Arriving 35 days after Amundsen, Scott and his team perished on their way back, whilst Amundsen returned to his native Norway a hero. This epic duel will be relived by 16 competitors from six nations, and Urban Brew Studios will be producing a four-part documentary series, entitled "Cold Sweat", to cover the event.
Representing South Africa and currently training in Iceland, Braam Malherbe and Peter van Kets are no strangers to extreme firsts. In 2006, adventurer, conservationist and 50/50 presenter, Braam Malherbe and running partner, David Grier, achieved a world first by running the entire length of the Great Wall of China, a distance of 4218km, at the pace of a marathon a day for 98 days. Again, in 2008, the duo completed another world first by running the entire coastline from Namibia to Mozambique, a distance of 3278km. Not to be outdone, in 2010, East London-based extreme adventurer, Peter van Kets, became the first African to complete an unsupported row across the Atlantic ocean when he spent 76 days alone in a seven-metre boat, rowing more than 4500km.
The competitors leave Cape Town on 19 December on a flight to Novo, a Russian research station on the east coast of the Antarctic continent and, after an initial training leg, the race will start 10 days later. Covering a distance of 800km to be the first to the South Pole, competitors race unsupported, on foot and with cross-country skis, hauling gear and provisions on what Van Kets describes as a "tupperware canoe", otherwise known as a pulk, which, when fully laden, weighs around 140kg. Expected to take about 30 days to complete, and due to end in mid-February, competitors will negotiate multiple crevasses, cross snow bridges, and rise to 3000 metres on the high plateau on the way. Add to that winds of up to 130 kph, temperatures as low as -40C, and the threat of blinding snowstorms, and you have an event that is undoubtedly the ultimate extreme endurance challenge set in the coldest, driest, and highest desert on the planet. Six of the seven teams taking part will comprise three members, while Malherbe and Van Kets will be the only pair.
To follow Malherbe's and Van Kets' preparations, and to watch this race unfold, go to their websites at: www.braammalherbe.com and www.petervankets.com, or join their Facebook group at: www.facebook.com/groups/87253326710.
