19: Dan biked to the South Pole
Dan Burton was the first person to bike to the South Pole. He started at the coast of Antarctica, and over 51 days he biked uphill (going from sea level to 9300 feet), against the wind, and in temperatures as low as 40 degrees BELOW zero. In this podcast he told me how he planned and trained for it, what happened along the way, and how he reached his goal. And what happens to a Coke at 40 degrees below zero.
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Show Notes
I’ve lived in areas where it gets really cold, and I’ve lived where it’s warm most of the time. I’ve lived up north in Ohio and in Maine, and now I’m in sunny Florida. I definitely prefer the warmer climate.
But today’s story is about being cold. Really, really cold. Dan Burton brought his fat tire bike to the coast of Antarctica, and he biked from there to the South Pole. That’s 750 miles, and it’s uphill, and it’s against the wind, and it’s in temperatures that are colder than just about anyone would be comfortable with.
But he did it – and in fact, he was the first one to do it. And actually, it happened 5 years ago, and no one has done it again since then – at least not at the time we recorded this conversation, which is early 2019.
And I learned something really interesting. The elevation at the South Pole is 9300 feet. But only 300 feet of that is actual land. The 9000 feet of elevation on top of that land is solid ice. So at the South Pole Dan was standing on ice that was almost 2 miles thick. In fact, during our conversation he mentions that he actually walked over some mountains but he wasn’t able to see them, because he was actually on top of them because of that thick layer of ice.
I’m always intrigued by stories of human endurance like this, so I really loved hearing this story first hand from Dan. Here’s where you can learn more about his expedition:
Blog: http://epicsouthpole.blogspot.com/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/EpicBiking
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthPoleEpic/
Book: https://amzn.to/2VVRrHR (Amazon aff link)
Here’s the video Dan and I discuss, about the lady that fell into the crevasse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGbKLmEkKM
And if you like this podcast, you’re welcome to buy me a coffee – WhatWasThatLike.com/coffee
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