A new year and the adventurous are thinking big. Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpenière are in the latter stages of their return journey from the South Pole. Their next depot, at the top of the Beardmore is around four days away. After using up most of their rations, Ben recently made the difficult decision to call for a resupply, which changes the status of their expedition. Ben Saunders explains the situation in this remarkable update. You can track the journey here.
In other polar exploration news, on the 27th of December, British adventurer Maria Leijerstam became the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the continent, riding a customised PolarCycle bike. Taking off at the Ross Ice Shelf at the edge of the Antarctic continent, Leijerstam cycled ten to fifteen hours per day allowing her to cover the 638km in ten days. Last week, Richard Parks reached the South Pole to become the fastest British person ever to make the unsupported journey to the South Pole. It took the Welshman 29 days to ski the 715 miles, slashing just under 20 days off the previous British record.
There are plenty of upcoming expeditions to ensnare and inspire you over the next few months. The Yukon Assignment will see the father and son team of Niall and Chris Lucas navigate a canoe down the rivers of the Canadian Yukon. The unsupported expedition will take them deep within the Arctic Circle for three to four weeks, where they will confront the Wind River, the Peel River and the Dempster Highway. At least one upcoming expedition is a slightly warmer endeavour. Emily Bell is going to push her way 2000 miles around Italy on a scooter for the charity CoppaFeel.
In other news, National Geographic are hosting a Google Hangout with the 2014 Adventurers of the Year on January 15th at 1-2 PM Eastern Standard Time. To submit questions, simply use the hashtag #AdvOfYearChat on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and YouTube. And finally, Al Humphreys is helping us out of the armchair once again with his Adventure 1000 project. A step by step plan to make that dream expedition a reality in one year. Step one, saving just £20 a week, so within the year you’ll have saved £1000 to fund that trip.
Written by Orla O’Muiri | Photo by Alastair Humphreys