This is Rune's last image sent live over Contact 3.0, on Saturday, January 28th. One day later, Rune's digital camera fell in a crevasse - real time pictures will have to wait, at least until he reaches Terra Nova base. Image courtesy of Rune (click to enlarge).
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Antarctica season over for all but Rune
Posted: Jan 30, 2006 10:20 am EST
(ThePoles.com) On January 28th, the last Ilyushin plane left the airstrip at Patriot Hills bound for Punta Arenas, Chile - marking the end of the Antarctic expedition season. Just about all the teams have wrapped up their expeditions and are headed home. All except one that is. Norwegian Rune Gjeldnes is still on the ice. But the solo explorer has a different plane to catch. In fact, he plans to leave the continent from Terra Nova Bay in Southern Antarctica which he expects to reach within a few days.
Worst part is over
Rune is closer than ever to reaching his goal. However, the last few stages of his traverse are proving the most difficult. Last week he reached the Trans-Antarctic mountains, and proceed down the Priestley glacier towards the coast. Since then, he has been fighting every step of the way. Rune has had to control his sled over hard, blue ice patches while avoiding deep crevasses hidden under weak snow bridges.
On Saturday Rune covered 16 km and entered what he feared could be the hardest section of the glacier. Yesterday, his worst expectations proved true: Rune spent all day balancing on thin edges between crevasses. It was the toughest day since he hit the ice 88 days before. To make matters worse, he lost his digital camera, which he uses to send live images over Contact 3.0.
Real time will have to wait
The camera fell into a deep crevasse as Rune tried to document the horrible ice conditions. Gjeldnes has other cameras with him, but not digital – the picture illustrating this story is now the last we'll see until the Norwegian explorer reaches the Terra Nova base on the coast.
In 2000, Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen set out to cross the Arctic Ocean. They started out in Russia and stepped on the ice during the pitch black Arctic winter.
What followed was a journey of epic proportions. By the end of the journey, the guys had lost almost everything - their sleds, their gear - and were finally picked up close to Canadian territory wearing only a backpack. The doctors of a small research station that examined them on arrival said that Rune and Torry were only 48 hours away from death. They had been out on the ice for 109 days.
In his current Antarctic crossing, Rune is off on a skiing kite ride covering over 4600 km, approximately 800 km longer than the previous skiing expedition record. He is going solo and without air drops. Rune's started the traverse on November 6th, 2005.
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