The goal of the “Millennium Expedition” to the South Pole is multifaceted, to repeat the Robert F. Scott Expedition and to launch the Worlds First Hot Air Balloon on the South Pole.

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Adventure Travel to the South Pole Continued. 

 The goal of the “Millennium Expedition” to the South Pole is multifaceted. Not since the failed British Expedition led by Robert F.Scott in 1912 has anyone since attempted to cross such a length of Antarctica and return back using unassisted land traversing vehicles to reach the South Pole. When Scott proposed using steam driven sledges and horses to traverse the route to the South Pole, it ended in his death and the death of two others that had hoped to reach the South Pole for the very first time since the existence of man. It seems only fitting on the dawn of the New Millennium to attempt another assault at this record. Using untested prototype Russian land traversing vehicles the Millennium Expedition hopes to travel the more than 1400 mile round-trip from Patriot Hills in the Antarctic Region of Ellsworth Land, near the Ronne Ice Shelf. It is still unknown whether the “Snow Buggies” can withstand the planets coldest climate of over -40 degrees Fahrenheit and forge huge crevasses that could swallow up a vehicle in a blink of an eye. These Snow buggies were commissioned for this expedition only three months prior to the expedition and the critical test trials had to be postponed. Their testing will be done here on Antarctica! Also unknown is the toll that the altitude of 9,000 feet above sea level will take on these diesel vehicles, especially when diesel fuel gels and begins to freeze at temperatures above - 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It's easy to feel that we are the guinea pigs in a huge experiment and in this vast frozen desolation, our lives  could be snuffed out, with any failure of our equipment. But these thoughts are soon pushed out of our minds as we concentrate on the mission. We must travel 750 miles over unknown territory and arrive at the South Pole and fly our Hot Air Balloon. In this modern day and age of jet airplanes, no one has ever flown a Hot Air Balloon over the South Pole. The South Pole was simply too inaccessible to be reached in previous years, yet alone fly a fragile and cumbersome hot air balloon over. Original plans had also called for the expedition to drop the 36 parachute jumpers over the South Pole, however in 1997 three jumpers attempted this record and all three died. The Trans-Antarctic Glacier is over 9,000 feet above sea level at the South Pole and it's believed that flying the plane at twelve thousand feet above sea level they may have gone unconscious shortly after jumping out of the plane due to lack of oxygen at such a high altitude. Since the cause was unclear, this portion of the expedition had to scrubbed.

    
Copyright by Curtis Lieber