WASHINGTON: An American adventurer has become the first person to complete a solo trek across Antarctica without assistance of any kind. Colin O’Brady, 33, took 54 days to complete the nearly 1,600-km crossing of the frozen continent from coast to coast.

“I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided,” O’Brady wrote on Instagram after covering the final 77.5 miles in 32 hours.

“While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” he wrote. “I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey. I’m delirious writing this as I haven’t slept yet.”

His voyage was tracked by GPS, and live updates of the trip were provided daily on his website colinobrady.com.

O’Brady and an Englishman, army Captain Louis Rudd, 49, set off individually on Nov 3 from Union Glacier in a bid to be the first to complete a solo, unassisted crossing of Antarctica.

Rudd is about a day or two behind.

In 1996-97, a Norwegian polar explorer, Borge Ousland, made the first solo crossing of Antarctica but he was wind-aided by kites on his voyage. In 2016, an English army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley, died while trying to complete an unassisted solo crossing of Antarctica.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2018