Exploration
This guy just became the first person to cross Antarctica solo and unaided
Trekking 932 miles across Antarctica completely unassisted in 52 days, 33-year-old American Colin O’Brady has written himself into the history books. Here, he reveals how he achieved it.
Imagine walking the length of the UK. Tough but doable, right? Might be a bit chilly in Scotland, but take a few extra layers and you’ll get through it.
Now imagine trekking the same distance in Arctic conditions, with temperatures dropping to minus 30 (minus 80 with wind chill), and storms whipping up winds of 60mph. Not only that, but you’re trekking through snow on skis, with giant ‘satstrugi’ speed bumps on the surface and hidden crevasses yawning under the ice.
Next, harness a 170kg sled to your back, carrying everything you need to survive in uninhabitable conditions for 60 days, then eliminate all help and assistance from any other human being.
This was the challenge that faced both American adventurer Colin O’Brady and British Army captain Lou Rudd at the start of their separate attempts to become the first person ever to trek coast-to-coast across Antarctica solo and unsupported last October (in 1996, Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland crossed Antarctica alone but the journey is not classified as unassisted as a kite towed him some of the way).
In the end, the first to achieve the seemingly impossible was O’Brady, who reached the Ross Ice Shelf, and thus the end of his journey, on 26 December, two and half days ahead of Rudd. Overall, the American covered 932 miles of icy terrain in 52 days.
O’Brady tells us what it was like out there on the ice, how he discovered mental reserves he never knew he had and which musician helped soundtrack the vast polar expanses.
He climbed the highest point in each of the 50 US states just to prepare
Antartica's landscape proved as much a mental challenge as a physical one
© Colin O'Brady
A pedigree for record breaking feats ensured O'Brady had a firm belief in his solo Antarctic challenge. In 2016, he smashed the record for the Explorers’ Grand Slam – that’s scaling the peaks of the highest mountain in each of the seven continents, plus visiting the north and south poles – in 139 days.
Last year, while training for his Antarctic crossing, the man from Portland broke the record for the amount of time it took to reach the highest point in each of the 50 US states, completing it in just 21 days. “It was not only a logistical masterpiece of getting to all of those locations so quickly, but ultimately was a big climbing/trail-running mission,” he says. “In the last eight days I covered nearly 200 miles on trails with 150,000ft of climbing, which is like climbing five Everests back to back.” And that was just for this epic feat of endurance.
He piled on 10kg of muscle before the trip
O'Brady's sled weighed 170kg - about one-fifth as heavy as a Grand Piano
© Colin O'Brady
“I started training specifically for this expedition nine months before we set off,” says O’Brady. “I needed to add muscle – I’m normally about 75kg, which is pretty lean. It seemed like I was going to be too light, so I added 10kg of muscle. I worked with my coach, Mike McCastle, who himself holds four world records. He’s done more pull-ups than anyone else in 24 hours – 5,800. He helped me add power and strength that I don’t normally have as an endurance athlete.”
But it wasn’t just about building physical strength – being strong mentally was also hugely important. “McCastle also had me doing more creative training,” says O’Brady. “He made me put my feet and hands in ice baths and then I had to solve a maths equation, or do something dextrous with my hands, like tie a knot. And that training benefitted me when I was in Antarctica, especially when I was trying to set up my tent in a storm completely exhausted after pulling my sled for 12 hours.”
There were multiple times when I was so exhausted I was crying and questioning if it was possible
Howling winds made everything more difficult
Whiteouts and 60mph, winds meant even pitching up could be treacherous
© Colin O'Brady
As he'd flagged up on his Instagram account during the trip ("Contrary to popular belief, Antarctica is not flat. The South Pole is above 9,000ft"), O'Brady faced a never-ending physical test with unforgiving uphill, bumpy terrain he had to lug his sled up. However, some of his most challenging physical tests came when assembling his tent in howling winds. O’Brady stresses the importance of a calm mind, and this clip shows just how crucial it was to his survival.
He achieves his calmness through daily meditation, doing two 20-minute sessions, and taking part in a vipassana meditation retreat once a year, which comprises “10 days of no reading, no writing, no eye contact, complete silence and meditation”. This was ideal preparation for the mental fortitude required to deal with the solitude and loneliness. “When I was in Antarctica with a blank landscape, pulling a sled for 12 hours a day, I was mostly just walking and meditating, letting time and space float over me.”
He learned to enjoy the silence
O'Brady, pictured, staring into the abyss on December 3rd, 2018
© Colin O'Brady
O’Brady spent about 80-90% of the time in complete silence. "Music or podcasts would be distracting when I wanted to enter into those flow states of deep walking meditation." During some of the more deeper, introspective flow states, I entered a level of consciousness very different from a traditional level of lucidity that allowed time and space to pass in a unique way,” says O’Brady. “Sometimes both things would happen – one minute the hardest moments would feel like an hour, but often, when I was deep in one of these flow states, days would pass in a blink.”
However, Paul Simon’s Graceland – one of O’Brady’s all-time favourites – was one album he brought to pick him up when he needed lifting. “It became my theme music for the trip,” he says. “And to my complete surprise, Paul Simon himself heard about it and gave me a call on my satphone! So I had a 30-minute phone call with him – a very surreal moment.”
He burnt through 10,000 calories a day
The explorer had a company create his own bespoke energy bar for the trip
© Colin O'Brady
To ensure he didn’t fall into a calorie-deficit hole he couldn’t climb out of, O’Brady worked with nutrition experts Standard Process prior to the trip to create a bespoke energy bar that packed 1,100 calories into a single meal. He’d eat four a day, plus porridge for breakfast and a freeze-dried meal in the evening, providing about 8,000 calories a day. Did he get sick of the Colin bars? “They’re actually really good,” says O’Brady. “My body was craving them when I was out there. I never really got sick of them, honestly. All the way up until the last day – it was fuel in the gas tank, they’re completely clean, wholefood ingredients, perfect micronutrient/macronutrient blends. They are really good."
When the wind was blowing 60mph in my face, and I was getting knocked down, it was easy to tense up and think, ‘How am I ever going to get thought this?'
Sleep was a factor behind his success
It might as well be a space shuttle looking over earth
© Colin O'Brady
“I’m a big believer that sleep is key to recovery and high-performance over a long duration of time,” says O’Brady. “I was getting between five and seven hours of sleep per night. Even if there was a storm outside, I’d still put my earplugs in and sleep mask on and try to go to sleep. But it was hard sometimes, especially when the tent fabric was rattling around."
The other problem was the lack of dark – as it’s daylight 24 hours a day in Antarctica, the sun is directly overhead all day and night, so there’s light in the tent. “It was hard to get my body into those circadian rhythms, calm down and relax and realise it was time to go to bed,” says O’Brady. “Even after so much physical exertion, sometimes it was hard to fall asleep."
Support back home spurred him on
The American needed to cover his facial features to avoid frostbite
© Colin O'Brady
Wife Jenna provided logistical support from back in the US, and, according to O’Brady, “she knew almost better than me exactly how many grams of food and calories were left on the sled, as well as managing the PR and the media, and interacting with 30,000 school kids following my journey”.
And she was the one O’Brady spoke to daily on his satphone, picking him up when he needed pep talks as fatigue set in and motivation dipped. “There were multiple times when I was so exhausted I was crying and questioning if it was possible, and she gave me words of encouragement to keep me on track and moving forward every single day. There’s no way I could have done it without it."
Self-belief was key to survival
O'Brady would repeatedly tell himself, ‘You’re strong, you’re capable'
© Colin O'Brady
Don’t have a mantra? Maybe it’s time to get one. For O’Brady, he had two in particular that he would repeat over and over to remind him things can get better (and worse). “My alarm woke me up every day at 6am, and the first thing I’d do is light my stove, get the water boiling to cook food. But before I’d even struck the match, the very first thing I’d do for five seconds would be say: ‘You’re strong, you’re capable’ and then, boom, strike the match and the sequence of events would unfold."
His other mantra was “This too shall pass”, which is an extension of the meditation practice that he does, leaning in to the impermanence of life. “When the wind was blowing 60mph in my face, and I was getting knocked down, it was easy to tense up and think, ‘How am I ever going to get thought this?’ ‘This too shall pass’ is a reminder that at some point, the sun is going to come back out again.”
The race element pushed him on a level
O'Brady finished two days ahead of British explorer Lou Rudd
© Colin O'Brady
“Obviously I was very happy to be the first to finish, but Lou completed it just two and half days after me, and that’s an incredible achievement for him as well,” says O’Brady. “Neither of us took a rest day, which is unheard of in an expedition that long. Even when the weather was terrible we both got out of our tents, as we knew that if we didn’t, my lead would grow or he would catch up to me. So it pushed us both to perform at an even greater level."
The lesson learned? You can achieve anything
O'Brady snapped at the South Pole site on December 14th
© Colin O'Brady
“One of my true passions is inspiring people to dream big, to set audacious goals, to commit to the process of achieving great things – whether that’s walking across Antarctica, running a business or writing a beautiful piece of music,” says O’Brady. “The reason I share these stories about my life is that hopefully it will inspire others to do incredible things. By doing something that other people thought was impossible shows that it can be done, and I’m excited to see what the next iterations of that are in polar exploration as people continue to push the limits of human potential.”
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