“Three Canadian adventurers have broken the world record for the fastest unassisted journey to the South Pole. Ray Zahab of Chelsea, Richard Weber of Cantley and Kevin Vallely of Vancouver reached their destination yesterday morning. They travelled across Antarctica from Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole in 33 days, breaking the previous record of 39 days set earlier this winter. Mr. Zahab travelled on foot and on snowshoes, while Mr. Weber and Mr. Vallely skied the more than 1,130-kilometre distance.
The trio filed regular updates via satellite phone to their website, www. southpolequest.com, which was tracked by about 3,000 schoolchildren in Canada and the U.S. “So the great news is we have arrived in world-record time at the geographic South Pole, in 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes,” Mr. Zahab wrote in a blog. “We are here, guys, and in the coming next 24-48 hours you’ll get a lot of photos.” They survived altitude sickness, enormous blisters, countless frozen snowdrifts, known as sastrugi, and blinding whiteouts.”
(via The Ottawa Citizen)