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Across Antarctica

Three explorers arrived at the South Pole last week, bone-thin and exhausted. They are the first people to reach the pole by crossing the Shackleton Glacier, a treacherous ice formation named for Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton (see Shipwrecked in Antarctica 11/6/98). The 875-mile journey took them 84 days.

"Now that I've got here, everything seems worth it," said Australian Peter Hillary, leader of the team. He and New Zealanders Eric Phillips and Jon Muir arrived at the South Pole on January 26. Hillary is the son of polar explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, who was also the first to successfully climb Mount Everest.

Peter's team did not meet its original goal: skiing from the Antarctic coast to the pole and back without help. On January 12 they accepted emergency food in order to survive. After months of battling blinding blizzards, picking their way across deadly crevasses (deep ice cracks) and facing temperatures as low as -58°F, they were lucky to be alive.

They had to consume 6,000 calories a day--three times what a man normally eats. Their food was soaked in milk fat and olive oil to give them more energy. Still, Hillary said he was a "bag of bones" by the journey's end. The team did get a few treats: lollipops on Christmas and cheese on Hillary's birthday.

Each skier pulled a 395-pound sled loaded with food and supplies. They carried sail-kites designed to use the wind to help them ski faster across the ice. But in blizzard conditions, the kites were useless. The explorers had to trudge along against the wind, blinded by snow.

"I thought I might not make it during the storms," said Hillary, "but you have to stick with it."

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