Sebastian Copeland's Antarctica Expedition
Our friend Sebastian Copeland and his partner in adventure, Eric McNair-Landry, are about to set foot on Antarctica to begin a 90 day unassisted journey on skis and kites.
 |
100 years ago adventurers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott made history with their first reach of the South Pole. To commemorate their extraordinary feat and courage, this commemorative crossing aims to honor their accomplishment by opening a never-before traveled course linking the Antarctic coast east to west. The trip will begin in Cape Town; from there a Russian ilyushin 76 will transport Sebastian and Eric, and their 800 pounds of food and gear to the eastern coast of Antarctica at Novo Station. They will then set off on the estimated 85-90 day journey, through the coldest continent on Earth. The first major reaching point will be the Pole of Inaccessibility, and then they travel across the geographic South Pole, ending at Hercules Inlet. Among the many challenges they will face are the herculean effort of pulling 400 pounds up the glacier through treacherous hidden crevasse fields; -40- to -30 degree temperatures outside of wind-chill; changing weather patterns that can turn to hurricane strength storms; the bone rattling hard ice and the sastrugi they will be skiing over at speed with their kites; and much more. How Sebastian and Eric overcome these, as well as the other many challenges, will be documented daily with photographs and the daily blog, and assembled into a documentary.  “There are few places on Earth that instantly conjure awe and fear. In 1911, Scott and Amundsen etched their name in the history books by being the first to reach the South Pole. My Legacy crossing aims to honor their memory by linking, in one continuous trip, the East/West traverse of the most inhospitable environment on Earth, setting tracks where no man has been before.” Sebastian will use iridium satellite communication technology to blog daily onto his website. Along with the daily entries, a GPS signal will also track the expedition’s progress on a dynamic map at www.sebastiancopeland.com. You can also follow Sebastian's adventure on Twitter. The entire adventure will be documented on HD for a planned documentary. Sebastian will be photographing the ice along the way to document surface conditions that will provide valuable information for the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder Colorado, information that will help determine snow accumulation along some never before traveled areas. A tree will be planted for each kilometer traveled during this expedition.  |
