Patriot Hill's base.
Fuchs Foundation’s website: www.fuchsfoundation.org
Norwegian/US Scientific traverse of East Antarctica
This American-Norwegian expedition in the East Antarctic is planned to last two seasons. The main goal is to study the effects of global warming, although the expedition's means of transportation are not exactly 'green': Basically, they'll be driving all the way. The traverse will begin at Norwegian Troll station in Queen Maud Land. The first leg will take the expedition to the South Pole, which they plan to reach by late January, 2008. The team plans to retrace previous scientific settlements, and will also pass the South Pole of Inaccessibility. The return trip will take place in 2008-09 summer season, when the scientists plan to drive back from the Pole to Troll base, following a different, straight route.
Expedition website : www.traverse.npolar.no
From the Arctic bottom to Antarctica's top
He planted the Russian flag at the bottom of the Ocean at the North Pole, creating an international outcry. Now arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov, 67, reportedly plans to trek to the South Pole.
Nobel Peace Prize winners
Chile sponsors a scientific expedition which reportedly will include members recently awarded the Peace Nobel Prize, to show that Chile is committed to the principles of the Antarctic Treaty.
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