Exploration - a friend of mine

In 2006, when I was in Antarctica for the 40th Anniversary Expedition to Mt Vinson, I made the acquaintance of Hannah McKeand. She had just completed a record-setting unsupported solo trek from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole (about 40 days). This is the first half of the journey that Shackleton and his crew from the Endeavour would have taken on their attempt to make the first traverse of the Antarctic continent. She has a new website http://www.hannahmckeand.com/ that I think people here would find informative and of interest. It's real adventure (NOT "Reality"). Last year, she made an attempt to do an unsupported solo trek to the North Pole. Unfortunately, she fell through a crack in the sea ice, suffering serious injuries. She is now recovered and planning for another attempt. Her website has lots of fantastic photos, and some good writeups of her expeditions that are full of lessons we all need to learn (or in my case, relearn for the 4th or 5th time - some of us learn slowly), whether on a weekend backpack or on a major expedition. She does do some training of the eager-to-learn as well, though I will warn you, it is for challenging treks and it is challenging training - no coddling of the soft couch tourist here. The "cruises" are on a sailboat where you have to be a real part of the crew, polar storm or fair weather. On the treks, there are no sherpas or porters - you haul all your gear and food.

Oh, dear. More daydreaming this weekend, less studying. Drat you, Bill!

Here's a photo of me with Dave Hamilton, my expedition's host while we were at Vinson Base Camp. Hannah took this at Patriot Hills - http://www.hannahmckeand.com/gallery_cat.php?cat_id=3 third row, fourth image. The image ID is 73.

Cool pics!
I remember Hannah's trek to the south pole. I read about it on a website, I don't think it was her site though. Thanks for the link to Hannah's site Bill.

I'm not a big sports or nascar fan myself, I do enjoy things like the Iditarod Sled Race, and keeping up with (reading about) individuals like Hannah McKeand.