On 13 January, after 923 kilometres of skiing in 38 days, Bernice Notenboom has become the first Dutch woman to reach the South Pole on skis, having endured harsh conditions, including -45 degree winds. Reaching the South Pole on skis pulling a huge, heavy sled was no easy task. Bernice also had pneumonia apparently not entirely gone yet, which she thought was altitude sickness.

“Every day it was 2 hours and 10 minutes of skiing, then a break, then another 2 hours and 10 minutes of skiing, then a short lunch break and again 2 hours and 10 minutes of skiing and so on until the night. Then we set up tents, melted snow for water, filled thermoses, etc. Whew! Now its all over. No more mandatory kilometres a day.”

(Link and photo: ourfernie.com, link: arcticalert.nl)