MONTANE® sponsored athlete, Felicity Aston, has recently
embarked on a record-breaking attempt to become the first women to traverse
Antarctica solo!
Travelling via Punta Arenas, Chile, to Union Glacier base camp in the Antarctic, Felicity spent her first night on ice on Friday 18th November. The journey to Antarctica from Punta Arenas takes around 4.5 hours and largely depends on the unpredictable weather both in Chile and at Union Glacier. Felicity was flown in by an Ilyushin Il-76 plane which has been specially modified to land on natural blue ice runways in Antarctica.
After six further days of delays, Felicity finally arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf, to the south of the Transantarctic Mountain range on 25th November. For the first part of her 1,700km journey on skis, Felicity will have to traverse the Leverett Glacier, through the Transantarctic Mountain range, across the Antarctic Plateau before finally arriving at the South Pole. This is the first time that this particular route has been attempted.
She is due to return to the UK on 31st January 2012.
You can find out more about Felicity's progress via an interactive map, tweets, facebook updates and podcasts. Her expedition website is here.
You can read about Felicity's expedition experience on our website.
