To everyone that says the world doesn't need men like this, to everyone that says they are unwelcome conquerers with an air of colonialist chauvinism about them:
I read this story on a bad day and I found it pretty encouraging with regards to my own life's non-Antarctic problems. So maybe there is something to be said for our Sapiens sense of adventure in this modern day.
Furthermore, they are risking their lives and not yours. So, either support them or I politely suggest you focus on something else.
80
Is that a mobile phone I see in their stash? How truly 'unsupported' can an adventurer really be with a mobile phone?
15
Their attempted treks will be incredibly dangerous. And two of them are doing it- each alone. So I cannot help but think that they should team up! It makes perfect sense from a "getting there safely and quickly" perspective. I know it's silly and not the point here. But come on guys, just work together!
10
Astronaut Scott Kelly comments about Shackleton's voyage to Antarctica made me to read Endurance...just finished it and now the Times comes up with this article...kinda cool...give me more of this stuff, I want to take a break from Donald Trump.
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As Hans Christian said, Børge Ousland crossed it in 96/97 unsupported. The dispute is that Ousland also used a kite where as these fellow are claiming that they are doing it "more" unsupported. I guess completely unsupported would be on foot. All the best to Brady and Rudd thought, amazing journey, just not the first.
10
Colin and Louis are adventures not thrill seekers ore dare devils and yes they are doing it unsupported.
They are not doing it for fame and glory, but because mother nature is calling.
I hope their support team is more optimistic and supportive than the readers' who's "tech support" can help with .gif, defining supported vs.unsupported or saying the story should be about women to be correct.
Adam Skolnick and Tamara Merino I am looking forward to more updates and pictures.
Happy trails!
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Let's leave them alone and respect their desire to do this. It's what we do. We push ourselves. This isn't going to cost any of us anything. It could cost them their lives. To ask them to survive in Chicago is to miss the point of their adventure. It's their lives. Let's either leave them alone or support them. I choose the latter and form of my support will be good beer to cheer them on! Go for it!
19
The Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland crossed Antarctica unsupported in 1996-1997. He did it alone, skiing from Berkner Island to McMurdo. Wish O'Brady and Rudd all the best - god speed!
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This sentence makes no sense: "A dogleg to the southeast brings them to a latitude line they will follow to the South Pole..."
You can't follow a latitude line to the South Pole. Latitude lines circle the poles, never reaching them. To reach a pole, you have to follow a longitude line.
I sure hope the trekkers don't follow The Times's directions, or it will be an infinitely long trip!
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The world doesn't need men like this. What a waste of time and effort. Go help kids at a shelter.
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We will remember your frozen bodies with Adventure, Peace, and Dignity.
1
How does having GPS and phones make this unsupported? Let's get real, here. Unsupported would mean they head off and no one will know what happens until they get there or not. Baloney.
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Make no mistake: Antarctica exists to kill you. There's no two ways about the subject. Shackleton survived primarily through a good knowledge of rope and clubbing baby seals. I'm not joking. Their fuel was long expended before Shackleton ever took to the boats. They were burning seal blubber for fuel during most of the expedition.
That said, the risks are manageable. You might need to know how to render blubber into fire. However, these are learned skills. You stand a pretty good chance of survival so long as fate doesn't deal you a dirty blow. See Jack London's "To Build a Fire." Of course, the protagonist was warned not to travel alone. See the above mentioned learned skills.
The constraining point for both men is food and fuel. You don't need water. You're standing on ice. You only need food and fire. Everything else is standard gear. That's what makes the challenge difficult. Can you ski 1,000 miles carrying enough food and fuel to keep you alive?
I'm going to guess the answer is yes. I wouldn't want to ski a sled for 60 days straight by myself but the idea sounds infinitely doable. The idea isn't really what bothers me though. At least in O'Brady's case, the motivation sounds like peak-bagging to me. Rudd is obviously selling something too if he has corporate sponsorship. O'brady though fits a profile. These are people who make a living checking boxes.
At some point the journey doesn't matter anymore. The accomplishment rings a little hollow as a result.
11
@Andy look closer at the map.
Now tell me how many seals they are likely to encounter. Or penguins. Or anything remotely edible. No blade of grass grows there either.
Yeah, all the great Firsters had their kibitzers. Sure glad they were confident enough to turn a deaf ear.
PS You could check out The First Man in theaters now for an example.
6
Believe Eric Larsen, an experienced polar explorer is making a similar dash across Antarctica this winter.
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The first picture with Colin O'Brady's gear is fascinating. Or would have been fascinating, at least, if the picture didn't automatically change every second and a half so we can't even get a good look at the gear.
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Click on the photo. It allowed me to enlarge and examine the gear.
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In days of yore, brave people traversed vast distances by land and sea in search of new places. There is no "search" here, just an egotistical stunt.
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So may grumps on here, harumphing about what it would cost to rescue them and semi-hoping they fail. But it sounds to me like envy and being threatened by a more alpha type male.
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I think solo unsupported Antartica crossings have been done before, i.e. by Borge Ousland in the 90s, and by Rune Gjeldnes in 2005-2006 (https://gjeldnes.com/the-longest-march/).
It is a remarkable expedition goal, nevertheless, and I wish the present age adventurers the best of luck. Be careful out there.
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Amazing, but being from Vegas, my money has to be on the younger man.
3
https://www.outsideonline.com/2282076/what-about-borge
Good article on others that came before these two. If they had combined together, they would not have been the first "solo" and unsupported (without sails). Apparently, we need to qualify everything nowadays.
8
I think that's just sad, not valuing life at all. Trying to get themselves killed.
3
Just imagine if that $200K each they've raised for this was going to something worthwhile. Like helping to save the fragile continent they are going to be crossing.
This is a vanity project. It does humanity not a drop of good.
Stop hyping athletes and daredevils and start talking about people who are doing something to help their fellow human beings.
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@Elizabeth Sure, it's $200k. But consider the money spent on, say, one Cubs or Mets game -- 40,000 seats, at maybe $20 a seat. That's $800k that could be used for more worthy purposes.
This is no sillier than professional sports, just more dangerous.
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Written by someone who likely watches some kind of ball game, the most frugal of sports.
11
When I was a boy, ships were made of wood and men were made of steel... You had no communications with the outside world, navigated with a sextant and wore seal hide, not gore- tex.
Okay, times have changed. But it's still no picnic. I wish them both luck and admire their adventurous spirit!
And yes, what's with the obnoxious changing photos of their gear. Some of us want to check it out!
11
Please leave Antarctica alone. Can't we have one pristine place that we (men) don't feel we have to conquer? Those cruise ships that nibble at the shores are contributing to the ice cap melting. Stay home.
8
I hope they have fun and can tell great stories after the trip is over. To me, the 'first' accomplishment is far more artificial than it is interesting, and the 'competition' is a complete turn off. Antarctica is a place to visit and admire, not something to be conquered.
2
I hope they will have the good sense to realize that each of them is the other's best bet in case of an emergency, so they need to stay in touch. The best "win" would be if they support each other, arrive together, and refuse to tell the world which one was the first across the finish line.
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I have no patience for people like this. As the meaningless efforts get more and more grotesque in their danger, so does the cost of rescue.
If these two idiots get stranded somewhere, leave them to die, don't expend effort, money, and possible human treasure to rescue them.
This type of idiocy needs to stop.
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@Joe Sabin Correct. Used to be these "expeditions" set out to achieve discovery or science. Now all they seek to discover is ego and fame. Ridiculous.
20
I wish them all the best.
That said, as a broad generalization, I have to confess that stories like this irk me somewhat. Oddly, in a deep, emotional sort of way, in a way they really shouldn't. It all stems from "unsupported." "Unsupported" is a complete fallacy in this era of adventure sports. As demonstrated by the rescues of the other men in this story, there are a plethora of naval operators waiting at the beck and call of GPS and satellite phones to swoop in and save the day should things go south. Sure, things can go wrong, but things can go wrong on my daily commute.
The same thing occurs to me whenever sailors try to circumnavigate the globe solo (with a bevy of craft watching their every move).
It is... I'm not sure. Maybe this sort of thing is just no longer my cup of tea. Maybe it is that they never truly disconnect from humanity, as the wilderness implies. Maybe I am frustrated with the over-taming and over-harnessing of our planet, and these activities demonstrate just how much control we exhibit over every part of the globe.
Maybe after all we have explored, it's that I consider space, the ocean, and the mind the last great frontiers. Maybe the wilderness has lost its appeal.
Like I said, I find my reaction odd. Perhaps someday I will figure it out.
Until then, don't die out there folks...
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All I can say, thinking about this from the vantage point of age 73, with my dissertation being the only huge “mountain” I’ve climbed is: “Lord have Mercy!”
I hope the Times will somehow keep us posted.... Please.
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Just a note: you can sign up for updates.
2
Extremely dangerous, they are at the mercy of mother nature. I've been there 3 times, and the weather is a killer. Winds more than 60 miles per hour, and white outs not allowing one to see his hand in front of his face....so unforgiving.
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Have British bookies picked favorites or set odds on this event?
Any chance they’ll decide to cross finish line together?
6
No mention of Børge Ousland, who made the first unsupported crossing in 96-97?
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@ScienceTech Glad to see I'm not the only one who knows about Borge Ousland. I met him in Bosnia in 1999 and had the privilege of listening to his presentation that included dozens of photos he took along the way. Most noteworthy was how he used US Navy photos from the 1950s to navigate the last part of the trip. As I recall, he carried supplies for 100 days and completed it in 90.
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@ScienceTech
that's what I was thinking. I was there when he got into Mctown.
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@ScienceTech
This was extremely confusing for me until I found an article at NatGeo describing Worsley’s 2015 attempt. Apparently Borge used a kite to pull his sled in 1996.
It might be nice for the NYT to update their article specifically mentioning Borge and this difference because most other writing on this doesn’t seem to care (at least, when they were written, they didn’t care) and the oblique reference to kites isn’t really helpful when no one else says Borge used a kite.
10
Would have been so very, very cool to have them decide to do this together and forge a real bond. But no. Sigh.
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@Marya
Humans have already done this cooperatively. Now it’s time for the “real men” to show us how the competitive spirit can push us to achieve inspiring yet only slightly meaningful things.
They are not unsupported. They have radio beacons, digital devices of all sorts, etc. Nowadays it is only smart to go into any wilderness, when alone, with these things.
On the other hand, like Amundson [Nord] and Scott [English] competing to be the 1st to get to both poles [!] with support @ the turn of the 19th-20th centuries [Scott and his party with Horses!], so it is today: a competition.
This time around, however, they're eating meals together, etc. Undoubtedly, the competition for each will be mostly about their own inner struggles to continue in the harshest conditions on Earth.
It will be a pilgrimage [or hajj] by way of privation and punishment. We should all be so lucky.
6
If, god forbid they fail, will it cost taxpayers money for search and rescue missions?
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@Mick Oh goodness, a drop in the bucket, if so. It's an exciting event.
4
What counts as "crossing" the continent? On the map is looks like they're just cutting off a small piece of it.
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Yes, I wondered exactly the same thing.
2
I had the same thought - it does not seem they are
"crossing" anything. So why would the Times write as if it were so?
3
Two men did it together but unsupported in 2012 — Cas and Jonesy hiked 2275 km in 90 days and I believe a Norwegian called Gamme did it at the same time, totally alone. It seems that it’s only exciting if everyone who does it is “first”...
2
Go for it guys, I hope no one else has to risk their life to make an extreme rescue if one of you has a problem. If you actually are unsupported as you claim, you either make it or you don't.
4
What is sad is that I clicked through on this and RT'd it simply b/c the level of entitlement amazed me so. So I guess it worked?
2
Looks more like an ad for REI to me. It's one way to kill time. The tracks in the snow won't last long so what's the harm in trying?
2
Having read the stories of the early Arctic explorers, these two aren't that interesting to me.
I still wish them luck.
2
I think the truly amazing part of the article was the link to the New Yorker piece on Rudd's friend Worsley, hailed as one of the greatest polar explorers of our time. It's almost a shame he was given such a small space in this piece. What an incredible and heart breaking story.
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@Amy A
True but he was the subject of a excellent, in depth New Yorker article + a new book by David Grann who also the wrote the article.
2
I don't need to go to Antarctica, keep a social media diary for my fans, and spend thousands of dollars to prove that I too am exceptionally brave, cautious, anxious, and yet, hoping I have conditioned myself for the moment when life or death is at stake.
While I'll never garner the "glory" of these two, nevertheless, in this country of guns, ammo, and a significant portion of the population with untreated mental health maladies, I too, place my life at risk every day- by stepping outside my home.
I guess because they're white, affluent and able to gain the notice of corporate sponsors, this type of glamorous foolhardiness is supposed to be inspiring or uplifting.
Not to me. Wake me when they camp out on the south side of Chicago or take on the NRA.
71
I'm not white - but how on earth did you make this article about exploration and the elements about race instead? I'm not white, but I think that whatever ethnicity they are, everyone can appreciate the physically and mentally grueling task that they have chosen to undertake.
13
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing this awesome story---seems straight from a childhood adventure story book. I can't wait to see what happens and for sure there will be a book and movie.
12
It's too bad all the incredible hard work (not to mention courage, stamina, years of planning, etc.) each man will have to make to complete this journey must now be boiled down to "who got there the fastest."
It takes an alpha-type to even consider making this dangerous trip, let alone completing it. So in that sense, it comes as no surprise that the 2 men just HAD to make it a competition.
On the other hand, a true solo journey (or ascent, or flight, or free dive) often becomes of voyage of discovery of the inner self as much as the natural world. Unfortunately, moments of introspection will now be displaced by checking the GPS to see where the other bloke is. Sort of an Iditarod, with 2 feet per competitor instead of the usual 4.
It seems the Antarctic is no place for philosophers these days. Best of luck to both of these intrepid explorers- may they each find what they are looking for.
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@alexander hamilton, this story should have been about women doing it to be correct.
2
@alexander hamilton.. It would be a cool twist if they ended up getting lonesome in the middle and decide to finish the trip together.
2
So who is going to end up eating who?
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@Nick
A dreadful, but t(r)oothsome thought.
1
Unsupported?
How absurd.
Consider the technology that went into the materials in their boots clothing shelter etc
Consider the technology in their maps.
Etc etc
They proceed on the backs of the progress of countless generations of our kind,
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@Neil MacLean, the protein bars could have at least been home-made, then maybe, hardly custom-made.
2
@Neil MacLean
True. Realistically, if they truly wanted to be unsupported, they should have walked from somewhere in North America (given that they are both from the northern hemisphere), swam the Antarctic ocean, touched the South Pole, and come back.
Oh well, I guess that definition of unsupported will be for the next adventurer.
5
@Neil MacLean To nitpick about semantics is absurd in the case of this article and its context. I guess to you, unsupported means to resort to animal furs and skins, or to walk across the Antarctic naked if we forgo all the technology that went into their clothes.
8
Amazing story of amazing people. I do suspect you meant a "line of longitude" that they will follow to the South Pole. They're the lines that pass through both poles, while latitude circles the earth in the other direction, like the equator.
14
Just a technical point. The animated gif rotating between the two images is so very irritating. It is impossible to study the images for content. Please don't use this technique in the future.
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@jlf Seconded.
8
If you're using the app, tap one of the images. Just that image will open. Then you can enlarge it.
1
Where can I bet on the American?
1
Thanks for letting us know that O'Brady is on social media. Just started following him on Instagram - the pictures are incredible, and a window into a world we don't otherwise get to see. And I must say that in addition to the photos he posts, his descriptions under them of what he is experiencing are very vivid. Good luck to him and to Rudd too.
17
Good luck to both of them - an incredible feat, if accomplished, and will make them legends.
11
@Joe
No-they,if successful,will garner 15 minutes of fame.Who remembers the first blind man to climb Everest. First woman to sail across the Atlantic in a rowboat,first guy who solo circumnavigated the Earth in a sailboat,only to abandon his :win: a few hundred miles short of victory,because he'd developed his own theory about the worth of his endeavor?
I don't want to be cynical. And yet, as I type, I'm reminded of how much I'd just rather stay home and watch Netflix.
7
@JS27 Sure, but if they make it, they'll be on Netflix. They will also be rich and famous.
2
@DGL47 I guess we watch different Netflix shows.
8
@DGL47 but if they don't make it, they will be dead. I would rather look for better opportunities to be famous and rich.
3