Colin O'Brady Completes Historic Antarctic Crossing (nytimes.com)

The final miles of a nearly two-month race across Antarctica -- a lonely effort marked by long days, short nights and stunning endurance -- ended Wednesday with a sprint to the finish. From a report: Adventurer Colin O'Brady on Wednesday accomplished what he had dubbed "the Impossible First," becoming the first person to complete a solo, unsupported crossing of Antarctica. With a push of 32 hours after leaving his last camp on Christmas morning, the 33-year-old American reached the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf on Day 54 of his expedition. He had covered almost 80 miles since his last sleep. Briton Lou Rudd, who set off the same day -- Nov. 3 -- on the same quest, on Wednesday had about 70 miles left, according to his expedition's tracking map. It estimated a finish on Saturday.

The full trek is about 935 miles. O'Brady's Instagram post from the finish post read in part: "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced. I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey." O'Brady had reached the South Pole on Dec. 12, a day ahead of Rudd. The New York Times story adds: To some following his progress, his decision was unnerving. Under intense stress, the line between lucidity and madness can be fuzzy, and especially so for someone who has been alone for almost two months, trekking miles each day, while doing battle with raging winds, unseasonal snowfall, whiteout visibility and polar temperatures. Could someone in that situation, exhausted and emaciated, be trusted to make sound choices?

"I can feel myself in a deep fatigue state," O'Brady said when reached by satellite phone on Dec. 22. "When I was crossing Greenland" -- a journey he undertook this summer to prepare for this expedition -- "I kind of let my guard down on my last night, and I fell into a crevasse that could have easily killed me. I want to be done badly, but at the same time, it's about executing all the little things and not make any stupid mistakes at the end."

Comments

Heroes

[Locke2005]

This is one of those rare situations where the guy coming in second deserves just as much respect as the guying coming in first!

Re:Heroes

[rogoshen1]

For me, I respect the true unsung heroes of this world; Slashdot AC's with their pithy comments and virtue signaling.

Here's to you AC, keep fighting the good fight!

Re:Heroes

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I'm not really sure why that's a rare situation. I mean, most silver medalists deserve just as much respect as the gold medalists, Newton and Leibniz both are worthy of respect regardless of which one invented Calculus first.

In fact, there is only one situation where it doesn't make sense to show just as much respect to the guy coming in second: when they followed in the footsteps/were aided by the person who came in first.

Re:Heroes

[93 Escort Wagon]

It's definitely a significant personal accomplishment that not may people would be willing to attempt - but it's not heroic by any stretch of the imagination.

Unless he did it to deliver penicillin to the South Pole to help a dying patient and the planes wouldn't fly because the weather was too bad and the Sno-Cats were all frozen in with broken tracks.

Re:Heroes

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

In all fairness and objectivity: One of the reasons I come to Slashdot is that there is much, much *less* virtue-signalling here than on most of the forums I visit. I mean, go to one of the Gawker sites (io9, Jezebel, Kotaku, etc) and you will see roughly 100x the amount of virtue-signalling (that's not hyperbole; it's a sober estimate).

Re:Heroes

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

Perhaps you would follow my meaning better if instead of using the phrase "virtue signalling", I used a much older term: "sanctimoniousness". Or "holier-than-thou", if you prefer.

All of these terms refer to the same behavior: You express outrage and anger at someone else's speech or behavior, with the primary (but unstated) goal of letting the reader know that *you*, personally, are much too virtuous to ever engage in that kind of speech or behavior.

(Not really a fan of the term "virtue signalling", to be honest, simply because it's overused at this point. There is a great piece of advice George Orwell gives in his essay "Politics and the English Language": "If you notice that you have used a phrase in your writing that you think you may have read somewhere else, cut it out". (I'm paraphrasing).)

Re:Heroes

[DNS-and-BIND]

I'm glad the winner shared so much about his feelings with us. This reporting is worse than the Olympics coverage.

Oh thank goodness!

[Gravis Zero]

I was really concerned I'd never hear from Colin again. In the last exchange we had, two months ago, he said we should meet up at a new local hot spot I had found but when I asked him if he needed directions and he wrote, "Nah, I'll just use Apple Maps." ;)