The new Scot of the Antarctic
It began with an 8-day, -45C whiteout, but even that couldn’t stop Mollie becoming the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole
FOR eight whole days, a fierce polar blizzard reduced her world to just a few feet of frozen snow and ice.
With visibility reduced to almost zero, land and sky merged into a featureless haze of white, while the temperature around her plunged to minus 45C.
Yet faced with fatigue and disorientation, she had no choice: alone on the coldest and most desolate continent on Earth, she simply set her shoulders to the biting wind and battled on.
Looking back, Mollie Hughes admits, it was an unpromising start to her trip. On Friday, however, the 29-year-old from Edinburgh made history when she became the youngest woman ever to ski solo to the South Pole.
Over 58 days, she tackled 702 miles of the planet’s most unforgiving and hostile terrain, spending up to 12 hours at a time pulling a sled that, at 16 stone (102kg), weighed more than she did.
Last night, having finally reached the warmth and safety of the permanent research camp at the Pole, she spoke via satellite phone about the hardships of her ordeal – and her relief at completing the extraordinary challenge.
As well as describing the Antarctic’s bleak beauty, she also revealed how she had lost 1.5 stone (9.5kg) in weight during her epic trek – despite eating more than 4,500 calories a day.
She also spoke of her joy at finding treats hidden by her partner in her sled on Christmas Day – and keeping herself distracted from the gruelling hours of exertion by listening to audiobooks of Harry Potter.
Miss Hughes said: ‘It was incredibly challenging. It’s probably the hardest expedition I’ve ever done. I was so, so low and the conditions were so hard. But arriving at the Pole yesterday was amazing. Amazing to have achieved it and to have got it done.
‘And relieved that I didn’t have to get up today and start skiing again.’
Her astonishing feat began on November 13, when she departed from Hercules Inlet in Western Antarctica.
She said: ‘I got dropped off at my start point by a small plane, in perfect sunshine. And then I saw these clouds come over, and they just hung over me for ten days or so. And for eight days of it, it was a complete whiteout. I couldn’t see more than a metre in front of my face, with really strong winds – and with the winds you get the really cold temperatures with the wind chill. It was minus 45, so a really, really tough start the first couple of weeks.’ So tough, in fact, that conditions became nearly impossible. She said: ‘The worst day was definitely in those first two weeks. It was pretty desperate, as though Antarctica just didn’t want to let me in. There was a day when I woke up in the morning and the whole tent was shaking from the wind but I knew I had to get out and ski and make some miles that day because I hadn’t done many the day before.’
Packing and unpacking her tent was also a fraught experience – if it was whipped away in a gale, she would have been left stranded with no shelter.
After managing to prepare herself, she said: ‘So, I went out, and
it was white all day, so you couldn’t see anything and the terrain was really steep, really icy. I kept slipping, kept falling over. I kept pushing and pushing myself, and I think in the end I skied for sevenand-a-half hours... And after I got into my tent and looked at my GPS I realised I had only done about three miles that day.
‘When you are covered in the whiteout, you can’t see more than a metre in front of you. Up is completely white, down is completely white, all around is completely white. It’s quite disorientating. You feel quite dizzy, sometimes you feel a bit nauseous. It’s horrible.
‘From then on in, I think that was a turning point. My health and my safety were my priority. I had to look after myself.’
However, she said: ‘I never really thought about giving up. I always knew I could make it. There are low points like when the weather is so bad, you think the sun is never going to come up.
‘And especially in those first couple of weeks, I was like, “Is the sun ever going to show its face?”. But when it did, it was the most amazing feeling.’
And, as the snow cleared, she saw, for the first time, the magnificent landscape.
She said: ‘I hardly saw any of Antarctica for the first couple of weeks due to the whiteout. And as soon as it lifted, I could see this mountain range on my right-hand side. I could see snow as far as the eye could see. And on a clear day the sky is so, so blue. At this time of year we have 24-hour daylight, it is light all day, all night.’
Travelling across the bleak wilderness, Miss Hughes was astonished by its beauty.
She said: ‘There’s no wildlife because right in the interior of Antarctica nothing lives here, not even bacteria, because it’s so cold. But I saw a few cool things. One day I was waking up and it kind of looked like shimmering snow was falling from the sky. Then you look on the ground and it looks like the snow is covered in glitter, just from the way the sunlight is touching the snow.
‘There was a full rainbow as a halo around the sun.’
Despite her gruelling physical ordeal, she discovered that it was mental toughness which she needed the most.
She said: ‘Skiing for ten to 12 hours a day by yourself is definitely a complete mental game. So you just let your mind wander. It was weird, I had these weird memories come up, memories I hadn’t thought about for a long time.
‘I think when your brain has so much space, so little stimulation, all around you is white, there is nothing to see, your brain just has to make up stuff.’
Asked how she found the strength to keep going, she said: ‘I think it was because I really wanted to achieve it and make everyone at home feel proud, I guess.’
Spending Christmas Day alone was also a unique experience.
She said: ‘It was probably one of the best days, actually. I gave myself a two-hour lie-in, I rang everyone at home, and then I went off and skied for eight hours that day. I quite enjoyed Christmas Day but I wouldn’t want to have another one by myself. My girlfriend had packed a little package full of chocolate. And my sister had got lots of messages from my friends and family and put them in a card, which was cute. I didn’t cry. I felt happy.’
To sustain her energy, she ate around 4,500 calories per day, snacking on chocolate bars and freeze-dried meals.
Unsurprisingly, she is looking forward to getting home.
She said: ‘When I’m home I think I’m going to definitely appreciate the small things in life. Like when I get into my tent at night it takes a couple of hours to melt all the snow and ice and make a cup of tea and
make dinner. But when I get home I am going to just whack the kettle on.’
Her electrical devices were charged by solar-powered battery, and although it did not last long each day, she whiled away the boredom by listening to all seven Harry Potter audio books.
Reluctant to discuss her music playlist, she said her choice in songs was ‘embarrassing’ but admitted to listening to AC/DC as the South Pole finally came into sight.
She said: ‘I saw it from about 11 miles away – you see this black shape on the horizon. And that was really special. I felt so much motivation when I saw it and my speed definitely crept up.
‘It’s weird because it’s that point you focus on for the last 50whatever days. Seeing it was quite special.
‘I had AC/DC on, which was good. The whole album – I think the song was TNT.’ Arriving at the permanent camp, she was greeted by her logistics team before taking the last few steps alone. She said: ‘When I got there I called my girlfriend and my mum, and my sister. I was just like, “I’m at the South Pole!”
‘I think they were more emotional than me. They broke down and cried. I was just freezing the whole time I was on the phone.’
Miss Hughes, who undertook her polar trip to raise money for cancer research, was previously the youngest European woman to have successfully climbed both the north and south sides of Mount Everest.
Today she is relaxing before returning home to Edinburgh on
January 22. She said: ‘I’ll get a plane out in the next few days. Just now it’s just chilling and eating – and talking to human beings is quite nice.’
She has no more expeditions planned just now, but said: ‘It would just be so great to use what I’ve done to inspire other people. These challenges sound huge and scary but anything really is achievable if you want it enough, put your mind to it enough. It doesn’t have to be skiing across Antarctica.’
However, she joked: ‘If I was telling my friends about it, I would probably just say how horrendous it was and ask them not to let me do it again.’
I saw the South Pole from about 11 miles away... I had AC/DC on my headphones