US adventurer finishes solo Antarctica trek

Washington: An American adventurer has become the first person to complete a solo trek across Antarctica without assistance of any kind.

Colin O’Brady (pic), 33, took 54 days to complete the nearly 1,600km crossing of the frozen continent from north to south.

O’Brady’s voyage was tracked by GPS and live updates of the trip were provided daily on his website colinobrady.com.

O’Brady and an Englishman, Army Captain Louis Rudd, 49, set off individually on Nov 3 from Union Glacier in a bid to be the first to complete a solo, unassisted crossing of Antarctica.

In 1996-97, a Norwegian polar explorer, Borge Ousland, made the first solo crossing of Antarctica but he was wind-aided by kites on his voyage.

O’Brady and Rudd set off on cross-country skis dragging sleds called pulks which weighed nearly 180kg.

O’Brady reached the South Pole on Dec 12, the 40th day of his journey. He arrived at the finish point on the Ross Ice Shelf on the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday after covering a total of 1,482km.

Rudd is about a day or two behind.

O’Brady covered the final 125km in 32 hours after deciding over breakfast to make one last final push.

The New York Times described O’Brady’s effort as among the “most remarkable feats in polar history”, ranking alongside the 1911 “Race to the South Pole” between Norway’s Roald Amundsen and England’s Robert Falcon Scott. — AFP