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Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
- gumby 8y agoAt first I was shocked by how large a sled he dragged. I use a much smaller sled (just a deer sled). Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken. Then I read that he was out for 53 days. And of course his conditions are far, far more grueling than I have ever faced (all in North America). So then I was shocked at how little he had with him!
- dana321 8y agoThat's got to be the best place in the world, imagine the solitude, the quietness and amazing scenery. Must have been an amazing experience.
- lostlogin 8y agoIf you haven’t already, have a read of South, by Shackleton. It can be pretty unpleasant and far from quiet.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI have read Shackleton's book and also one by a member of Scott's expedition. From that I got the sense that it's a place of wind, danger and misery. It's not a quiet stroll after fresh snowfall.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lostlogin 8y agoI talked to a guy who tried to cross it once. To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil. He didn’t like it and it sure sounds nasty.
- Alupis 8y ago> To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil. Eating sticks of butter is common too.
- komali2 8y agoThru hikes sometimes it's peanut butter and Nutella
- bacon_waffle 8y agoA few weeks in to my first long trip, a mentor said in a grocery store in Franklin, North Carolina: "You'll become one of two kinds of hiker: you'll count calories per pound, or you'll count calories per dollar. Either way, you win with cake frosting".
- x43b 8y agoCarbohydrates are 4 calories/gram. Fats are 9 calories/gram. Frosting does not win.
- gumby 8y agoI believe frosting is mostly fat by weight. Nevertheless butter beats it, pretty much by definition.
- x43b 8y agohttps://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/creamy-supreme/classic-white https://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/creamy-supreme/clas... Looks like a >4:1 carb:fat ratio by weight.
- fiblye 8y agoBut eating cake frosting by the spoonful is far easier and more pleasing than downing pure butter or olive oil. (speaking from experience)
- gameswithgo 8y agoFor long stretches the terrain was awful, as well there was climbing up to ~8500 feet or so
- gumby 8y agoAll solo...truly amazing!
- hanley 8y ago> Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken. If you look through Colin's earlier instagram posts [1] you'll see that the terrain was not smooth for much of his journey. The terrain is covered in sastrugi [2] and this year was marked with unexpected higher temperatures and snowfall which made the skiing very slow for Colin and all the other explorers out there. Explorers Web has a good collection of blog posts about the various expeditions that are happening this season [3]. [1] https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/ https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sastrugi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sastrugi [3] https://explorersweb.com/category/poles/antarctic/ https://explorersweb.com/category/poles/antarctic/
- davidstoker 8y agoColin just accomplished an incredible feat of endurance! His daily Instagram postings have been inspirational to read for the past 53 days. Other info about his expedition: https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/18/sports/antarctica-race-tracker-map.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/18/sports/antarc...
- maxxxxx 8y agoJust this week I read a story about Henry Worsley who died trying the same thing: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-darkness https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-dark.... After reading, I wonder if you have to a certain level of insanity for doing something like this.
- FPGAhacker 8y agoI don't know, but it's an interesting thought. What drives someone do to this? I'm in awe of it. It seems to me that it has to be tied to finding meaning in life one way or another. I have to wonder though, how long does it take for the afterglow of such a massive accomplishment to wear off and to start asking yourself "what now?"
- maxxxxx 8y agoI have the same thought when I see presidential campaigns. I don't think a balanced person would put themselves and their families through that. You have to be some kind of crazy to do this. Maybe we need these extreme people, but I am not sure we should take them as something to aspire to.
- samatman 8y agoI think about this a lot. We would have better leadership if it wasn’t such an objectively terrible job.
- arethuza 8y agoThat's an interesting point about Henry Worsley - he was clearly an excellent leader but he couldn't rise in the UK military (and I suspect this is the case with many organisations) because above a certain point the job is about politics rather than leadership.
- eismcc 8y agoHaving been part of the Ironman community for a while now, I can say endurance folks are definitely different than your average person. Often very humble, they like meaningful, big, challenging goals that redefine “normal.”
- curiousgal 8y agoTangent. I once met a guy who told be about a historical book of, as far as I can remember, 2 or 3 explorers who were friends (?) and were racing to explore Antarctica. Does anyone happen to know the name of said book? It's been my white whale.
- atiffany 8y agoMaybe it’s a book on Shackleton?
- gregtaleck 8y agoScott and Amundsen "The race to the South Pole, 1911. In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen went head to head to be the first to reach the South Pole. In the early 20th century, the race was on to reach the South Pole, with a number of explorers setting out to claim it for their own." https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/race-south-pole-1911 https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/race-south-pole-1911
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- LeifCarrotson 8y agoIf it was about Antarctica, it might be Lansing's "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage": I recall that it opened with some chapters describing the preparations and some descriptions of the spirit of camaraderie among Arctic and Antarctic explorers of various nationalities. It's set just after the race to reach the pole. It was a best seller, and they made a movie about it in 2000, so it had reach enough to be mentioned. It's definitely not a story about 3 friends racing to explore Antarcica - for one, while it takes a few small creative liberties, it's an historical narrative, and only one of the three are significantly included. But it is a fantastic read, and even if it isn't the one you're looking for it is both well worth your and it is concerning the same topic.
- porpoisely 8y agoAnyone else seeing 6 nytimes articles on the frontpage? Why not just redirect us to the nytimes at this point?
- na85 8y agoI'd rather read the current crop of NYT articles than some medium.com blogspam, or an announcement that yet another go-nowhere language that compiles to javascript has released a new minor version.
- nyc111 8y agoAnd NYT is locked. They get so much traffic from HN but they don't let us read it. Maybe a deal needs to be negotiated similar to FB and WSJ deal so that HN referrers could read the article.
- quickthrower2 8y agoHN is probably a drop in the ocean in terms of traffic, but it’s good quality traffic admittedly.
- tomcam 8y agoI think maybe they don’t let us read it because we aren’t paying customers? I would assume they save their best material for people who pay their bills.
- narrator 8y agoNYTimes is ok as long as it is not one of their ubiquitous "Anonymous sources within the intelligence community say..." political articles.
- dang 8y agoAny stochastic process is going to involve runs of 6 sometimes. HN seems best served by looking at article quality individually and not worrying too much about domains. I do wish users would submit more weird out-of-the way articles, though, and less major media. Especially ones that haven't appeared here before. Edit: like this one! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18760852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18760852
- lucidstack 8y agoTo those inspired by this achievement to look more into polar expeditions, I can highly recommend Michael Palin’s “Erebus”. It’s a riveting read on the challenges, successes, and tragedies of the British explorer ship Erebus, its commanders, officers, and crews.
- tbassetto 8y agoWasn’t the crossing of Antartica unsupported already done in http://www.travelexplorations.com/cecilie-skog-and-ryan-waters-successfully-crossed-antarctica.4724142-18557.html http://www.travelexplorations.com/cecilie-skog-and-ryan-wate...? Asking because Colin’s website says it’s a first but I must be missing something.
- npstr 8y agoYou are missing that Colin did it solo.
- kirrent 8y agoAnd Mike Horn did it solo as well. It's a bit of an artificial category, but still impressive as well.
- vegardx 8y agoYes, by Børge Ousland in 96/97. But the whole concept of a first is sort of vague. Ousland used a kite, but he also went almost 1000km further. But I think it's widely accepted that he was the first to cross Antarctica unsupported and solo. It would surprise me if it wasn't a Norwegian that did it, we seem to have some sort of obsession with the South Pole. Cecilie Skog in the article you linked to is, no surprise, also Norwegian. If you ever want to walk in the tracks of people like Roald Amundsen you should check out Expedition Amundsen, a 100km ski trip by sled over three days at Hardangervidda. Hardangervidda is absolutely stunning, but also known for taking a toll on even the most seasoned polar explorers.
- ignoramous 8y agoOutline for people geowalled http://outline.com/ezrgYS http://outline.com/ezrgYS
- tunesmith 8y agoIs it easier now because of climate change? (Not to take anything away from the accomplishment, it might actually be harder due to how climate change works.)
- therealdrag0 8y agoWhere was a report recently that said some parts of Antarctica have grown in amount of snow. So that might make it harder or make there be more "land" to cover?
- codezero 8y agoIf anything I would wonder if it’s easier because they can contact the outside world. Having a sat phone, gps, and a sympathetic ear had to help. At one point he got a call from Elton John! Imagine the morale boost :) also, knowing there is an escape hatch. Someone to send a rescue team etc...
- paultannenbaum 8y agoIt was actually Paul Simon that he got the call from. Agreed it must have been a huge morale boost.
- codezero 8y agoDoh. Thanks for the correction!
- gameswithgo 8y agoIt wouldn't change how far he was going, as he was crossing the actual land part, not ice extent. Might be 1 or 2 degrees warmer than it was 50 years ago or something.
- Chris_Chambers 8y agoPlease provide a source for your claim regarding the alleged increased temperature.
- tedunangst 8y agoWhat is the definition of crossing Antarctica? It seems you have start at some point on the coast, go to the South Pole, then go to another point on the coast. But the South Pole isn't the midpoint. Nor are the two coastal points 180 degrees apart. Like what's the smallest angle that qualifies as a crossing? (If I hike along the France Spain border, is that hiking across Europe?) Not to say it's any easier, but ever since these stories started coming out I've been wondering who decides what it means to cross the continent. Would going from Dronning Maud Land to George V Land, a journey of double the distance but passing north of the South Pole, count?
- Stratoscope 8y agoHis website has a map and discussion of the route: https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst
- tedunangst 8y agoThat doesn't really explain the definition of crossing. If crossing a continent invokes going from one point to another, as one might reasonably assume, then why the detour to the South Pole? Why not simply go in a straight line between those points?
- msandford 8y agoBecause how many people have been to the south pole? It's an elite club and if you're already going most of the way there, why not get two cards punched instead of just one?
- baddox 8y agoI don’t think the intention is to impress people by sneaking in the word “crossing.” I think it just means, well, walking across Antarctica a pretty long way with no outside support. That should be impressive enough. It’s not like it was easy because they didn’t choose the longest possible straight line through the South Pole.
- deleted 8y ago
- neaanopri 8y agoThis is right out of "The Left Hand of Darkness."