Richard Parks completes first week of South Pole speed record attempt

It’s been a mixed first week for Richard Parks in Antarctica as he attempts to record the fastest solo, unsupported and unassisted journey to the South Pole in history.Richard originally started his expedition on Thursday 28^th November but after just 3 days on the ice skiing in whiteouts with terrible conditions underfoot, Richard made the difficult decision to turn back after clocking up just 56.9km/35 miles in 3 days.

He skied back to his start point, Hercules Inlet, on the geographical coastline of Antarctica and waited for more favourable weather conditions to start his expedition again.

Richard’s world record attempt re started on Thursday 5^th December and after climbing considerably over the first few days to 1074m, Richard then faced some strong headwinds and soft snow underfoot providing him with some extremely tough days on Sunday and Monday.  Headwinds were so strong on Monday that he was not able to move and after skiing just 9.6km was forced to pitch his tent.

On Tuesday Richard posted in his blog; “Yesterday was so frustrating.  Headwind was too strong to move.  I did 9.6km in 6 hours before stopping in tent.  Was gutted and frustrated.  A better day today though.  Conditions improved throughout the day and I made some ground up a little, skied for 11 hours and covered 34.8km.”

Conditions have further improved over the last few days allowing Richard to begin to ski the kind of distances required to break Christian Eide’s incredible record of 24 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes.  On Wednesday he skied for 11 hours covering 39.5km/24 miles and yesterday (Day 8) Richard clocked his best day so far skiing 40.6km/25 miles in 11 hours, stating on his blog; “A good day again today.  Tired but feeling in the groove.”

Richard will need to continue to build on this further over the next week to stay within touching distance of his goal of reaching the South Pole in 23 days.  “A big few days are coming” he added on Tuesday.  He will need to draw on all his determination, experience and training for this brutal world record attempt.

10 Useful Antarctica Speed Record Stats:

1. The current record, held by Norwegian Christian Eide, set in 2011 is 24 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes.  Eide covered an average of 47km (29 miles) per day and skied an incredible 90km (56 miles) on his final day.


2. Richard’s aim is to reach the pole in 23 days, this would mean reaching the South Pole on 27^th December, exactly 3 years to the day since he last arrived at the South Pole.  He reached the Pole on 27^th December 2010 at 7.10pm local time where he stayed until January 1^st 2011 to begin his record setting 737 Challenge.


3. Richard is pulling a pulk (sled) weighing 68.2kg (10 stone 7).


4. He is burning the calorific equivalent of two marathons a day.


5. His Fuizion freeze dried food weighs 1.2kg a day and contains 5,815 calories per day.


6. The journey from Hercules Inlet on the coastline of Antarctica to the South Pole is approximately 1,150km/715 miles.


7. So far Richard has skied a total of 80 hours and covered 252.6km/156 miles.


8. This will be Richard’s 4^th Christmas away from home in 5 years.


9. Richard became the first person to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's 7 continents and stand on all 3 poles within 7 months in July 2011 when he completed his 737 Challenge.


10. This expedition is solo, unassisted and unsupported meaning Richard pulls everything ne needs by himself and has no external support or assistance.