Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/sports/antarctica-race-colin-obrady.html

by davidstoker • 8 years ago

235 125 8 years ago

gumby5• 8 years ago

At first I was shocked by how large a sled he dragged. I use a much smaller sled (just a deer sled). Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken.

Then I read that he was out for 53 days. And of course his conditions are far, far more grueling than I have ever faced (all in North America). So then I was shocked at how little he had with him!

dana321• 8 years ago

That's got to be the best place in the world, imagine the solitude, the quietness and amazing scenery. Must have been an amazing experience.

lostlogin3• 8 years ago

If you haven’t already, have a read of South, by Shackleton. It can be pretty unpleasant and far from quiet.

maxxxxx5• 8 years ago

I have read Shackleton's book and also one by a member of Scott's expedition. From that I got the sense that it's a place of wind, danger and misery. It's not a quiet stroll after fresh snowfall.

lostlogin3• 8 years ago

I talked to a guy who tried to cross it once. To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil. He didn’t like it and it sure sounds nasty.

Alupis• 8 years ago

To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil.

Eating sticks of butter is common too.

Fricken• 8 years ago

O'brady describes his diet here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqOWpIMl7Si/?utm_source=ig_share...

7000 calories a day!

gameswithgo3• 8 years ago

For long stretches the terrain was awful, as well there was climbing up to ~8500 feet or so

gumby5• 8 years ago

All solo...truly amazing!

hanley2• 8 years ago

Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken.

If you look through Colin's earlier instagram posts [1] you'll see that the terrain was not smooth for much of his journey. The terrain is covered in sastrugi [2] and this year was marked with unexpected higher temperatures and snowfall which made the skiing very slow for Colin and all the other explorers out there. Explorers Web has a good collection of blog posts about the various expeditions that are happening this season [3].

[1] https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sastrugi [3] https://explorersweb.com/category/poles/antarctic/

davidstoker• 8 years ago

Colin just accomplished an incredible feat of endurance! His daily Instagram postings have been inspirational to read for the past 53 days. Other info about his expedition:

https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/18/sports/antarc...

maxxxxx5• 8 years ago

Just this week I read a story about Henry Worsley who died trying the same thing: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-dark.... After reading, I wonder if you have to a certain level of insanity for doing something like this.

FPGAhacker• 8 years ago

I don't know, but it's an interesting thought. What drives someone do to this? I'm in awe of it. It seems to me that it has to be tied to finding meaning in life one way or another.

I have to wonder though, how long does it take for the afterglow of such a massive accomplishment to wear off and to start asking yourself "what now?"

maxxxxx5• 8 years ago

I have the same thought when I see presidential campaigns. I don't think a balanced person would put themselves and their families through that. You have to be some kind of crazy to do this. Maybe we need these extreme people, but I am not sure we should take them as something to aspire to.

eismcc2• 8 years ago

Having been part of the Ironman community for a while now, I can say endurance folks are definitely different than your average person. Often very humble, they like meaningful, big, challenging goals that redefine “normal.”

avip• 8 years ago

There's an interview with Alex Honnold where he says he was already thinking about his next challenge during the last stretch of El Capitan.

I personally can't understand these ongoing Bernoulli experiments, surely something in these people's mind differs profoundly from mine.

barce• 8 years ago

If you look at the history of it, it puts him in the same league as the polar explorers of the "heroic age." I think the what now part is two parts: write a book about it; do the motivational speaker circuit.

badrabbit2• 8 years ago

What now? Time for sun cost fallacy

Thinking a lot does that. It's not just searching for meaning of life and a higher purpose but also realizing how this is the only life you get to have and it is very short. I'd compare people who do this to suiciders,they've both contemplated their current lives intolerable and found a way out: One way is through it,the other is around and both routes are one-way.

justinator• 8 years ago

What drives someone do to this?

It's fun.

tertius• 8 years ago

It's all about the process not the end goal.

badideaprojects2• 8 years ago

Lou Rudd is also currently making the same journey, partly in memory of Henry Worsley who he knew.

https://m.facebook.com/louis.rudd.7

Him and Colin set off on the same day, 1 mile apart on the ice.

ryannevius• 8 years ago

There's a live map of his progress too: https://z6z.co/spirit-of-endurance

basementcat• 8 years ago

This level of insanity is not as foreign as you might think. The feeling of accomplishment I get from climbing a mountain, finishing a marathon or a long bike trip is comparable to the feeling I get after taping out a chip, shipping a major software release or delivering first-of-a-kind hardware to a customer.

For some of us, getting Tetris to work in Conway's Game of Life is insanity. For other people, walking across a continent is insanity.

tootie4• 8 years ago

Except that guy literally died. Nobody dies playing on a computer and it's pretty rare to die from running or biking in civilization.

tootie4• 8 years ago

I read that and just thought this guy is a moron. There's no discovery, no profit, just vanity.

sharkweek• 8 years ago

Yeah, maybe. But I also think it’s cool to see humans push the boundaries on physical and mental limitations in these types of ways.

dh5• 8 years ago

Those are harsh words. Great feats don't necessarily involve discovery or profit.

deepGem• 8 years ago

That's way too harsh to describe a man's personal quest for adventure. It's not just vanity. You have no idea how many young minds have been influenced by this adventure. How many potential new startups will come about because someone somewhere out there thinks 'well this guy just gave up his life trying to cross the Antartic, what stops me from doing something perhaps tiny in comparison, but monumental in value, or something that I can undertake'. This is true of all adventurers who seek to accomplish something beyond perceived abilities - free diving, climbing k2 or summitting Mt.Meru on the shark fin route.

The indirect benefits of such expeditions have not been measured. If someone did, I'm quite certain, a ton of benefits will crop up.

badideaprojects2• 8 years ago

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.

Rene Daumal

s_y_n_t_a_x2• 8 years ago

What have you done?

arethuza2• 8 years ago

It would be a sad and cheerless world if the only motivations were discovery and profit.

jnurmine• 8 years ago

I thought it was a real adventure, an extreme form of hiking in a very extreme and cold environment, as well as an exercise in managing risks. I have the impression that he did it just to see if it can be done, as a kind of personal adventure, as a way to win a victory over himself.

I recently read an interview of a retired ex-paratrooper who lost his friend to Piteraq in Greenland (similar katabatic winds exist at Antarctica), the tent broke, exposing the people and they froze to death. With winds up to ca. 80 m/s and double-digit subzero temperatures, the wind chill effect is insane and a new shelter must be up within minutes.

It was a dangerous undertaking, no doubt. But then again so was Thor Heyerdahl with his raft, and Apollo 11 with the flight to the Moon, and so on.

Tip: if you want to concretely experience extreme cold, and the sheer brutalness of it, look up a cryotherapy room. -110 C or so for a few minutes while wearing swimming gear (and some cover for the extremities) felt like a hopeless, prolonged open ice swimming without the immediate endorphin rush (which eventually did come sometime later).

beefield• 8 years ago

I wonder if you have to a certain level of insanity for doing something like this.

My assumption is that people want and need some level of "excitement"[1] to feel like living a meaningful life. Say, in scale 1-10, if you only get exposure to level 1 excitement, you kill yourself to avoid a boring life, occasional level 5 keeps your life interesting, 7-8 starts to be so uncomfortable that you rather avoid and 10 is so much that you rather kill yourself than expose yourself to this level of excitement.

Now, the problem is that same things give very different levels of excitement. There are people for whom game of Monopoly is level 5 excitement. And there are people for whom game of Monopoly is solid level 1 excitement.

With this model you see why some people decide to take risks some other find outright stupid or insane. So next time you think someone is doing something insanely risky, you might want to think how fulfilling your life would be if the things you do to get emotions would be stripped from you before calling the persons with pejorative adjectives...

[1]no, I have no good definition for this word

msiyer• 8 years ago

This model is good.

To me, the whole point of doing something like this is that there is no point. It matters, at the moment, to the guy doing it and that is all that matters.

A couple of years back, I rode my motorcycle for 18 hours with only fuel breaks. 8 hours of the ride was in 40+ degree Celsius heat and the next 10 hours I had to endure the monsoons. I loved the whole experience. What did I gain from it? In the grand scheme of things, nothing. Will I do it again? Yes, already planning another trip.

Life seems pointless to me. I just try to have some fun along the way.

curiousgal• 8 years ago

Tangent.

I once met a guy who told be about a historical book of, as far as I can remember, 2 or 3 explorers who were friends (?) and were racing to explore Antarctica. Does anyone happen to know the name of said book? It's been my white whale.

atiffany• 8 years ago

Maybe it’s a book on Shackleton?

drharby• 8 years ago

Shackletons Way is more of a 'leadership under adversity' book. IIRC there wasn't a mention of a race with others.

lostlogin3• 8 years ago

His own book, ‘South’, is truely epic and ranks up there as one of the best books I’ve ever read.

gregtaleck• 8 years ago

Scott and Amundsen

"The race to the South Pole, 1911. In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen went head to head to be the first to reach the South Pole. In the early 20th century, the race was on to reach the South Pole, with a number of explorers setting out to claim it for their own."

https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/race-south-pole-1911

LeifCarrotson• 8 years ago

If it was about Antarctica, it might be Lansing's "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage": I recall that it opened with some chapters describing the preparations and some descriptions of the spirit of camaraderie among Arctic and Antarctic explorers of various nationalities. It's set just after the race to reach the pole. It was a best seller, and they made a movie about it in 2000, so it had reach enough to be mentioned.

It's definitely not a story about 3 friends racing to explore Antarcica - for one, while it takes a few small creative liberties, it's an historical narrative, and only one of the three are significantly included.

But it is a fantastic read, and even if it isn't the one you're looking for it is both well worth your and it is concerning the same topic.

aedocw• 8 years ago

Not the book the guy told you about, but one of the finest memoirs ever written about exploring Antarctica - The Worst Journey In The World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World

It's a fantastic read, written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard who was part of Scott's expedition. Such an amazing story, and to think they were doing this in a day where sat phones and GPS were not a thing (not even flashlights!)

robaato• 8 years ago

Off topic, but was given a brief guided tour of the egg collection at Natural History Museum at Tring when we donated my father-in-laws collection a couple of months ago - we were shown the 3 Emperor Penguin eggs collected by Cherry-Garrard and donated - fascinating! Here they are in a presentation by Douglas Russell, curator (who also showed us round).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdBT670fiCQ

porpoisely• 8 years ago

Anyone else seeing 6 nytimes articles on the frontpage? Why not just redirect us to the nytimes at this point?

na85• 8 years ago

I'd rather read the current crop of NYT articles than some medium.com blogspam, or an announcement that yet another go-nowhere language that compiles to javascript has released a new minor version.

nyc111• 8 years ago

And NYT is locked. They get so much traffic from HN but they don't let us read it. Maybe a deal needs to be negotiated similar to FB and WSJ deal so that HN referrers could read the article.

quickthrower2• 8 years ago

HN is probably a drop in the ocean in terms of traffic, but it’s good quality traffic admittedly.

tomcam• 8 years ago

I think maybe they don’t let us read it because we aren’t paying customers? I would assume they save their best material for people who pay their bills.

narrator• 8 years ago

NYTimes is ok as long as it is not one of their ubiquitous "Anonymous sources within the intelligence community say..." political articles.

dang• 8 years ago

Any stochastic process is going to involve runs of 6 sometimes. HN seems best served by looking at article quality individually and not worrying too much about domains.

I do wish users would submit more weird out-of-the way articles, though, and less major media. Especially ones that haven't appeared here before. Edit: like this one! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18760852

bookofjoe• 8 years ago

3 of top 6 right now

lucidstack• 8 years ago

To those inspired by this achievement to look more into polar expeditions, I can highly recommend Michael Palin’s “Erebus”. It’s a riveting read on the challenges, successes, and tragedies of the British explorer ship Erebus, its commanders, officers, and crews.

tbassetto• 8 years ago

Wasn’t the crossing of Antartica unsupported already done in http://www.travelexplorations.com/cecilie-skog-and-ryan-wate...? Asking because Colin’s website says it’s a first but I must be missing something.

npstr• 8 years ago

You are missing that Colin did it solo.

kirrent• 8 years ago

And Mike Horn did it solo as well. It's a bit of an artificial category, but still impressive as well.

vegardx• 8 years ago

Yes, by Børge Ousland in 96/97. But the whole concept of a first is sort of vague. Ousland used a kite, but he also went almost 1000km further. But I think it's widely accepted that he was the first to cross Antarctica unsupported and solo.

It would surprise me if it wasn't a Norwegian that did it, we seem to have some sort of obsession with the South Pole. Cecilie Skog in the article you linked to is, no surprise, also Norwegian.

If you ever want to walk in the tracks of people like Roald Amundsen you should check out Expedition Amundsen, a 100km ski trip by sled over three days at Hardangervidda. Hardangervidda is absolutely stunning, but also known for taking a toll on even the most seasoned polar explorers.

ignoramous• 8 years ago

Outline for people geowalled http://outline.com/ezrgYS

tunesmith• 8 years ago

Is it easier now because of climate change? (Not to take anything away from the accomplishment, it might actually be harder due to how climate change works.)

codezero2• 8 years ago

If anything I would wonder if it’s easier because they can contact the outside world. Having a sat phone, gps, and a sympathetic ear had to help. At one point he got a call from Elton John! Imagine the morale boost :) also, knowing there is an escape hatch. Someone to send a rescue team etc...

paultannenbaum• 8 years ago

It was actually Paul Simon that he got the call from. Agreed it must have been a huge morale boost.

gameswithgo3• 8 years ago

It wouldn't change how far he was going, as he was crossing the actual land part, not ice extent. Might be 1 or 2 degrees warmer than it was 50 years ago or something.

sky_rw• 8 years ago

As I understand it, a big part of the challenge that is mitigated by technological advancement is nutrition. It is incredibly difficult to carry enough calories with you to support the journey. Colin's food supply was largely custom made by a nutrition company named Standard Process.

s_y_n_t_a_x2• 8 years ago

At that temp 2 degrees is negligible.

hanley2• 8 years ago

It was actually much harder this year due to unexpected higher temperatures for this time of year, more snowfall, and whiteout conditions which all led to slower skiing. Many explorers failed to accomplish their goals this year due to poor conditions.

https://explorersweb.com/category/poles/antarctic/

therealdrag0• 8 years ago

Where was a report recently that said some parts of Antarctica have grown in amount of snow. So that might make it harder or make there be more "land" to cover?

tedunangst3• 8 years ago

What is the definition of crossing Antarctica? It seems you have start at some point on the coast, go to the South Pole, then go to another point on the coast. But the South Pole isn't the midpoint. Nor are the two coastal points 180 degrees apart. Like what's the smallest angle that qualifies as a crossing? (If I hike along the France Spain border, is that hiking across Europe?)

Not to say it's any easier, but ever since these stories started coming out I've been wondering who decides what it means to cross the continent. Would going from Dronning Maud Land to George V Land, a journey of double the distance but passing north of the South Pole, count?

Stratoscope3• 8 years ago

His website has a map and discussion of the route:

https://www.colinobrady.com/theimpossiblefirst

tedunangst3• 8 years ago

That doesn't really explain the definition of crossing. If crossing a continent invokes going from one point to another, as one might reasonably assume, then why the detour to the South Pole? Why not simply go in a straight line between those points?

CydeWeys• 8 years ago

You're right that it would make more sense if the route had to go through the midpoint of Antarctica (defined as the point that is farthest from any coast) rather than to the south pole. That remains un-done. For now, the "through the south pole" route is the longest trek that's been completed.

neaanopri• 8 years ago

This is right out of "The Left Hand of Darkness."

Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push

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