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South Pole drama resolved
15:05 p.m. EST Jan 13, 2004
The Grande Finale of this year’s South Pole expedition thriller brought on unexpected twists today.
The phones went crazy all morning at ExplorersWeb office in NY, with Mr. Parks arrival at the SP and his bombshell announcement that Fiona had an airlift early in her expedition. As Fiona's positions have been kept secret, a feverish struggle commenced to retrieve her starting position from Argos - her GPS provider. Meanwhile, Rosie Stancer suddenly arrived at the South Pole as well -faster than expected - in an astonishing 43 days and 20 hours.
We now had three possible world records, one disputed and all three expeditions assembled in camps around the South Pole station. Mails exchanged between team headquarters and sat phone calls from the South Pole all tried to bring order to the situation. The conclusion is as follows:
Fiona stated in a call from the South Pole that she started out at S 79 57. She believes that the confusion with Mr. Park could have sprung from the fact that she and Mr. Park were taxied to different starting points, with the weather clearing up after the Twin Otters touched down. They both seem to have started at different locations East and West of each other, but both were clear below the 80 of the parallel, which is the traditional starting point.
Fiona's Webmaster next contacted Argos and they forwarded Fiona's starting position, which supports Fiona's statement to ExplorersWeb.
Fiona's starting point: South 79.950 West 80.186 Nov 30 14.33 Zulu. End of the first day South 80.044 West 80.582 Nov 30 19.23 Zulu. She traveled approx. 7 hours and 5.5 NM in her first day, and rested the next. In addition, Fiona stated in the phone call that she did not use the aid of resupplies or sails. With that, the year's South Pole expedition season has seen three record-breaking performances in the last few days:
Fiona Thornewill: 42 days – British woman, solo and unsupported to the South Pole starting from Hercules Inlet.
Rosie Stancer: 43 days and 20 hrs - British woman, solo and unsupported to the South Pole starting from Hercules Inlet.
Park Young-seok: 44 days – Unsupported Korean team of 5 that started from Hercules Inlet.
Earlier South Pole, unsupported record - Liv Arnesen’s official 50 day ski from Hercules Inlet in 1994. There is also a yet unconfirmed 44 days statistics from a Korean team.
ExplorersWeb have asked Mr. Park for a comment to his statement.
Image of an expedition's arrival at the South Pole in 2002.
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