In reply to thommi:
Well...
The ice shelves are land ice and therefore part of the continent. This was accepted by all the earliest polar travellers who did, or attempted, crossings – Shackleton (who didn’t have a choice to fly), the Mordre brothers, Messner and Fuchs, Dansercouer and Hubert, Ranulph Fiennes and Borge Ousland. This means you start OUTSIDE them, not inside them. So you probably begin at the ‘outside’ ie north side of Berkner Island and finish at Ross Island (Scott/McMurdo base). This is a continental crossing. When Fiennes-Stroud failed to make it across the Ross Ice Shelf in their attempted crossing, they initially admitted that they had failed. Only later, did they spuriously introduce the idea that by crossing the land only did they make a continental crossing.
In the mid-late 90s some South Pole ski teams decided that Berkner was too expensive (requiring an extra flight to cache fuel) and so made a new start point at the edge of the land at Hercules Inlet – a long way from the actual coast. This was for reasons of cost and convenience (it’s easier and shorter than starting from Berkner). As is the way of things, being cheaper and easier it became more popular, though for people wanting to achieve big firsts a Berkner start was still preferred.
With regard to the ‘Messner Start’ that O’Brady and Rudd have used for this trip, it too is a recent commercial contrivance. When Messner did his crossing with Arved Fuchs, he wanted to start at Berkner or a true outer edge, but fuel and logistics issues meant they actually got dropped in a random point inland along the way. He was furious and threatened to sue. In more recent times some groups started near this random point, calling it the Messner Start, then to fix it up a bit ALE, the logistics operator, moved the Messner Start to the actual land-coast on the Ronne Ice Shelf, still a very long way from the actual coast.
Attempted crossings, with no kites or resupplies, that have tried to go from the true outer continental edges, have failed due to the great distance that needs to be covered. This is why it has been deemed ‘impossible’, a reputation that O’Brady bases his marketing on. By doing so, he is placing himself in the context of those going before him, in a community, of shared standards and experiences. But by just going from inner coast to inner coast AND along the graded road (ffs!) he has shown he is only too willing to reject the true challenge of the goal and disrespect all those whose failed efforts built the challenge up to what it has become. He wants the trophy without winning the race. He is claiming a prize that was meant for another achievement.
O’Brady can do whatever he wants, and his trip is a genuine sporting achievement, but if he wants to make such big claims that rest on the actions of his predecessors, he should respect the parameters of the game that they did. If he changes the rules then just starts shouting that he won, he is cheating.
