Johansen and teammates have reached degree 86
Published on 11.12.2011 - South Pole 1911-2011
Norwegians Asle T. Johansen, Jan Ertsas Morten and Gaute Grindhaug have been dropped off by ALE logsistics on the Ross iceshelf a month ago. Now they are moving towards the South Pole on the plateau.
On 1 November, the norwegian trio has landed successfully on the Ross iceshelf. Their location was 82° 819.55 S / 165° 9578 W. That's about half way between the 'shore' and the bottom of the Axel Heiberg glacier.
Taking a rest day once in a while or having been forced to stay in the tent because of the weather (as it was the case on 27, 28 and 29 November), they have progressed 34 days at a daily average of about 25 km per day.
Nothing very special has to be said about their trip although they wore period equipment : the most interesting part of this voyage concerns the ascent of the Axel Heiberg glacier. We have seen that for other teams normally equiped and dressed wtht modern clothes, even if they were not professional polar expeditioners, or climbers, the traverse could take between five and six days.
For Asle and his companions, they needed ten days to cross the Axel Heiberg and were forced to do many back and forth trips during the ascent because of the weight of the loads.
Curiously enough, they seldom speak about their period clothes ; here and there in the unfolding of the narrative, they confess that with modern clothes the trip would have been easier and certainly more confortable.
On the way they met two people from the Jubilee expedition led by Christian Eide but did not stay together for long.
On December 10, a plane from ALE logistic came to pick Asle T. Johansen up (86° 56056 S / 175° 4386 W): they hadn't reached in time (14 December) the South Pole and he did not want to miss the centenary celebration party.
