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The ladies rule!
09:30 a.m. EST Jan 12, 2004
Fiona Thornewill made history last night when she reached the South Pole. Unsupported (no resupplies and no pulling aid), the Hercules Inlet Route (the edge of mainland Antarctica) has only been done 7 times before. The fastest being Liv Arnesen’s 50 days in 1994 (there is however a yet unconfirmed 44 days statistics from a Korean team).
Out of the seven times, only two have been by women, and only one by a solo woman. Liv Arnesen stood as the crown queen of Antarctica for ten years, until last night when British Fiona shattered Liv's record performance by an astonishing 8 days. In fact, even with the aid of re-supplies along the trek, this South Pole route is expected to take around 65 days.The fastest supported expedition was a Japanese Group in 1994 (same year as Liv) who made it in 38 days with skidoo-support, and Borge Ousland's parasail crossing (34 days to the pole).
Yet Fiona's record-breaking trek almost didn't happen. Fiona lacked funds to the very end. In a late interview, just before departure deadline, Fiona told Explorersweb: "The truth is; we're struggling right now - to find the last funding and it's stealing valuable preparation time. But we will be there. We are positive people."
Along with Catherine Hartley, Fiona was one of the two first British women to ski to both poles and, with husband Mike, also the first married couple to reach both poles (all expeditions with air support). Mike will be leading a group of folks from the 86th parallel to the SP and initially, Mike had hoped to be at the Pole to greet his wife on her arrival. Fiona, however, proved too fast for that. "I'm just a fly on the wall in Fiona's world" Mike said at one point a few weeks back, when Fiona's positions made clear her virtual flight to the pole.
Fiona had told us earlier about Mike and her motivation:
"My first husband Bill, was killed in a road accident. He was only 26 and it was devastating to me. Back then, I had a choice; to be negative or do something positive. Bill was cheated of his life and so I felt I owed it to him to make the most of mine. Ever since then I've always taken avenues that lead me forward not backward, culminating in reaching the South Pole back in 2000 with Mike. (It was his lifetime dream to do this - not mine)."
And then, how the solo idea was born:
"I remember Catharine Hartley saying to me, “Fi why don't you do it solo?” I told her what I thought of the idea! To be honest, I always believed it was a journey too far for me, but Paul Landry taught me a lot when we went to the North Pole in ’01, which helped my confidence and ability. Then slowly I started to feel the need to do something major for myself, something that was down to me and me alone. This journey is about me doing something difficult where no one holds my hand and I have only myself to turn to."
And then, she was off. Fiona chose to keep her positions secret, in order not to fuel a competition between her and Rosie Stancer, the other British woman also going solo for the pole. Rosie instead, kept her positions public. Both women stressed that their missions were personal, and hard enough, without the need to compete with each other for a day or two between them. Fiona's sat phone broke about a month ago, and thus both women traveled without the knowledge of each other's positions.
"I knew this would end up being topical" Fiona said: "But I do not view this as a race: This challenge is about 'me.' It's about 'me' and the 'environment.' It is not about racing Rosie. I expect the press will make a race of it when they wake up to what we're doing - but I will not be pressured into racing anyone - Finishing is succeeding - simple as that. In facing this challenge I want to encourage people everywhere not to be scared of taking bold steps and reaching for their own life goals. As I tell myself: - Feel the fear and do it anyway."
As Fiona celebrates her incredible feat, Rosie Stancer has already sent her congratulations. In 1999, Rosie was member of the first British all-woman team to reach the South Pole with air support. Today, Rosie is just days away from the pole herself. Only yesterday she trekked for 18 hours and covered an astonishing 27 nautical miles (this kind if distance is normally seen only with the aid of kites). Being that close to the goal, following a hard and prolonged trek - she now travels fuelled only by adrenaline and her will to succeed. Thus, the news of Fiona must make Rosie's final days hard.
In fact, when Rosie reaches the pole, she will there find Scott's words, printed on a large board: "The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected."
Rosie will not reach her original dream to be the first British woman to trek solo to the South Pole. Fiona beat her to it, in a record 42 days. But Rosie, too, travels extremely fast and the small framed woman could well reach the pole close to the tall and very athletic Norwegian Liv Arnesen's "untouchable" 50 days. And it is not about the firsts, entirely.
Scott, Amundsen and Shackelton are remembered equally today, disregarding their initial positions. Amundsen was first, but Scott and Shackelton offered human drama.
Liv, Fiona and Rosie are proof that the world's pioneering ladies of adventure are far stronger than we had ever imagined. We have seen the trend lately - the female mountaineers Edurne Pasaban's and Nives Meroi's fast hattricks on the world's eighthousanders, Maud Fontenoy's first west to east Atlantic ocean row, Raphaela's first solo surf across the Pacific and Tanya's breaking the record for both the men's and women's Freediving in the Variable Weight category.
In fact, with this year's record-breaking performance by Fiona and Rosie, almost one hundred years after (Norwegian and British) Amundsen, Shackelton and Scott -three (Norwegian and British!) solo, unsupported ladies have beaten not each other - but the men to the South Pole!
Image of Fiona courtesy of polarchallenge.org
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