It’s a riveting description, but like other critical elements in his book … key details do not withstand scrutiny.
U. S. EXPLORER COLIN O’BRADY’S CLAIMS ABOUT HIS ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ JOURNEY THROWN INTO QUESTION
— Aaron Teasdale adventurer’s on an journey across antarctica.
ANational Geographic investigation has raised suspicions that a record- breaking journey across Antarctica by American explorer Colin O’brady may not have been what it seemed.
The Impossible First saw O’brady try to become the first person to make the 1,500- kilometre trek across the frozen continent, on skis, unassisted. At the time, his achievement was lauded around the world — including in National Geographic — after he beat Briton Louis Rudd, who had been making the same attempt, by some two days.
It turns out that serious doubts have now emerged about O’brady’s 54- day trip and about the veracity of his claims surrounding it. And those doubts are being raised by those who should know: his fellow elite adventurers.
“With my next steps, I’d be on my own in a way I’d never been before,” O’brady wrote in a book about the adventure. But in an article published Feb. 3, National Geographic said critical inconsistencies have arisen in O’brady’s account, as relayed in his book, also titled “The Impossible First.”
In late 2018, the Portland, Ore., native had been locked in battle with Rudd. Both, National Geographic explains, were trying to finish the “first-ever solo, unsupported, unassisted” trek across the frozen continent.
Among the claims that O’brady made were that he was heading into terrain — tugging a sled weighing 300 lbs. — from which he couldn’t be rescued; and that he was traversing an “off the map” area. In the end, the 33- year- old novice beat the Briton, 49, who was more experienced than him in such conditions, by some distance.
But was O’brady really in as much danger as he said he was?
And how far did he really go?
“It’s a riveting description, but like other critical elements in his book and promotion of his Antarctica expedition, key details do not withstand scrutiny,” Aaron Teasdale wrote in National Geographic on Feb. 3.
“None of the polar experts O’brady mentions consulting before his trip considered his journey impossible. And in the ‘off the map’ location he describes, O’brady was in fact on a graded and flagged vehicle route used frequently by wealthy tourists. A call from his satellite phone on this route could summon rescue by ski- equipped Twin Otter airplanes “within hours.”
National Geographic points out that in 1997, Norway’s Borge Ousland made a far longer cross-antarctica trip than O’brady’s and the Norwegian’s effort was also made “unassisted.” The catch, however, was that Ousland had at times rigged his sled with a small kite, to help him along. Back then, this was not deemed by those who log such records as assistance. Nowadays, it is.
And as well as O’brady’s alleged belittlement of Ousland’s effort — made before the days of social media, yet nearly twice as long a trip — the “truncated” trip that O’brady made is also now raising eyebrows. The route he took, National Geographic reports, is not considered the classic, most difficult “cross-antarctica” route. Not even close.
O’brady, it seems, left out one part key in his journey: the actual ice shelves.
The map of Antarctica as we know it is two- fold in reality. In one — the typical one in an encyclopedia — you see the full scale of the ice shelves. In others, seen only when using high- tech equipment, you can see the rocky surface of the continent itself, which is in fact a much smaller land mass, buried deep beneath the ice. O’brady’s trip, and the route he described as a “crossing,” neglected to include two massive ice shelves — each as big as France. Whereas Ousland crossed both shelves as well as the rocky continent below them, O’brady only went over the actual rocky part itself, National Geographic reports.
Australian polar explorer Eric Philips told National Geographic that O’brady simply didn’t do what he said he did.
“This wasn’t some Last Great Polar Journey. Rather, it was a truncated route that was a first in only a very limited way,” he said.
National Geographic added: “In recent years, adventurers have begun claiming a crossing by citing this unseen ‘coast.’ Some, in order to please sponsors and media, did this only after failing in their attempt at a full crossing. Suddenly an Antarctic ‘crossing’ had shrunk in half.”
National Geographic reports that, in fact, a couple racing unsupported had crossed Antarctica in 2010, using a similarly truncated trip as O’brady. Their trip — like others made by separate explorers in recent years — was actually longer than his, by about 300 kilometres.
Said National Geographic, “O’brady took the invisible coastline strategy to its extreme — his journey was nearly 200 miles shorter than these earlier trips, and the shortest route yet that anyone had claimed as a ‘crossing of the continent.’”
Taking to Instagram to defend his trek, O’brady said the National Geographic piece is “confusing.”
“A couple of days ago I was stunned to see a confusing article in Nat Geo about my expeditions,” he posted. “I’m not sure how or why they got the facts so twisted around, but I assure you the article is full of inaccuracies.”
After taking issue with particular parts of the outlet’s reporting, including whether he ever described the Norwegian Ousland’s trip as “unsupported,” O’brady said he will soon provide a fuller response.
“I’m putting together a letter to the Nat Geo editor providing them with the supporting materials they can use to correct the record. Because there are a number of errors, it’s going to take me a few days to finish it. When I do I’ll post a copy of the letter on my website,” he wrote.
National Geographic said O’brady, after initially conducting some interviews about his trek, later stopped returning its calls. With its concerns in mind, National Geographic has now taken the unusual step of amending its initial report of O’brady’s crossing, which reads:
“We originally reported this story in December 2018. Upon further research, we uncovered important details about Colin O’brady’s highly publicized Antarctic trek that are reported in a new story. We have changed the headline on this piece to reflect our new reporting, but the original story below remains with the reporting we had at the time.”
The new headline, less gushing than the original, reads simply: “Explorer completes Antarctic trek.”
O’BRADY WAS IN FACT ON A GRADED AND FLAGGED VEHICLE ROUTE US ED ... BY TOURISTS.