Antarctic Explorers Travel on Foot

Jan. 22, 2007 — A team of British and Canadian explorers endured seven weeks of howling winds and subzero temperatures to become the first expedition to reach the geographic center of Antarctica without any mechanical assistance.

Dragging 264-pound sleds, the team traveled about 1,091 miles on foot and by kite ski to reach Antarctica's Pole of Inaccessibility — the furthest point from any ocean — on Friday, according to a statement posted on the expedition's Web site.

Located more than 12,221 feet above sea level, the Pole of Inaccessibility was first visited in 1958 by Soviet explorers who reached the remote outpost in a convoy of snow vehicles.

The team, led by Canadian Paul Landry, said it was surprised to find a bust of Vladimir Lenin erected by the Soviets nearly half a century ago still standing amid the ice.

"We noticed a black dot on the horizon — as we got closer an outline of bust started to appear — we could not believe it," the team said in a brief statement posted Friday. "We are all so exhausted that we have only just put up the tent with Lenin's stern gaze over us!"

The team, called N2i, also includes Britons Rupert Longsdon, Rory Sweet and Henry Cookson.

The three Britons won the 2005 Polar Challenge, a competitive 350-mile race to the North Pole, with no Arctic experience. They then hired Landry, a veteran polar explorer who has led numerous Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, to guide them to the Pole of Inaccessibility.

The group departed from the Russian scientific base Novolazarevskaya, located on the Antarctic coast north-northwest of the Pole of Inaccessibility. They will now fly to another Russian base, Vostok, before traveling on to Cape Town, South Africa.

The Pole of Inaccessibility lies some 540 miles northeast of the South Pole, the Earth's southernmost point.

Meanwhile, Everest conqueror and Antarctic explorer Sir Edmund Hillary has returned to the frozen continent — at age 87 — for what he believes will be his last time.

Hillary joined New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and other dignitaries who flew to Antarctica for the 50th anniversary of the Scott Base, which the adventurer helped build in 1957.

"This is probably the last opportunity that I will get to visit the wintery south," Hillary said Friday, the day after he arrived.

Hillary helped lead a team to the South Pole in 1955. He was the first person to drive to the pole, using a modified farm tractor.

Hillary, who still travels widely to Nepal and elsewhere, last visited Antarctica two years ago.

"I was always prepared to come back one more time," said Hillary, whose comments were reported by New Zealand media traveling with the anniversary delegation. "I don't think it'll ever happen again, but this is a marvelous return."