Cecilie Skog og her team reached the South Pole unsupported the 27th December 2005!

Hvitserk (www.Hvitserk.no) is a pioneering tour operator in Norway with clients first and foremost from their home country, but also from other countries. Their expeditions to the South Pole in 2005 is Norway`s first on commercial basis. It means that these tours has been organised by a tour operator for paying participants.

According to the team`s expedition website www.southpole05.no, never has any previous expedition gone faster to the Geographical South Pole, while doing it the real way: from outside the Antarctic continent, and without any support.

Photo. Cecilie with a mask for protecting her face against the coldness. With minus 60 Celsius it`s urgent. © Cecilie Skog`s website: www.CecilieSkog.com. Cecilie Skog works as an tour guide for the Norwegian tour operator Hvitserk. This company arranges at the moment two Antarctic expeditions who have started at the same time but some distance apart from each other, skiing between 910 and 960 km to the South Pole.

One group consists of 5 people, and the other of 6 people. Both make an attempt to reach the South Pole unsupported, through a new route from the 82nd degree.

Referred from their expedition`s website www.southpole05.no: "We will fly from Punta Arenas in Chile to Patriot Hills," the team reports. "From here we will be flown further in a Twin Otter until we find a suitable landing area on the Ronnie-Fleichner Ice Shelf near the Foundation Ice Stream and on the 82nd degree of latitude. We are two groups who will start at the same time but some distance apart from each other."

Cecilie Skog`s boyfriend, Rolf Bae, is the expedition leader in the team she join. The couple attempted K2 last summer and this time their K2 base camp manager Per Henry Knudsen is joining the polar adventure. The six-member group includes Germans Roland Krueger, Rolf Dieter Seel, and Austrian Wolfgang Melchior.

The second group is leaded by Inge Meløy, who has leaded a number of Greenland crossing expeditions. Inge also works for Hvitserk-Eventyrreiser. Other members are Norwegians Asbjørn Hjertenes, Jann Ivar Didriksen, Hanne Marit Normann, and British Simon Streater.

The race to be the first expedition to reach the Pole was eventually won by Roald Amundsen when he planted the Norwegian flag at the South Pole on 14th December 1911.

Stein Morten Lund, 28 December 2005

Additional information
The team`s expedition website is www.southpole05.no.

Cecilie Skog`s website: www.CecilieSkog.com.

The organiser of the two expeditions to the South Pole, the tour operator Hvitserk: www.Hvitserk.no.

Mount Vinson is one of the Seven Summits. It's the tallest mountain in Antarctic and one of the 7 summits (www.7summits.com). 

Report in Norwegian:
I snart en måned har de vært på vei mot målet etter å ha fulgt en helt ny rute inn til Sydpolpunktet. Nå står Mount Vinson for tur før de returnerer til Norge i slutten av januar. Fjellet er det høyeste i Antarktis og for Cecilie blir dette det sjette av 7-summits (www.7summits.com).

Travel Explorations har tidligere dekke hennes klatreekspedisjoner på K2 og Mount Everest. Les mer om Cecilie Skog og hennes bragder på www.TravelExplorations.com.

Man kan også følge nåværende ekspedisjon i Antarktis på Cecilie`s Blogg på websiden til den norske nasjonale avisen www.Dagbladet.no.

Pressekontakt for Cecilie hjemme i Norge er Bjørn Sekkesæter.

For de som ønsker å komme i kontakt med Cecilie kan enten
- skrive en mail til bs@cecilieskog.com eller
- ringe +47 480 12 723