Reaching South Pole still tough, 100 years after Amundsen

By Juan Garff Nov 25, 2011, 9:11 GMT

Buenos Aires - The number of people who have reached the South Pole on foot is likely to double in the coming weeks: almost 20 expeditions are on their way, to mark the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen's trip to the earth's southernmost point.

Several Norwegian expeditions want to emulate their compatriot Amundsen (1872-1928). A team from the Scandinavian country's Polar Institute is trying to follow Amundsen's every step along the tough route over the Axel Heiberg glacier.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg intends to cover the last 20 kilometres of the way on skis to mark the anniversary of Amundsen's feat on December 14, although heavy snow storms may yet thwart such plans.

'Many wonder whether we will reach our goal on December 14. We do too,' the team led by Polar Institute director Jan-Gunnar Winther wrote in its blog on Tuesday.

The team includes among others cross-country skiing legend Vegard Ulvang, the winner of three Olympic gold medals.

Thin air at the top of the glacier is bound to make the going slow. And even half-way to the South Pole the four Norwegians were running 133 kilometres behind Amundsen's expedition in 1911: things have not really got that much easier over the decades.

Contemporary expeditioners are on skis, and they have the disadvantage of having to drag their pulks themselves: the dogs that Amundsen took with him are no longer allowed in Antarctica, due to strict regulations for the protection of the environment.

A second Norwegian expedition is en route, also without the dogs but otherwise pretty much in line with Amundsen's original equipment. Its leader, Asle Johansen, already crossed Greenland in 1988, exactly 100 years after Fridtjof Nansen, in the original vein of the explorer and Nobel Prize laureate.

British expeditioners tragically lost the race to the South Pole 100 years ago, when Robert Falcon Scott not only reached his destination after Amundsen but also died along with his companions on the way back.

This time around Brits are approaching the South Pole on the two available routes. A team of soldiers has split up into two expeditions: Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley is following Amundsen's route, while Warrant Officer Mark Langridge is taking Scott's. The Scott-route group initially pulled ahead, but it is now those following on Amundsen's footsteps that have a slight lead.

Most expeditions in Antarctica start from the Union Glacier Camp run by the private US firm Antartic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE), which can hold up to 80 people at any one time. Explorers fly there from the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas on a Russian-made Ilyushin IL76 plane.

It was one such plane that took Australians James Castrission, 29, and Justin Jones, 28, to the white continent, with the goal of becoming the youngest people to reach the South Pole and the first to get there and back on skis, without any outside support.

And yet the two Australians found unexpected competition on the plane: Norwegian Aleksander Gamme, 35, planned a similar expedition alone.

Britain's Felicity Aston is waiting at Union Glacier for favourable weather to fly to her starting point of choice, Leverett glacier. From there, she wants to make the lone trek on her skis to the South Pole, and then to Hercules Bay: a total of 1,700 kilometres which would set a new record for a woman.

Aston, 33, is taking music and audiobooks with her, and she is dragging along a pulk with a tent and provisions that grant her the 4,000 calories she will need per day.

But skiing is not the only means to get to the South Pole. On Sunday, 26 athletes from the United States, Japan, Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Russia and Britain are to fly to the US-run Amundsen-Scott Station to take part in a 50-kilometre ultra-marathon at around 30 degrees below zero Celsius.

Sebastian Armanault, who ran earlier this year the 250-kilometre race through the Sahara desert, estimates that he can run in Antarctica in about seven hours.

For all these explorers, however, some things have indeed changed compared to the days of Amundsen and Scott: they are all required to carry GPS devices, so they can be rescued if needed.

The Spaniard Carles Gel needed rescuing after only 30 kilometres, due to the blisters on his feet. His companion Albert Bosch pressed on alone, in an effort that usually requires one year of physical and psychological training.