Compiled by Outside Online

Sept 9, 2003 Famed Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland has embarked on another trailblazing expedition—the first unassisted crossing of the Patagonian ice cap in southern Chile and Argentina.

Ousland, 41, believes that the 344-mile trek will take approximately two months. He set off on the adventure last week with partner Thomas Ulrich, 36, of Switzerland. The pair will kayak, cross-country ski, and climb across the ice cap, one of the largest frozen wastelands outside of the polar regions.

Making the first unassisted crossing means Ousland and Ulrich must carry all the food and equipment they will need throughout the journey. Lugging 285 pounds of gear and provisions each, they will have no equipment caches nor be able to use dogsleds or other transportation.

But the 344-mile trip seems like a mere jaunt for Ousland, whose "firsts" include a 1,068-mile trip across the North Pole from Russia to Canada and a 1,767-mile crossing of Antarctica (Click here to read Outside Online's 1997 interview about the expedition).


So far, however, tough terrain has slowed the current expedition to a crawl.

"It has been a crazy struggle," Ousland told Verdens Gang, a Norwegian newspaper. "The first day up on the glacier we managed only three kilometers (1.8 miles) in 10 hours."

The epic journey will further cement Ousland as one of the world's premier arctic adventurers. In 1990, he notched the first unaided Nordic trip to the North Pole along with teammate Erling Kagge. He did the same trip solo in 1994. Two years later, he dragged a 375-pound sledge during the first solo trek to the South Pole.

His latest exploits include another first: an 82-day transcontinental trip from Russia to Canada in 2001. Last year, he joined the "British Jubilee" expedition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's first summit of Everest. Ousland, who runs his own North Pole guiding company, also wrote a recent article for the 2003 Outside Family Traveler issue, detailing a canoe trip with his son Max along Norway's Karasjokka River.