A team of adventurers is planning an epic expedition to the Antarctic in 2014 as they celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to cross the frozen continent. They intend to follow the same route that Shackleton had planned before his ship, the Endurance, became locked in the Antarctic ice, preventing the expedition from ever getting underway.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Centenary Expedition 2014 doesn’t expect to have that problem however, as they’ll set out from the Falkland Islands aboard an icebreaker in September or October of 2014 and make their way across the Weddell Sea to Vahsel Bay. From there, they’ll make their way on foot through the Shackleton Range of mountains, to the South Pole, before proceeding onward to the Beardmore Glacier, and the Ross Ice Shelf, where they’ll even visit Shackleton’s famous hut. The entire team will be retrieved from McMurdo Sound upon completion of the journey, which is expected to take somewhere between 100-120 days and cover approximately 2500 miles (4023 km).
The team already consists of expedition leader Joanne Davies and Sebastian Coulthard, but they hope to add another 3 or 4 teammates to the mix. They are currently recruiting a medic, photographer/cameraman, an artist or poet, and a scientist. If you’d like to join the team, they have an online application that you’ll find here.
While 2014 seems like an awfully long ways off yet, there is a lot to accomplish in the next three years. The team will need to train and prepare of course, but there are plenty of logistical hurdles to overcome as well. They’ll spend that time planning and preparing, testing gear, and preparing themselves for the long, arduous task of crossing the most desolate and harsh continent on the planet.
The next few years are going to be exciting ones in the Antarctic, with a number of expeditions celebrating the exploits of Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton. Explorers who dedicated, and sometimes lost, their lives in pursuit of adventure.
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Excellent text! Unfotunatelly, I am brazilian….