Youngest male to ski solo across Antarctica

Colin O’Brady (USA, b. 16 March 1985) was aged 33 years 285 days when he arrived at the Leverett Glacier on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf on 26 December 2018, completing his ski crossing of Antarctica. His 1,499-km (932-mile) journey had lasted 53 days. O’Brady had started out from the Union Glacier on 3 November 2018, pulling a sled weighing around 180 kg (400 lb), packed with supplies and equipment, and reached the South Pole on 12 December 2018.

For part of the journey, O’Brady used the South Pole Overland Traverse (SPoT) ice road, which is flagged and graded with each new season. It runs from McMurdo Station across the Ross Ice Shelf, up the Leverett Glacier and across the plateau to the South Pole. As the route is marked, any journeys that utilize it are classified as “supported” according to the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme (PECS).

O’Brady is not the first male to have crossed Antarctica solo. Børge Ousland (Norway) completed the first (and, to date, fastest) unsupported solo crossing of Antarctica on 17 January 1997. However, he used a snowkite during the journey, and so was wind-assisted, unlike O’Brady whose entire expedition was on skis under his own power.

Felicity Aston (UK, b. 7 October 1977) is the youngest (and first) woman to ski solo across Antarctica. She arrived at the Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf on Monday 23 January 2012, aged 34 years 108 days, after a 1,744-km (1,084-mile) journey lasting 59 days. Like O’Brady, she also made use of the SPoT ice road.