Friday, July 15, 2011

Pole2Pole Expedition Update: On The Bike, Still Heading South


It's been awhile since I posted an update on the Pole2Pole Expedition, during which explorer Johan Ernst Nilson is traveling from the North to the South Pole using only non-motorized transportation. You may recall this past Spring he started on this journey by skiing through the Arctic, and while is original intention was to travel to Greenland and then cross the North Atlantic by sailboat, he actually ended up simply skiing to Canada instead.

Since then, he's been continuing the expedition by traveling on bike to the west coast, arriving in Vancouver a few weeks back, where he'll now get a new bike for the journey south along the Pacific Coast  Highway with his next stop being Seattle. Johan will also be joined by Carl Robert, a companion of his on Everest, who will go with him all the way to Ushuaia, Argentina, which is the next major leg of the trip. They hope to complete that leg in five months time.

If they are successful, that will put them at the southern most tip of South America just as the Antarctic season is about to get underway. They intention is that Nilson will then cross the Southern Ocean by sailboat, and then travel by skies to the South Pole. Five months seems like an ambitious schedule for the bike ride to Chile, but hopefully they'll be able to stay on course and get there on time.

Check out Johan's latest updates on Pole2Pole.net and follow along with his progress.