Louis Rudd Completes His Trek Across Antarctica 2 Days Behind Colin O’Brady

By Adam Skolnick

Dec. 28, 2018

Louis Rudd on Friday became the second person to cross Antarctica solo and unassisted, two days after Colin O’Brady of Portland, Ore., became the first.

O’Brady, 33, and Rudd, 49, a captain in the British Army, began the trek as a race on Nov. 3.

Rudd finished his journey on Day 56 at the foot of Leverett Glacier at 2:21 p.m. Eastern Time, a little more than 48 hours after O’Brady completed his expedition.

“It’s nice, when you’re finished, that you’re in the polar history books,” Rudd said by satellite phone Friday night. “But it’s all about the journey.”

Rudd’s trek covered 925 miles, according to his main sponsor, Shackleton, a British apparel company. Like O’Brady, he did the journey solo, unsupported by supply drops or similar help, and unaided by kites or other devices to harness the wind to help pull his heavy load.

On Friday’s leg, Rudd said, he began stripping clothing off because the weather was so warm. The visibility, though, was pretty poor, he said.

“It wasn’t white out, it was a flat light,” Rudd said. “You could see the sky, but there was no light coming through the high clouds, so you couldn’t see the surface you were skiing over. It was really tricky, it was sort of a hard icy surface.” He stumbled around and fell a few times, he said.

Rudd learned about O’Brady’s finish soon after it happened, he said, through a message from his expedition manager, Wendy Searle.

The two were reunited on Friday, he said, and they expect to be flown to the South Pole on Saturday.

Although O’Brady beat him in this quest, Rudd is the only person to complete two traverses of Antarctica. His first was in 2017 with a team assembled from the British Armed Forces. He led that expedition.

Altogether, he has covered over 3,000 miles on Antarctica, spread across three expeditions.

Through his latest polar journey, Rudd carried a flag bearing the family crest of a friend and mentor, Henry Worsley, who died in 2016 after he was airlifted from the ice while trying to accomplish what O’Brady and Rudd did this week.

After arriving at the finish, Rudd found O’Brady’s tent empty, he said, and he briefly worried.

It turned out that O’Brady had just gone skiing, Rudd said, and they finally saw each other after Rudd pitched his own tent.

“It is amazing to see him and be the first to congratulate him in person!” O’Brady wrote in an Instagram post. “Not to mention it’s quite refreshing to see and speak to another human being after the long, quiet walk the last two months.”

The pair split some food that had been buried at the site by Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions, the charter company that will fly them to the South Pole. O’Brady dug up the supplies when he completed his trek, finding a stash that included coffee, chocolate, fresh cheese and ham.

“I’m enjoying that for the moment,” Rudd said.

The food was buried last year for another explorer, Ben Saunders, who attempted a solo crossing without assistance but did not finish.

In his Instagram post, O’Brady quoted Rudd as saying: “It’s a miracle that we both cracked this in the same year after many people failing over the years to complete this crossing.”

O’Brady added, “Agreed.”