The other teams
Published on 14.01.2010 - General Info
This Antarctic season has also seen a number of other teams out on the ice whose progress we have not been able to monitor. Some of them have not wanted to send in reports, while others have chosen to keep their details within a tight circle.
Ladies first, though, and Hannah McKeand in particular. This polar explorer has a great many credits to her name in terms of adventure (see her CV, in 2006 she beat the speed record between Hercules Inlet and the South Pole) and this season was guiding a client, Arnold Witzig (a 60-year-old German born in March 1949) between Hercules Inlet and the Pole. Everything went well and Hannah arrived with her client safely at the South Pole on 11th January after a trek lasting 38 days. This was the third time that she has attempted this route and she should know it like the back of her hand by now. Hannah has also calculated that including this latest adventure, she has now clocked around 2 750 nautical miles on her ski odometer in Antarctica. General comment about the trek: the pair had a lot of luck with the weather and very good snow. But having said that, Hannah is now off to the Arctic in a few weeks' time, where she will be attempting to achieve another first: to complete the route between Ward Hunt and the North Pole, solo and without being resupplied -a feat that no woman has ever attempted before.
Another two-man team has also succeeded in reaching the South Pole this season. The Danish pair of Morten Grundesoe and Jens Erik Nielsen set out from the Ronne Ice Shelf and reached the Pole on 29th December. For anyone wanting to find out more about the two Danes, visit their website.
As for the other expeditions we mentioned here last November, there is no news at all. The Swedish twosome of Ted Karlsson and Christian Rosenquist has not responded to our requests for information. Nor is there any news from the expedition that was planning to make a full crossing of Antarctica travelling aboard a revolutionary motorised device on three skids, called the Concept Ice Vehicle  and who previously made an abortive attempt two years ago.
