Teemu Lakkasuo skiing solo 1,100 km to South Pole

Finnish pair of Kari Suomela and Pasi Ikonen set off last week on similar trek

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Helsingin Sanomat reported at the beginning of November that two Finns, Kari Suomela and Pasi Ikonen, had set off to ski across Antarctica to the South Pole.
      Almost immediately, the newspaper received word that a third Finn planned the same adventure, but going solo.
      Teemu Lakkasuo intends to become the first Finn to ski across the southern continent solo, unsupported and unassisted, to reach the South Pole.
     
After a lengthy delay in Punta Arenas in Chile owing to inclement weather, Lakkasuo arrived on Monday at the landing strip and base camp of Patriot Hills (80°18'S, 81°21'W), in the Ellsworth Mountains.
      The 34-year-old from Helsinki, who describes himself as a sports instructor specialised in outdoor and adventure sports, is also the executive manager of the Finnish Transplant Sports Association.
      On their website the executive manager is listed as "travelling" between November 2008 and February 2009, but this is no holiday, as he will be facing a skiing trip of just over 1,100 kilometres from Hercules Inlet to the Pole, pulling a fibreglass sled behind him that contains all his needs and weighs roughly 100 kilos.
     
Full details of the two expeditions can be had from the links given below.
      Lakkasuo expects to reach the Amundsen-Scott Base at the South Pole in around 50 days from when he sets out.
      Suomela and Ikonen's unsupported expedition is expected to have the same duration.
      Photographer Kari Suomela is bidding to become the first Finn and one of the very few people anywhere who have managed unsupported trips to both Poles.
      He was on the 2006 Finnish expedition to the North Pole (see linked article).
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  North Pole conquerors return home (9.5.2006)

Links:
  Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE), Patriot Hills
  Map showing locations of Patriot Hills and the South Pole (Adventure Network International)
  Suomela-Ikonen South Pole Expedition 2008
  thepoles.com - Expedition List for 2008/2009
  Finnish South Pole Solo Expedition - Teemu Lakkasuo

Helsingin Sanomat