The Iceman Cometh Close : Solo Adventurer Fails in Effort to Cross Antartica but Does Become First to Conquer North, South Poles

Borge Ousland was not out of his mind when he set out recently to try to pull a sled for 100 days, 1,675 miles across the continent of Antarctica, though some might argue that point with the 33-year-old Norwegian.

After all, who in their right mind would journey into the coldest and most inhospitable region on earth merely for the sake of trying to become the first to get from one side to the other--alone and without mechanized equipment, animals or air drops?

“I want to transcend my physical and mental limits,” Ousland said before his trip. “I want to seek a new kind of truth . . . to do what has never been done before. . . . Only by pushing beyond our limits can we really learn something new about ourselves.”

So off the adventurer went, leaving his last link to civilization--an airplane--at Berkner Island in the Weddell Sea on Nov. 8, donning his skis and hoping to be picked up at McMurdo Station on the other side of the continent sometime this month.

And with the blaring guitar music of Jimi Hendrix as inspiration, he maintained a brisk pace, dragging a sled full of supplies across the bottom of the globe, averaging an astounding 18 miles a day.

At times he was blinded by total white-out conditions, where he couldn’t even make out the horizon. He maneuvered through thick snow drifts and over fields of jagged ice. He even survived a plunge into what seemed a bottomless crevasse, which left him dangling in an eerie blue space.

Ousland pushed himself beyond his limits all right.

He never made it to McMurdo Station.

Instead, he had to be airlifted back to the South Pole after sending up an emergency satellite beacon 52 days and about 800 miles into his trip.

Frostbite on both thighs, suffered in the first weeks of his solo expedition, had turned into seriously infected wounds. He could go no farther.

“The wounds got worse, just more painful,” he said recently by telephone from a hotel in Milano, Italy, while recuperating and trying to regain the 20 pounds he had lost. “I knew if I went on . . . I was coming to an area where there were huge snow drifts and crevasses, where planes cannot land. I made the difficult decision to call while I still could. It was the most difficult decision I had ever made.”

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Ousland did not complete the solo crossing of Antarctica. But he still managed to further secure his place in the annals of polar exploration, among a select group of men and women who during the last century have succeeded and failed--some even perished--in various endeavors in a world too cold for even the hardiest animals.

“There is nothing out there, not even polar bears,” Ousland said.

By reaching the South Pole, a week before he put in the call for help, he became the first person to conquer both the earth’s poles--he reached the North Pole after covering 600 miles in 52 days in the spring of 1994--alone and without support.

He is among only a few explorers to have conquered the South Pole solo, doing so in a record 44 days.

“Now I am satisfied with what I had achieved,” Ousland said. “I wanted to go to Mars and only reached the moon. But I am still the first person to go alone to both poles.”

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Ousland, a former deep-sea diver who worked on the oil rigs in the frigid North Sea, began his latest journey with a total load of 375 pounds--45 in his backpack and 330 on the sled.

He chose November as a departure date because the sun is always shining during the Antarctic summer, and the temperatures sometimes soar to about freezing.

East of the South Pole, near the former Soviet base at Vostok, the lowest temperatures in the world have been recorded--the region has a mean temperature of minus 70 and an August reading of 96 below has been logged.

Winds, which rarely cease, blow at speeds up to 185 mph.

“When the winds die down it is so silent, you can actually hear your heartbeat,” Ousland said. “But that happened only very few times.”

Ousland was asked what goes through one’s mind being alone for so long in a world that is not only brutally cold but totally white. How does one cope?

He said the loneliness sets in the moment the airplane takes off at the drop-off point.

“It’s horrible,” he said, “because you are suddenly standing out there alone on the ice.”

He covered a great distance in the first days, thanks to a ski-sail (which resembles a parasail) that captured the wind and dragged his sled across the Arctic plain. In one day he covered 35 miles.

But not all days went so smoothly. In some areas the wind had sculpted the ice into vast fields of what looked like large frozen waves.

White-out, a phenomenon whereby light reflected from the snow and ice combines with an overcast sky to cut visibility to zero, didn’t occur often. But when it did, Ousland had to travel slowly and carefully to avoid stumbling into deadly crevasses.

On his 10th day, he fell into such a crack in the ice, but managed to hold onto the titanium pull bar attached to his sled.

“It was just snow and suddenly the ground disappeared like a trap door,” Ousland said. “My right ski went into the crevasse and my left ski stayed on top, and the pull bars kept me from going down.”

He climbed out and eventually encountered the 2,000-foot Frost Spur--the gateway to the continental interior. On the 17th day, he ascended the ice mountain and reached the Arctic Plateau, which the late British explorer Robert Falcon Scott once described as “the most dreadful place on earth.”

Scott and his party, in a race to become the first explorers to reach the South Pole, were caught in a blizzard for days. Their supplies ran out and they perished in January 1912.

Scott didn’t know it at the time, but Roald Amundsen of Norway, leading a five-man expedition with 36 dogs, had already won the race, having arrived at the pole on Dec. 14, 1911.

Ousland, with no partners to talk to or discuss strategy with, said the mental challenge was as great or greater than the physical challenge.

He relished the sanctity of his dark tent by night, but by day he dealt with the disorienting sameness as best he could, drawing on experiences gained by his trek to the North Pole.

“The best way to be prepared is to have a good harmony inside you,” he said, “and to go into that landscape with a totally open mind, and a humble attitude toward nature, because there is no way to beat nature, you have to be a part of it.

Surviving on daily rations of porridge, oatmeal, chocolate and freeze-dried meat, Ousland continued.

His frostbite worsened, but he maintained his 10-hour-a-day pace, his sled in tow, to the beat of “All Along the Watchtower” and other tunes done by Hendrix.

On Dec. 14, the 37th day, Ousland had passed the 600-mile mark, 175 miles away from the South Pole. It was the anniversary of the 1911 conquest of the pole by his countryman, Amundsen. The temperature was 24 degrees.

On Dec. 22, Day 44, he arrived at the Scott-Admundsen research base at the pole, where he stayed until Christmas Day, being treated by a physician for frostbite. He was given antibiotics, which did nothing to heal his wounds. They worsened as he neared another mountain range. He had to decide whether to go on or call for help.

On Dec. 28, 50 miles away from the pole, Ousland realized his situation was hopeless. He sent out an emergency beacon requesting assistance and the next day, after 51 days alone on the ice, he was airlifted back to the South Pole.

A month later, almost fully recovered, Ousland was asked if he might someday try again.

“Right now I don’t know if I’ll try again,” he said, sounding weary at the prospect. “I’ll see how I feel. A trip like this, you peel off layer by layer until your soul is naked. . . . It takes an enormous amount of preparation, it’s an enormous sacrifice.”

FISHING

Locally: Not much happening in these winter doldrums. Too many sculpin, whitefish and croaker and not enough white sea bass, though there have been a few decent runs in the past week. The shallow-water rockfishing at the northern Channel Islands have been steady between storms. But by now, everybody seems ready for spring.

Noteworthy: Michael Fowlkes, producer of Inside Sportfishing, caught a 29-pound wahoo while light-tackle fishing on a recent trip to the Revillagigedo Islands aboard the San Diego-based Polaris Supreme. If approved by the International Game Fish Assn., the catch will become the world record for eight-pound-test line.

MISCELLANY

State--Jacqueline E. Schafer has been appointed director of the California Department of Fish and Game. Schafer, 50, has a background in dealing with environmental issues and most recently served as chief deputy cabinet secretary in Gov. Pete Wilson’s office, working largely with issues relating to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture. Her appointment as DFG director is subject to Senate confirmation.

Boating--The Southern California Boat Show, featuring a record 900 types of boats, is in progress through Feb. 11 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hours are 1-9 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $8 for adults. Children under 12 are admitted free with adults.

Wildlife--Bald Eagle tours will be held Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. through March 3 at Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County. Details: (619) 389-2303.