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LONDON, 20th January (PTI) – A British Sikh Army officer and physiotherapist has set a new world record for the longest solo, unsupported and unassisted polar expedition by a woman.
Captain Harpreet Chandi, aka Polar Preet, has completed a trekking challenge to become the first woman of Indian origin to set a record solo unsupported trek to the South Pole, crossing 1,397 kilometers across Antarctica in minus 50 degrees Celsius. Previous The record is 1,381 km, set by Anja Blacha in 2020.
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“It was very cold and windy, but I had short breaks so I wasn’t too cold,” Chandi wrote Thursday in a blog she’s been maintaining during her new polar expedition.
“But I didn’t bring myself to stop earlier because I wanted to run further,” she said.
However, Chandi was disappointed that she wasn’t equipped enough to achieve her original goal of becoming the first woman to cross Antarctica alone.
“I’m frustrated because I don’t have time to do the crossing. I know I’ve come a long way, and when I’m on the ice, it’s difficult, and I know it’s not far away,” she said.
The 33-year-old from Derby, east England, works at a regional rehabilitation center in Buckinghamshire and has been pulling a sled with all her gear on her new adventure in sub-zero temperatures since November 2022.
Derbyshire University, which awarded her an honorary degree, congratulated the hiker for breaking “the record for longest solo, unsupported and unassisted polar expedition by any woman in history”.
When she learned about Antarctica about three years ago, she decided she wanted to cross the continent.
But she didn’t immediately apply to Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE), which handles permits for such expeditions, because she wanted to gain some experience.
Her application was completed early last year and she has been preparing for a new goal after completing the first phase of her Antarctic expedition in 2021. On her most recent assignment, she’s been listening to voice notes to stay motivated.
“I heard childhood memories from my brothers, my mum told me how excited she was to have a baby girl, and the midwife said she had never seen an Asian woman so excited about having a girl. Finally heard my niece say this The most amazing thing she has ever seen in her life, and even more amazing that it was done by her phuwa (aunt). It was so precious to hear,” she wrote on her blog this week road.
Chandi has always been passionate about pushing the human body to its limits and sees her adventures as part of this wider mission.
As an “endurance athlete”, she has run marathons and ultramarathons, and as a British Army officer, she has completed large-scale exercises and deployments in Nepal, Kenya and participated in the United Nations peacekeeping operation in South Sudan.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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