Hedvig Hjertaker, South Pole | Tonight Hedvig Hjertaker (28) sets a record: Is the youngest woman in the world to the South Pole alone

Night to Sunday Norwegian time, Hedvig Hjertaker (28) completes a feat that is hardly possible for most people to fathom.

After a mildly arduous journey across the Antarctic continent, she becomes the youngest woman to ever go solo to the South Pole.

But it happens on the hanging hair.

– She ran out of food yesterday. What she lives on today, I learned, is a little chocolate, some nuts, cocoa and biscuits. If she were to hold on for one more day, it wouldn’t work. Time is running out, says André Fjærestrand Bratli to Nettavisen late on Saturday evening.

Before the trip, Hedvig Hjertaker told Nettavisen editor Gunnar Stavrum that it was her mother’s death that inspired her to the incredible South Pole journey:

– Very malnourished

He is Hjertaker’s manager, and is eagerly waiting for the 28-year-old to reach the almost mythical point at the 90th south latitude.

– I’m guessing that right now she has between 8 and 12-13 kilometers left. But it takes time. It goes slowly, because the conditions are so sluggish. She is very malnourished in terms of both sleep and food, and has few calories to spare, says Bratli at 11.15pm on Saturday evening.

– Estimated arrival is between midnight and one o’clock tonight. There may be some delays, but at least it will happen within four hours.

It is therefore an achievement that anyone and everyone should do well to beat. Before her, only eight women have ever gone alone to the South Pole.

– Terrible conditions

– Then she holds the world record as the youngest woman to go alone to the South Pole. I don’t think anyone understands how sick it really is, says Bratli, and explains:

– After only two or three weeks on a trip alone, you start to become very sound-aware. You are not used to sounds. There is no smell. She hasn’t seen a single human in almost 50 days. It will be very good to arrive now.

– Yes, what does she say herself?

– She says it’s heavy on lead. There are an awful lot of altitude meters she has climbed. She has traveled more than 1,100 kilometres, 98 per cent of which has been in a constant headwind. It averages around minus 40 degrees, and the wind blows between 15 and 30 meters per second. These are absolutely terrible conditions, explains the manager.

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– She has had a number of days with “whiteout”, where you can’t see anything and have to navigate on a compass course. Then it doesn’t help with GPS, and you don’t see anything. You just have to hope that the compass is correct and go on a compass course.

Started with pneumonia

As if that wasn’t enough, the 28-year-old could hardly get off to a worse start on his trip back in November.

On November 27 last year, she landed on Union Glacier, ready to tackle the almost inhuman challenge that lay before her. But on the way out to the starting point, Hjertaker caught pneumonia, and had to spend the first three or four days in the tent with antibiotics.

– It wasn’t quite the start we had hoped for, but there isn’t much you can do about it.

– Does that only make the performance even more impressive?

– It actually does. With pneumonia out there, it is not a given that you will recover in a few days, either.

But even though the pneumonia went away, that is not the only challenge she has encountered along the way.

Drama along the way

Bratli gives a small mini-lecture on “sastrugi”, a phenomenon where snowdrifts form in the direction of the wind that can be compared to low sand dunes of up to half a meter in height. These come close together, but are both unsteady and crooked, and with a desk weighing 100 kilos in tow, the chance of tipping over is high. In addition, the risk of breaking the skis increases.

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At the same time, friction in the snow increases the closer you get to the South Pole itself, so that it becomes more and more difficult to ski.

– It’s so tiring that you don’t ski, you just have to lug them along. The last three or four days I know have been lead heavy. And a little dramatic, since she has had little food.

Drama also occurred last weekend, when the solar panel that has powered Hjertaker’s satellite phone, GPS and all necessary communication equipment was destroyed. As a result, she was about to lose all contact with the base that has accompanied her along the way, and which is responsible for her safety.

After a few days, however, a plane was sent out that dropped a new solar panel to the Norwegian woman, and thus she was able to save her equipment and the possibility of communication.

Must stay for a week

And now the dream has become reality.

But the arrival at the South Pole point, and the research base located there, still does not mean an immediate return for Hjertaker.

– She was very “keen” to get to the point earlier today, because by then she had caught a flight that goes from the research base back to Union Glacier. I know that a couple of days ago she had a rather emotional conversation with the security team, where she ordered a fatty burger on arrival at the South Pole, says Bratli.

– Now she will most likely be “stuck” out there for another week. But there she has access to facilities such as food, toilet, shower and things like that. So she stays in a tent there for a week, before flying back to Union Glacier and relatively quickly on to Chile and Norway.