Indian skier Reena Kaushal on Monday set out from her base camp on the Antarctica on an adventure to become the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole.
38-year-old Kaushal, an outdoor instructor from Darjeeling, but settled in Delhi, is part of an eight-woman team attempting to ski to the South Pole to mark the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth grouping of 53 nations.
Skiing eight to ten hours a day, Ms. Kaushal along with her mates from seven other countries is expected to cover 800 km across the frozen southern continent to the pole in about 40 days. Each skier is towing a sledge with food and gear weighing some 80 kg.
The skiers are likely to face blinding blizzards, jet speed winds blowing in excess of 130 km an hour, hidden crevasses and temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius. “During their 40-day ordeal the skiers will ski past the polar ice cap’s mountain passes and fields, they will experience daylight for 24 hours,” said team leader, Briton Felicity Aston.
They hope to reach the South Pole by the New Year’s Day on January 1, the date the Commonwealth came into existence in 1950. Besides India, the expedition comprises women from Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and Britain.
Ms. Kaushal is no no stranger to snows, having scaled seven Himalayan peaks, including Nun and Stok Kangri in Ladakh, and other peaks in Garhwal Himalayas.
“I want that by my experience more Indian woman would take up careers in outdoor industry,” she said. Her husband Luv Raj Singh Dharamshaktu is an Everester. The team had a champagne beginning with their new tents getting ripped apart in jet speed winds at Patriot Hills base camp in an area of the Antarctica overseen by Argentina.
Keywords: Reena Kaushal, South Pole, Briton Felicity Aston, skier
