Two Kiwi guys sled to the South Pole, dodging crevasses, starvation & marriage

Escape to the Pole
Kevin Biggar
RRP: $39.99
Publication: 13 August 2010
Random House New Zealand

On 27 November 2003 Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald arrived at Port St Charles in Barbados after rowing across the Atlantic in 40 days, 5 hours — a new world record.  Kevin Biggar’s first book The Oarsome Adventures of a Fat Boy Rower tells the tale of that epic trip.

Escape to the Pole, Kevin’s second book, tells the story of their attempt on the first ever un-resupplied trek from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back and two bachelors going to the end of the Earth to reconcile themselves to the idea of marriage.

Kevin and Jamie are leading normal thirty something lives when Kevin’s girlfriend starts to get clucky, and Jamie’s girfriend Kate comes back into the picture.Their carefree bachelor days are numbered. There is only one solution. They set themselves the challenge of trekking, unsupported, 2400kms from the Antarctic coast to South Pole and back across the coldest, windiest, highest, driest, most ‘est’ place on Earth.

After consulting with Sir Ed they start planning for the expedition. To the alarm of their neighbours they train for pulling sleds by dragging car tyres through the suburbs. They travel up to the Arctic circle to learn the skills they will need to keep them alive at -40C and they learn to fly the giant traction kites that will pull them back from the Pole.

On the first day of the trek they are not off to a good start.The plane drops them nine nautical miles further away from the Pole than their planned starting point. At the end of day one they have made little progress, having only hiked 3.7 miles in five hours. With a target of 12 miles per day, they are in a race against time…

To get to the Pole they need to hike 1200kms across incredibly rough terrain, through crevasses and sastruggi, dragging sleds behind them with 160kgs of supplies. As heavy as this is — it isn’t nearly heavy enough.
On 2 January 2007 after 52 days of man-hauling their sleds, they became the only New Zealanders to have walked unsupported to the South Pole.

 Drawing on a wealth of historical sources, the book is also interspersed with anecodotes from past expeditions to the Pole, focusing particularly on Captain Scott’s doomed 1910-1912 pole attempt.
As they trudge South they find themselves unwillingly recreating and reliving some of the most dramatic moments of Scott’s last expedition and so get a unique perspective in the circumstances surrounding his tragic death.

(Pics - Jamie left, Kevin right)

Written in the same whimsical, informative, entertaining style as The Oarsome Adventures of a Fat Boy Rower — the Sunday Star Times sports book of the year in 2008 — Escape to the Pole puts a modern human face on a classic boy’s own adventure story with a romantic twist.

Being released next week. Perfect for Father's Day.