Posted: Sep 24, 2009 01:40 pm EDT
(ThePoles.com, updated 26 September) Here goes the first - and thinnest yet in quite some time - list of expeditions for the 2009 Antarctica season.

Seems the current money crunch is striking all over, even as far as the South Pole. At least the upcoming season offers a couple of interesting liaisons.

The English Rose and the speedy Ice Chef

Polar speed kiter Ronny Finsaas has hooked up with UK Fiona Lindsay for a Novo-SP-Hercules Inlet 2000 mile kite ski. Their tent should transmit interesting wafts (in a good way!), Norwegian Ronny Finsaas is a well-known Patriot Hills Chef.

Life after K2: Cecilie Skog and American Ryan Waters

On August 1st last year, Norwegians Cecilie Skog and Lars Naesse summited K2 at 5.20 pm and hurried down to Cecilie’s husband Rolf Bae, who had stopped 300 ft below the summit. Three hours later a serac broke off. Cecile and Lars watched the light of Rolf's head torch disappear. Rolf and the fixed rope was gone.

It was a shock: Rolf was very well known in the Polar community for a spectacular crossing he made with a friend at Antarctica. Cecilie joined in for unsupported trips to both poles and the couple also began to frequent Himalaya before disaster struck.

Slowly, Cecilie has come back to life: latest with a Greenland crossing and next with a return to Antarctica, this time with veteran Himalaya high altitude mountaineer American Ryan Waters. The two plan to ski from the Berkner Island on the Weddell Sea to the South Pole and beyond, pending time.

Other highlights

Meagan McGrath will attempt to become the first Canadian to ski solo to the South Pole; Ben Saunders will try solo speed record attempts on both Poles; Briton Antony Jinman plans to ski on three ice fields (Ed note: not Three Poles as previously reported) in one year; and 'mad-science-explorer' Brazilian Julio Fiadi is back with his live-in sled.

Go check details on these and other expeditions here.

Godspeed explorers!

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