Adventure in 60 Seconds: Last Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

THE POLES
This week Christians celebrated Easter, Jewish people celebrated Passover, and adventurers of all faiths marked the 100th anniversary of Robert Peary and Mathew Henson reaching the North Pole (washingtonpost.com).

One guy who definitely wasn’t celebrating was our favorite Scot Pen Hadow. He and his team were informed this week that, due to the cold temperatures at the outset of their expedition, electronic failure might limit the results of their studies. At the very best, they have lost 13 days worth of data from one of their machines (news.bbc.co.uk).

Meanwhile John Huston and Tyler Fish, unencumbered by expensive scientific equipment, are having a great time after having passed the halfway point of their journey. Sure, they are dodging massive leads (break in the ice shelves) and bouncing over “rubbery” thin ice, but they are making good time and have even boosted their calorie intake from 6,700 a day to 7,500 in anticipation of the final push to the Pole. That means extra truffles, cheese, and milk powder all around! (forwardexpeditions.com).

One man who could use a kind thought and a truffle right now is the indomitable Olly Hicks who, ADVENTURE is sad to report, has abandoned his quest to row around the bottom of the world in his boat, the Flying Carrot. According to his website, weather and technical problems conspired against him and kept his progress well below what he and his team had predicted. He will continue on to New Zealand, “have a beer,” and then go back to the drawing board. As John Locke once said: “It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.”

OCEANS
So as one rowing expedition ends, another gears up for the 11 confirmed teams in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race. The race, which covers 3,100 nautical miles from western Australia to Mauritius, takes 60 to “well over 100 days” depending on the number of people rowing (indianoceanrowingrace09.com).

MOUNTAINS
Finally, the excitement surrounding the kickoff of the Himalaya climbing season was dampened by the death of one of the climbing world’s rising stars, Polish alpinist Piotr Morawski. He was descending Dhaulagiri when he fell into a deep crevasse (mounteverest.net).