The second Norwegian group has reached the South Pole!

This 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.

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.

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 have succeeded 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."

The first group who reached the South Pole recently, was leaded by Rolf Bae. The six-member group includes Rolf`s girlfriend Cecilie Skog, Germans Roland Krueger, Rolf Dieter Seel, and Austrian Wolfgang Melchior.

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, 2 January 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