ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701200136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EOFF SPENCER ASSOCIATED PRESS
EXHAUSTED AND SLIGHTLY frostbitten, he beat three others to complete the 1,675-mile journey.
For 64 days, Boerge Ousland saw little more than white. Endless fields of packed snow, occasionally broken up by peaks and canyons of icy white. Fiercely blowing flakes at times obscured the view of his white horizon.
The 34-year-old Norwegian emerged on the Pacific edge of Antarctica on Saturday to become the first person to cross the continent alone and unaided.
Exhausted and slightly frostbitten, Ousland beat three other adventurers who set out separately on Nov. 15 to complete the 1,675-mile journey.
``I am very, very tired, but incredibly happy,'' Ousland said by radio.
Four New Zealanders from the Scott Base research outpost at McMurdo Sound cheered Ousland on the last three miles of his crossing.
``He was fine and happy. He had a big smile and was elated that it was over,'' base radio operator Rick James told The Associated Press by telephone.
The New Zealanders shook Ousland's hand and shot photographs and video footage as he skied the rest of the way unassisted to the base, home to 55 scientists and support personnel.
After reading a congratulatory message sent by fax from British rival Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, Ousland ate a hot meal of pasta, meat and vegetables, went into a warm cabin and fell into a deep sleep.
``He's overwhelmed. He's arrived at Scott Base. He hasn't seen anyone for the last two months, except for at the South Pole, and now suddenly he's got 50-odd new faces around him,'' base operations manager Rex Hendry told Australian Associated Press.
Ousland beat his own prediction of how long the crossing would take - 90 days - by nearly a month.
He harnessed Antarctica's fierce winds by strapping himself to a parachute-like sail. With winds in his favor, he could ski as much as 140 miles a day - all while towing a sled carrying about 400 pounds of supplies.
``I feel quite good, actually,'' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Having set out from the northwestern point of Berkner Island, he reached the South Pole - roughly his midway point - on Dec. 19, and briefly met other people in his only human contact of the trip.
``The loneliness is a positive in a way,'' he said Saturday. ``When you're by yourself, you get closer to yourself and to the surroundings.''
The trek included climbing the 9,800-foot South Pole Plateau and enduring monotony and temperatures that dipped to minus 40.
He spent Christmas in his tent waiting out a storm, but was cheered by reading letters from his wife and 12-year-old son.
He maintained his strength and warmth by eating a high-fat food ration of 6,200 calories every other day. Asked how it tasted, Ousland said, ``It just gets better and better the more hungry you get.''
The last miles were some of his slowest. For hours, he slogged through treacherous, crevasse-laced terrain at about 2 mph, his spokesman, Hans Christian Erlandsen, told the AP in Oslo, Norway.
Upon arriving at Scott Base, Ousland headed to a telephone and spent 90 minutes talking to his wife, Wenche, and supporters in Norway.
Wenche Ousland said she was ``very happy, proud and overwhelmed'' that the trek had been successful. ``By nature I am not afraid,'' she said, ``but of course I have thought about everything that could happen.''
Ousland attempted the crossing last year but was stopped by frostbite.
This year, three other men also started the crossing on Nov. 15. Fiennes dropped out in mid-December with kidney stones. Marek Kaminsky of Poland reportedly was well behind Ousland. The status of South Korean Hoe Young-ho was unknown.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. On Ross Island, Norwegian explorer Boerge Ouslandby CNBwaves his country's flag two miles from the finish of his solo
crossing of Antarctica on Saturday. The 34-year-old became the first
person to cross the continent alone and unaided.