Richard Parks set to complete solo journey to South Pole
After 28 days of skiing alone in Antarctica, covering 1058km/657 miles and skiing a total of 338 hours, Richard Parks sets off today to ski the final kilometeres towards the South Pole and is due to complete his journey tomorrow.
Richard is set to record the fastest ever solo, unsupported and unassisted journey to the South Pole by a Brit in history.
He is also set to become the first ever welsh person to complete a solo, unsupported and unassisted journey to the South Pole.
Richard will become the 19th person to ski solo, unassisted and unsupported to the South Pole in over 100 years of polar exploration to the bottom of the world.
Despite not completing the journey in his target of 23 days to break Christain Eide’s incredible world record of the fastest unsupported and unassisted solo journey to the South Pole in history, Parks’ is set to record the second fastest journey of all time and is set to become the only other person, alongside Eide to reach the South Pole solo, unsupported and unassisted in 30 days or under.
Richard is set to take an incredible 9 days off the existing British record, held by polar explorer Hannah McKeand, who in 2006 reached the pole in 39 days, 9 hours and 33 minutes.
Richard’s epic journey, along with his year of brutal preparation and endurance races will be broadcast in a new television series on Channel 5 this year.
As of today, according to Richard’s current gps position in the 89th degree, he has around 80km/49 miles left to ski and is due to arrive at the South Pole at some time tomorrow, 3rd January. Richard is skiing the final km of his Antarctic journey in some difficulty as one of his skis broke on New Year’s Eve. Despite making repairs, his ski broke again yesterday making skiing hard work. Yesterday he managed to clock up 31.4km/19 miles and plans to put in two more periods of skiing throughout today and tomorrow before reaching the pole.
Richard has had to show immense mental and physical stamina to complete this solo journey, particularly after having to start his expedition all over again after he was forced to turn back following 3 days of skiing in whiteouts and terrible conditions which put the whole expedition in jeopardy. He turned back, skied a further 3 days back to his start point at Hercules Inlet, waited for more favourable conditions and started his attempt all over again.
Richard has been burning the calorific equivalent of two marathons a day alone for 28 days since Thursday 5th December. Along the way he has faced the traditional brutal Antarctic elements of whiteouts, windchill and sastrugi and has been pulling a pulk, which weighs around 68.2kg (10 stone 7).
Richard started this solo journey on 5th December from Hercules Inlet, the recognised start point on the geographical coastline of Antarctica for solo expeditions to the South Pole.
When Richard reaches the South Pole, he will be the first person to complete the unassisted and unsupported solo journey this season.
SOLO SOUTH POLE JOURNEY FACTS:
1/ To date only 29 people have skied solo to the South Pole in history and only 18 people have skied the purest form of solo, unsupported and unassisted without any help from kites or resupplies.
2/ Richard will become the 19th person to ski solo, unassisted and unsupported to the South Pole.
3/ Richard is on course to record the fastest solo journey to the South Pole by a Brit in history.
4/ In polar terms, the purest definition of skiing solo means unsupported and unassisted, without the help of mechanical support or re supplies. The style label “solo” requires that the explorer is alone and receives no outside assistance. A solo performance thus requires the assist label “unassisted”.
5/ As far as records show, Richard is set to become the first ever Welsh person to ski solo, unsupported and unassisted to the South Pole.
6/ The first ever solo journey to the South Pole was recorded by Norwegian Erling Kagge from Berkner Island in 1993 in 50 days. The first ever solo journey from Hercules Inlet was by Norwegian Liv Arnesen in 1994. She was also the first woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole, she completed the journey in 50 days.
7/ Out of the 29 Antarctic solo journeys recorded in history, some have taken shorter routes from the recognised start point of Hercules Inlet to which all modern records are gaged and compared, and some have used kites to assist their journeys or had re-supplies. Only 18 journeys have skied the purest form of solo expeditions, skiing solo, unsupported and unassisted and there has been only 14 solo, unassisted and unsupported journeys to the South Pole from the Hercules Inlet start point.
8/ When Richard arrives at the pole he will have completed the 15th solo, unassisted and unsupported journey from the Hercules Inlet start point.
OTHER EDITORIAL NOTES:
In July 2011 Richard Parks 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 after completing his record setting 737 Challenge.
Richard is a former Welsh international rugby player, earning 4 caps for his country and a professional rugby career, which spanned 13 years.
Richard was an integral part of both the Principality Cup winning Pontypridd side and the Powergen Cup winning Leeds Tykes. He also played for French side USA Perpignan and Newport Gwent Dragons.
As a back row forward, he made a name for himself as a hard, prolific tackler and support player. In May 2009 Richard was forced to retire from professional Rugby due to a career ending shoulder injury.
In the year leading up to his current solo South Pole expedition, the extreme environment athlete and adventurer completed 12 months of brutal training and preparation which saw him ski for 39 days solo in Antarctica, complete the highest mountain bike race in the world in Nepal, take on the Jungle Ultra in Peru and compete in a double ironman in Snowdonia.
