Adventurer Tackles the Antarctic Again

It will be the whitest of Christmases for Borge Ousland, the polar explorer from Norway who is trying--again--to become the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unsupported.

Ousland, 34, failed last year, turning back three days after Christmas, a week after passing through the South Pole, 52 days and 800 miles into his trip. Severe frostbite on both thighs had turned into seriously infected wounds. He sent up an emergency satellite beacon, was rescued and airlifted back to the South Pole.

“I wanted to go to Mars and only reached the moon,” he said upon his return home.

Having long since recovered, Ousland blasted off again on Nov. 15, leaving Berkner Island in the Weddell Sea with only skis and a sled loaded with provisions, powered when weather permits by para-sail, hoping to reach Scott Base on the Ross Sea, 1,675 miles away, sometime next month.

This time, Ousland has a little more incentive. Two others--Marek Kaminski, 32, of Poland, and Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 52, of England--also left Berkner Island on Nov. 15, hoping to cross the same vast wasteland, where temperatures reach 40 below and where visibility can be reduced to zero in whiteouts.

Ousland has distanced himself from his competitors, however, having averaged about 25 miles a day. At last check he had covered 564 miles and was 239 miles from the South Pole.

Kaminski fell behind early, getting knocked unconscious three days into his journey when a sudden gust of wind caught his partially inflated para-sail and dragged him more than a mile until he struck his head on the ice. When he regained consciousness, he radioed for help. A plane came to his aid, but when it couldn’t take off after 24 hours because of bad weather he decided his condition had improved enough to push on.

Fiennes may merely be too old for this type of thing. Complaining of severely blistered lips, he has been averaging only 13 miles a day.

Ousland, a member of the Sector No Limits team of extreme adventurers, is able to send brief messages, updating his progress via satellite. The latest, on Dec. 5, detailed a serious slowdown caused by sastrugi, long, windblown ridges of hard-packed snow. Ousland, if unable to walk around them, must drag his sled up and over, one by one.

How does he maintain his sanity?

Perhaps a better question is, has he?

“You have to look for the beauty in the sastrugi to be able to go through it,” he said.

The No Limits team elaborated: “Once he found a sastrugi with a likeness to a bronco kicking and bolting. Borge undid his harness, climbed the snowy horse and had some minutes of joy before meeting the next sastrugi.”

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An adventurer of a different sort, Karen Thorndike, will not have a white Christmas, but it’s a safe bet she’ll have a wet one.

Thorndike, of Seattle, set sail from San Diego last July on a 36-foot boat and is trying to become the first American woman to solo-circumnavigate the world.

On the fourth leg of a journey expected to cover 30,000 miles and last about another year, she is in the middle of the Indian Ocean south of Australia, heading for the treacherous seas off Cape Horn.

And though she is still more than 2,000 miles from the cape, the ocean seems to be getting angrier by the day, judging from Thorndike’s satellite reports (her trip can be monitored on the web at https://www.goals.com):

--Dec. 8: “Been up all night . . . breaking waves over the boat . . . 30 to 35 knots out of the WSW.

--Dec. 9: “Major storm out here! Forty-knot SWesterly became a 50-knot southerly last night. Seas are monstrous! No sleep. If I can’t charge batteries due to extreme rolling, I will shut down power at 8 and log out.”

--Dec. 10: “Amelia [her boat] and I had a bit of a blow come through last night. Plenty of wind and huge seas but we were doing fine. Then at midnight the wind came in at 50 knots. Now things are not so fine. Two sets of huge waves coming from different directions. With the cross seas beating on Amelia’s side and the violent motion of the boat, sleeping was impossible.”

Yet the nightmare continues.

FRESHWATER REPORT

LAKE PERRIS--Rick Spellman, Fontana, 7-6 bass, on Tora Tube at east end. Ed Townsend, Moreno Valley, 12-0 bass, on night crawler near marina. No other big bass. Some trout.

CORONA AND SANTA ANA RIVER LAKES--Lots of limits of trout and lots of big fish as both reservoirs have been heavily stocked. Power Bait best bet.

IRVINE LAKE--Trout action fair and expected to get better after this week’s stocking of 5,000 pounds of fish, of which 1,000 pounds are trophy-sized rainbows to 18-plus pounds. Catfish fair on night crawlers and shrimp.

LAGUNA NIGUEL LAKE--Trout action was steady before rains, but limits will be harder to come by in muddy water. A few German browns were even caught by fly fishermen using black woolly buggers.

GREEN VALLEY LAKE--Slow, with a few trout in the 4-0 range.

LAKE CACHUMA--Trout fair between rains. Mouth of Cachuma Bay and east end best bets. Red ear perch fair on night crawler pieces off flats at Cachuma Bay and north shoreline.

LAKE CASITAS--Catfish biting on mackerel throughout lake. Some small bass but bigger fish believed to be deep chasing shad. Trout fair in middle of lake.

PYRAMID LAKE--A few striped bass being caught in mornings on surface. A few largemouth and smallmouth taken on plastics and crankbaits around the shoreline.

LAKE PIRU--Bruce Andree, North Hollywood, 10-0 bass, on brown Pig-n-Jig at pump house. A few other lunkers caught in past week. Trout fair for trollers dragging small spinners. Some catfish.

CASTAIC LAKE--Troy Folkestad, Mission Viejo, five bass totaling 50 pounds, largest 14-1, on trout-pattern lure and crawdads. Gary Harrison and sons Matt and Jeremy, Reseda, 11 largemouth bass from 2-9 pounds, on plastics and spoons.

SAN DIEGO CITY LAKES--Miramar: Trout fair on usual baits, anglers averaging about two fish per day, largest of week a 4-12. Nothing else biting. Murray: Largemouth bass best bet--of 307 anglers checked, 124 were landed, the largest 2-1. Some bluegill and trout. San Vicente: Bass best bet--a 7-0 was caught--but don’t count on catching much.

LAKE CUYAMACA--Despite recent stocking of trout, the fish, in the words of ranger Hugh Marx, “have lockjaw,” and the 38-degree water is the reason.

LAKE SKINNER--Striped bass active at inlet and Ramp 2, feeding on stocked trout. Trout-like lures getting fish from 10-18 pounds. Some largemouth bass. Crappie fair on mini-jigs. Trout fair on Sierra Gold.

SALTWATER REPORT

The Times accepts and publishes the catch count as a public service. Any responsibility for accuracy is that of the landing operator.

SANTA BARBARA (Sea Landing)--9 anglers (1 boat): 6 whitefish, 3 lingcod, 135 rockfish, 6 sheephead.

TROUT PLANTS

LOS ANGELES--Belvedere Lake, Cerritos Lake, Crystal Lake, Downey Wilderness Park Lake, Echo Park Lake, El Dorado Park Lake, Kenneth Hahn Park Lake, La Mirada Lake, Legg Lake, Lincoln Lake, Peck Road Park Lake, Puddingstone Reservoir, San Gabriel River (East, West and North forks), Santa Fe Reservoir, Willowbrook Lake.

SANTA BARBARA--Lake Cachuma.

CATFISH PLANTS

LOS ANGELES--Belvedere Park Lake, Downey Wilderness Park Lake, Echo Park Lake, Ford Park Lake, Legg Lake, Lincoln Park Lake.