British adventurer Felicity Aston finished her Antarctic crossing on Monday, becoming the first woman to ski across the icy continent alone. She did it in 59 days ahead of schedule pulling two sledges for 1,084 miles (1,744 kilometres) from her starting point on the Leverett Glacier on Nov. 25. "It feels amazing to be finished and yet overwhelmingly sad that it s over at the same time," Aston said in a phone call she broadcast online from her tent while waiting for her flight out. She announced her achievement by Twitter: " !!!Congratulations to the 1st female to traverse Antarctica SOLO.V proud," after reaching Hercules Inlet on Antarctica s Ronne Ice Shelf. Aston also set another record: the first human to ski solo, across Antarctica, using only her own muscle power. A male-female team already combined to ski across Antarctica without kites or machines to pull them across, but Aston is the first to do this alone. Aston, 34, grew up in Kent, England, and studied physics and meteorology. A veteran of expeditions in sub-zero environments, she worked for the British weather service at a base in Antarctica and has led teams on ski trips in the Antarctic, the Arctic and Greenland. But this was the first time she traveled so far, so alone. She worried beforehand that the solitude could pose her biggest challenge. In such an extreme environment, the smallest mistakes can prove treacherous. Alone with one s thoughts, the mind can play tricks. Polar adventurers usually take care to watch their teammates for signs of hypothermia, which is easier to diagnose in others than yourself, she said. This Antarctic summer is the centennial of Roald Amundsen s conquest of the South Pole, and every Briton knows how R.F. Scott s team arrived days later, demoralized to see Norway s flag. Scott and his entire team then died on their way out, and some of their bodies weren t found for eight months. Aston had modern technology in her favour: She kept family and supporters updated and received their responses via Twitter and Facebook, and broadcast daily phone reports online. She carried two satellite phones to communicate with a support team, and a GPS device that reported her location throughout. She also had two supply drops one at the pole and one partway to her finish line so that she could travel with a lighter load. Otherwise, her feat was unassisted.
