India News.

50 days at South Pole

By: Shashank Shekhar   Date:  2011-03-01   Place: Delhi

An eight-member Indian Army team skis for 1170 km in the ice continent Starting from the coast of Antarctica, a team of eight Indian army officers skied for almost 10 hours everyday for 50 days, braving cold winds, snow storms and extreme temperatures in the range of -15 to - 40degrees C. On January 15 this year, they finally landed at South Pole. The ski expedition was part of Indian Army's annual  adventure activity. During the last decade, under its adventure activity programme, Army has carried out trekking expeditions to the Himalayas and its teams have scaled seven highest peaks in the range. This year to commemorate the Army Day on Jan 15, it sent a ski expedition to South Pole. "We wanted to start early so that we could reach South Pole on Army Day but due to bad weather, we had to delay the expedition by 12 days and started it only on November 24,2010. The expedition took the 'Hercules Inlet route' which involved skiing for a distance of 1170 km from coast of Antarctica to South Pole. We pulled sledges that contained supplies like food, tents and other material that would last us for approximately  two months till we reached South Pole," said 44-year-old Colonel Anand Swaroop who led the team. "It was very difficult to predict the weather there as it used change every few hours. We used to start in bright sun and hardly half-an-hour later a storm would come up. But we never stopped and kept going. At times, we used to go for little celebrations and make some halwa or cake. After braving all odds and despite delay in the start of the expedition, we  finally made it to the South Pole on Army Day," Swaroop added Other members of the team included Captain R Balakarthik, Lance Naik Khilat Singh, Lance Naik Arjun Kumar Thapa, Lance Naik Parsuram Gurung, Rifleman Tsewang, Rifleman Ram Singh and Rifleman Shaukat Ahmed Mura The Army decided on the expedition in February 2010 and invited applications from within the  forces for the same . Around 61 personnel applied out of which 32 turned up in the month of April when the first scrutiny started. Initially, training was conducted at High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg after which a team of 10 was selected and sent to Greenland from Aug 29 to Sept 28 to acclimatise them with the sub-zero temperatures of Antarctica. South Pole at a glance The geographic South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica  and sits atop a featureless, windswept, icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 meters from the nearest sea at McMurdo Sound. The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 meters thick at the Pole, so the land surface under the ice sheet is actually near sea level. During the southern winter (March-September), the South Pole receives no sunlight at all, and from May to July, between extended periods of twilight, it is completely dark (apart from moonlight). In the summer (September-March), the sun is continuously above the horizon and appears to move in a counterclockwise circle. However, it is always low in the sky, reaching a maximum of 23.5 in December. Much of the sunlight that does reach the surface is reflected by the white snow. (source:middary) =================================================