The First Blind Man to Reach the South Pole
News Release / 27.01.2009
The South Pole is so inaccessible it wasn't reached by humans until 1911. Mark Pollock and team mates Simon O’Donnell and Inge Solheim have trekked to the South Pole unaided by dog teams or skidoos, travelling on foot for an average of 14 hours a day pulling 90 kilo sleds.
Team SouthPoleFlag.com put in a 47 kilometre final battle against the elements to reach the Pole late yesterday evening, having raced a total of 770 km over 22 days. Speaking from the Pole, Mark said: "We’re here. We’ve done it! I’m standing at the South Pole. "
Six teams competed in the race, which started on January 4th after extreme weather left them tent-bound on New Year's Day. A competitive race across Antarctica to the South Pole against Norwegian and British teams, including James Cracknell and Ben Fogle, for the SouthPoleFlag.com Team ended after a total of 35 days on the ice.
Mark's team mates, Simon and Inge took on a challenge none of the other teams faced - bravely guiding Mark across the blinding whiteness of Antarctica, while enduring temperatures as cold as -58F (-50C) as well as blisters, exhaustion and hunger. Simon suffered frost bite to his ear on the second day of the race and to his fingers in the last few days and as a result of the severe cold, Inge lost a filling from his tooth. But the team pulled together and met their particular challenge every frozen step of the way.
At the ten-day rest stop, Inge was quoted as saying: "During 13 hour days it’s not easy to motivate yourself to do it. Mark is my purpose to wake in the morning and ski for 13 hours. What he is doing is so important for everyone as an example.
"Simon, a rugby strength and conditioning coach, had trained with Mark for the 12 months before the race; he said "Nothing could prepare you for this – the spectacular highs and lows you experience every day. Some days you just want to stop, some days you could ski forever.
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