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SP Skier Craig: Video from the Pole and new plans!
Jan 28, 2005 05: 22 EST
After successfully skiing to the South Pole, Craig Mathieson is back at home in Scotland. “Things are almost back to normal,” he said. “As normal as they can be after doing something like this.” Nearly a month after completing the rigorous journey, the feelings of accomplishment are still fresh in the skier’s memory. “It's been 28 days since I reached the South Pole and the feeling of achievement and pride I felt still hasn't lessened. I'm sure it will be with me always.”
Memories of Pain and Joy
On the final two days of the traverse, Craig endured intense pain in his knee to make it to the finish. Being so close, Mathieson ruled out the possibility of giving up. “If it came to it I would have crawled the final few days to get to the Pole,” he said.
Skiing to the South Pole is a test of strength and survival few undertake. Those who do, usually need not worry about forgetting, including Mathieson. However, to keep a clear memory of the moment, he recorded his last steps on video:
Click here to watch it!
After coming home, Mathieson went under treatment to recover from his troubled knee. “I'm at 100% again. My knee has been fixed and gives me no trouble at all now.”
Time to Plan New Adventures
Battling through Arctic winds and ice can make any person long for the warmth of their family, but that’s no reason for a family to not be together. “I can see the spirit of adventure and self-belief in my children’s eyes,” he said. “So be prepared to hear from me again - plans are already being discussed for a major unsupported 'family' expedition!”
Amazingly, the Mathieson family wouldn’t be the first to take on such a challenge. The “Kites on Ice” team, Matty McNayr and her children Eric and Sarah, reached the South Pole unsupported and Kited back all the way to Hercules Inlet. So why not?
Hannah wanted to stay there
People often speak of the feeling of exhilaration one feels when finishing a ski to the South Pole, but often, the immense beauty of the Arctic is overlooked. But for Hannah McKeand, this beauty did not go unnoticed. Waiting in Patriot Hills for the plane, delayed due to bad weather, she wrote:
“I am one of the only people at Patriot Hills who is happy about the delay. All day yesterday I silently blessed the Antarctic and her winds and this morning when I woke to near silence, my heart fell. I took a last, slow walk around the perimeter of the camp. I looked out to the snowy, black hills to the west and south; to the distinctive teeth of Three Sails away in the east and over the empty plains to the north, stretching away towards Hercules Inlet, rolling out to meet the sky. In the words of my dear friend Jason (The Voice of Antarctica): There is no saying goodbye, only a promise to return.”
For McKeand, fulfilling that promise will have to wait. She is currently planning to take part in a sailing race around the world. That is, of course, if the beauty of the ice doesn’t get hold of her so tight, that she changes her mind and head back for frozen waters, instead of liquid oceans.
Hannah McKeand, Owen Jones, Craig Mathieson, Fiona Taylor, and Denise Martin (leader) attempted to reach the South Pole from Hercules Inlet-Patriot Hills in a re-supplied expedition.
Scottish accountants Craig Mathieson and Fiona Taylor of the Scot100 adventure hoped to reach the pole at Hogmanay for the centenary celebrations of the first Scottish National Antarctic Expedition by explorer William Spiers Bruce. "It is nice to do something that isn't the same as a day job," the accountants said. Ernst & Young, the team's employers, fully funded the expedition
31 years old Briton, Hannah McKeand, from UK put her “normal life” on hold, going so far as mortgaging the house, to embark on a year long journey that has already taken her to the deserts of Afghanistan and Libya. After the Antarctic expedition, she will take part in a sailing race around the world.
Owen Jones is "an ordinary joe" working for an investment bank in Tokyo: "I've wanted to visit the South Pole since I was 19,” he said. “But up to now, I've had no experience of Polar travel - the closest I have come to anything similar is a journey I took overland for six months from Cape Town to London way back in 1984.”
In 1997 Denise Martin became the first Canadian woman to ski to the North Pole.
Image of Craig at the South Pole on December 29, 2004, and Craig at home with future explorer Layla Mathieson, courtesy of Craig Mathieson/Scot100
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