“When I was in college, I recorded the voices of my classmates in the mountaineering club, the songs sung by my friend’s children, and the sound of water in the caves of Mt. Seorak. Moving that space and coziness to Antarctica helped.”
This is how Kim Young-mi (42, North Face Athlete Team) captain, the first Korean to reach the South Pole at 90 degrees south latitude, the southernmost point of the earth, alone without supplies, overcame loneliness during the climbing period.
Captain Kim departed Hercules Inlet on November 27 last year and reached the South Pole on January 16 this year after taking 50 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes. He walked 1,186.5 km with a sled loaded with equipment weighing over 100 kg, even in cold weather approaching minus 30 degrees Celsius. He completed it alone without receiving any supplies, including equipment and food.
Captain Kim, whom we met at a hotel in Myeong-dong, Seoul on the 14th, said, “I gained 5kg, but I walked 11 hours every day and lost 14kg.” He said, “Thank you.” In addition, Captain Kim laughed, saying, “My face didn’t burn at all, so people said, ‘Isn’t it because you went to Namsan, not Antarctica?'”
Captain Kim, who became the youngest Korean (28 years old) to climb the highest peaks on seven continents between 2004 and 2008, said that he came up with the plan after reading a book about two Norwegian women crossing Antarctica using a kite in 2004. A friend who was originally going to go together got married and went alone. Captain Kim calmly said, “I looked at foreign reports for several years and paid attention to team member Park Young-seok.”
Regarding food, clothing and shelter, he said, “I didn’t have to worry because I didn’t have to change clothes, and the experience of winter training for more than 20 days during my college mountaineering team helped me sleep in a tent.” He said, “I ate 4,500 calories a day and ate like fuel injection, but I bought pork and beef from Majang-dong, freeze-dried instant soup, and packed it, so it was the same every day.” At the same time, he laughed, saying, “I desperately wanted to eat a can of yellow peach there,” and “after returning home, I ate it, so it wasn’t the taste I imagined in Antarctica.” 바카라
The hardest part was the strong wind and muscle pain. Captain Kim said, “The wind was the scariest. The perceived temperature was about 25 to 28 degrees below zero, which is the temperature of the freezer, and I had to endure the head wind for 11 hours a day. Around 83 to 84 degrees, a blizzard (blizzard) of 12m per second blew vigorously. I folded the tent to feel it with my whole body, but I couldn’t hit it again and it was discharged,” he recalled. “Captain Park Young-seok said, ‘If there is a hell in the world, it is the North Pole. The only way to escape to the south was to push forward with all your might,” he added.
Captain Kim said, “I get asked a lot, ‘Aren’t you lonely?’, but Seoul is more lonely. Antarctica did not give me a chance to feel lonely.” Regarding his next goal, he replied, “If I could recover my body and buy a plane ticket, that would be the place.” When asked what he wanted to say to the public, Captain Kim said: “There were many times when I doubted whether I could do it myself, but people are not as weak as I thought. I wish I had that kind of courage to take a step forward without being afraid after bumping into each other. I want to be remembered as a mountain climber who was not ashamed of himself and climbed with pride.”