Sep 22 (Japan Times) - A 40-year-old Japanese adventurer will embark on an unassisted solo trek in mid-November journeying approximately 1,130 km across Antarctica to the South Pole.
If successful, Yasunaga Ogita will become the first Japanese to accomplish such a feat. He plans to pull a 100-kg sleigh loaded with a tent, food and fuel and reach the goal in about two months.
“I want to experience the excitement of seeing an unknown world,†said Ogita, who previously made two attempts at unassisted treks to the North Pole since 2012, but had been unsuccessful due to obstacles such as huge crevasses.
This time he will be trekking in summer from Hercules Inlet, a location in the Antarctic at 80 degrees south latitude, and when the temperature on the continent covered with a thick ice sheet will be around minus 35 degrees Celsius.
Ogita, who lives in the town of Takasu in Hokkaido, said unlike the Arctic, where explorers face challenges such as crevasses and walls of sea ice, adventures in Antarctica would not involve technical difficulties.
But he said the upcoming trek is expected to be physically demanding as he would constantly face strong highland winds in climbing to the South Pole, some 2,800 meters above sea level.
Ogita has collected through crowdfunding ¥3.7 million of the ¥20 million needed to fund the trek, including the costs of chartered flights to Antarctica.
