Father-Son Team Reach the South Pole!

The Telegraph has an interesting story about a father and son team that made history by becoming the first such duo to reach the South Pole together, unsupported.

The two Brits, 50-year old Kevin Gaskell, and his 18-year old son Matt, made the journey as part of a group of seven. They hope to raise funds for the the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre. Kevin’s younger sister Jayne passed away in 2004 from leukaemia. They hope to raise roughly £40,000 or $54,000.

Reading the story though, I can’t help but think that we’re not being told everything. For starters, its says that they scheduled themselves to make the journey from Patriot Hills to the South Pole in a months time. Pretty ambitious considering the two recent speed records, solo and as a team, were no where near that quick.

The article goes on to say that they made the journey in just nine days, covering 200 miles in the process, which leads me to believe that this was a “last degree” expedition, which may have started at 88º or 89º South, which also puts a bit of a different spin on their “unsupported” claim.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very cool adventure for father and son to do together, but the mainstream media shouldn’t hype up these “firsts” with so much gusto without giving the whole story. Still, the journey was made for a good cause, and it is an adventure that I’d love to do as well. They should be proud of themselves. They just might want a different publicity shot that shows them in full snow gear out on the front lawn. 😉

Thanks to Vagabondish for the heads up on this via Twitter no less.

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Kraig Becker

Kraig is an outdoor and adventure travel writer based in Nashville, TN. Over the course of his career, he has contributed to numerous online and print outlets, including Popular Mechanics, Gear Junkie, Outside Online, National Geographic, Digital Trends, Business Insider, TripSavvy, about.com, and of course The Adventure Blog.