Colin O'Brady Completes Historic Antarctic Crossing (nytimes.com) 85
The final miles of a nearly two-month race across Antarctica -- a lonely effort marked by long days, short nights and stunning endurance -- ended Wednesday with a sprint to the finish.
From a report: Adventurer Colin O'Brady on Wednesday accomplished what he had dubbed "the Impossible First," becoming the first person to complete a solo, unsupported crossing of Antarctica. With a push of 32 hours after leaving his last camp on Christmas morning, the 33-year-old American reached the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf on Day 54 of his expedition. He had covered almost 80 miles since his last sleep. Briton Lou Rudd, who set off the same day -- Nov. 3 -- on the same quest, on Wednesday had about 70 miles left, according to his expedition's tracking map. It estimated a finish on Saturday.
The full trek is about 935 miles. O'Brady's Instagram post from the finish post read in part: "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced. I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey." O'Brady had reached the South Pole on Dec. 12, a day ahead of Rudd. The New York Times story adds: To some following his progress, his decision was unnerving. Under intense stress, the line between lucidity and madness can be fuzzy, and especially so for someone who has been alone for almost two months, trekking miles each day, while doing battle with raging winds, unseasonal snowfall, whiteout visibility and polar temperatures. Could someone in that situation, exhausted and emaciated, be trusted to make sound choices?
"I can feel myself in a deep fatigue state," O'Brady said when reached by satellite phone on Dec. 22. "When I was crossing Greenland" -- a journey he undertook this summer to prepare for this expedition -- "I kind of let my guard down on my last night, and I fell into a crevasse that could have easily killed me. I want to be done badly, but at the same time, it's about executing all the little things and not make any stupid mistakes at the end."
The full trek is about 935 miles. O'Brady's Instagram post from the finish post read in part: "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced. I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey." O'Brady had reached the South Pole on Dec. 12, a day ahead of Rudd. The New York Times story adds: To some following his progress, his decision was unnerving. Under intense stress, the line between lucidity and madness can be fuzzy, and especially so for someone who has been alone for almost two months, trekking miles each day, while doing battle with raging winds, unseasonal snowfall, whiteout visibility and polar temperatures. Could someone in that situation, exhausted and emaciated, be trusted to make sound choices?
"I can feel myself in a deep fatigue state," O'Brady said when reached by satellite phone on Dec. 22. "When I was crossing Greenland" -- a journey he undertook this summer to prepare for this expedition -- "I kind of let my guard down on my last night, and I fell into a crevasse that could have easily killed me. I want to be done badly, but at the same time, it's about executing all the little things and not make any stupid mistakes at the end."
Heroes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heroes (Score:5, Funny)
For me, I respect the true unsung heroes of this world; Slashdot AC's with their pithy comments and virtue signaling.
Here's to you AC, keep fighting the good fight!
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In all fairness and objectivity: One of the reasons I come to Slashdot is that there is much, much *less* virtue-signalling here than on most of the forums I visit. I mean, go to one of the Gawker sites (io9, Jezebel, Kotaku, etc) and you will see roughly 100x the amount of virtue-signalling (that's not hyperbole; it's a sober estimate).
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Perhaps you would follow my meaning better if instead of using the phrase "virtue signalling", I used a much older term: "sanctimoniousness". Or "holier-than-thou", if you prefer.
All of these terms refer to the same behavior: You express outrage and anger at someone else's speech or behavior, with the primary (but unstated) goal of letting the reader know that *you*, personally, are much too virtuous to ever engage in that kind of speech or behavior.
(Not really a fan of the term "virtue signalling", to be
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Different virtues, same pretentiousness.
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Slashdot was "News for Nerds" at some point in time. And I started reading this post and the article because I was interested in how this was supposed to be news for nerds as opposed to news for people who are explicitly not nerds. And then I read the first post where the title was "heroes" and while I'm very happy this isn't yet another racist rant first post, I'm pretty confused.
I looked up the definition of hero. It e
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Hm... you wouldn't be counting wind chill in that -30, would you? Have you ever slept outside when it's -30? I have. Minus 30, real temperature mind, not "with wind chill." It's fine with the right equipment. Most people wouldn't enjoy it. Now, do it for fifty some days in a row. While hauling all that equipment with you, across 1600 km.
It's the first time anybody's ever done it, for a reason.
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teachers and scientists and doctors
Your English teacher certainly doesn't deserve any respect.
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I'm not really sure why that's a rare situation. I mean, most silver medalists deserve just as much respect as the gold medalists, Newton and Leibniz both are worthy of respect regardless of which one invented Calculus first.
In fact, there is only one situation where it doesn't make sense to show just as much respect to the guy coming in second: when they followed in the footsteps/were aided by the person who came in first.
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Yes, when first and second aid each other, they should be commended. I only meant when, for instance, the person is second is more like Edison - someone who takes work from the first person and uses that to get across the line next.
Re:Heroes (Score:5, Insightful)
It's definitely a significant personal accomplishment that not may people would be willing to attempt - but it's not heroic by any stretch of the imagination.
Unless he did it to deliver penicillin to the South Pole to help a dying patient and the planes wouldn't fly because the weather was too bad and the Sno-Cats were all frozen in with broken tracks.
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Yep, it garners a "that's neat", but this is one of many "look how special I am" quests. It's a bit more meaningful than what the Khardashians post on Twitter of course, but like their posts, it doesn't improve my life or the lives of others.
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Heroic > brave. Heroism implies doing something brave for someone else, not simply to bolster your own ego or add an entry into your bucket list. The first person ever to fly a wing suit was brave, but heroic? No.
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A doctor saving a patient. Well he was paid to do that. Just his job.
It's not about getting paid, it's about saving someone at [potential] cost to oneself. Compensation is irrelevant to heroism.
Not to belittle his accomplishment (Score:2)
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Keep in mind this is a solo journey, and without any support. It might be comparable to a team of 3 doing it 50 years ago without the modern tools, but you still have a 350-lb sled to tow some 900 miles.
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But do you remember the name of the second person to climb Everest? Okay, too easy, it was Tensing Norgay, his sherpa guide.
Actually, not so easy. It may have been Edmund Hillary. They reached the summit together, and neither claimed to have "beaten" the other. They claimed equal credit. So we know the first two people to reach the summit and survive the descent. But we don't know the order.
How about the third person?
No idea.
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Apparently the sled started at 370 lbs. Didn't get much lighter as current Antarctica explorers pack everything out including their own feces.
It will have become significantly lighter during the trip due to loss of water weight. Most of the water he brought with him will have gone into the air. Only a small amount of it will have remained in his poop.
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Plus, wouldn't any water he was carrying... freeze? And have to be melted anyway?
The food will have contained water. At least, some of it, mostly stuff intended to be consumed early in the journey. Living on all-dehydrated stuff is ghastly.
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Frozen balls (Score:1)
It'll take a month for his testicles to thaw
Oh thank goodness! (Score:5, Funny)
I was really concerned I'd never hear from Colin again. In the last exchange we had, two months ago, he said we should meet up at a new local hot spot I had found but when I asked him if he needed directions and he wrote, "Nah, I'll just use Apple Maps." ;)
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looks easy
Not with a shoggoth on your tail.
Respect... (Score:1)
Real difficultly not mentioned - Sastrugi (Score:2)
while doing battle with raging winds, unseasonal snowfall, whiteout visibility and polar temperatures
The major hurdle in such a long crossing is not really those things, it is Sastrugi [wikipedia.org] - a combination of wind and snow carves the flat surface of the Antarctic plateau into an endless series of hardened snow ridges, varying from inches to feet high...
That doesn't sound so bad, but imagine having to pull a supply sled 1000 miles over one of these ridges every few feet, for months on end. The very definition o
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Water finds jack shit. Water has no will and no agency. And no fucking memory either, while we're at it!
Now he's one.... (Score:2)
Cool dude!
Thank you! I'm here all week, come back and bring a friend!
Typical armchair quarterbacking (Score:2)
Figures that the New York Times would bestow upon itself the moral authority to call into question people's motives and mental ability. These asshats just love to sit around and pontificate about what should or shouldn't be done based on nothing but they never actually step up and attempt anything of merit themselves.