Felicity Aston

In the whirling noise of our advancing technological age, we are seemingly never alone, never out-of-touch with the barrage of electronic data and information. Felicity Aston, physicist and meteorologist, took two months off from all human contact as she became the first woman -- and only the third person in history - to ski across the entire continent of Antarctica alone. She did it, too, with the simple apparatus of cross-country, without the aids used by her prededecessors - two Norwegian men - each of whom employed either parasails or kites. Aston's journey across the ice at the bottom of the world asked of her the extremes in terms of mental and physical bravery, as she faced the risks of unseen cracks buried in the snow so large they might engulf her and hypothermia due to brutalizing weather. She had to deal, too, with her emotional vulnerability in face of the constant bombardment of hallucinations brought on by the vast sea of whiteness, the lack of stimulation to her senses as she faced what is tantamount to a form of solitary confinement. Like Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Felicity Aston's Alone in Antarctica becomes an inspirational saga of one woman's battle through fear and loneliness as she honestly confronts both the physical challenges of her adventure, as well as her own human vulnerabilities.

The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice

Alone in Antarctica

Could you ski to the South Pole? That was the challenge that BritishAdventurer, Felicity Aston put to women from around the Commonwealthas she set out to create the most international all-female expedition ever tothe South Pole. The team would not be experienced explorers but 'ordinary'women who wanted inspire others to follow their dreams or make a changefor the better in their lives. She received more than 800 applications andembarked on a three-month journey around the world to interviewcandidates. 'What is skiing?' was the question that greeted her in Ghana.At the close of 2009, Felicity led a team from places as diverse as Jamaica,India, Singapore and Cyprus - some of whom had never even seen snow orspent the night in a tent before joining the expedition - on a 900 km skiingtrek across the Antarctic, one of the toughest and most notoriously hazardousjourneys on the planet.Eighty-mile-an-hour winds ripped through base camp; frostbite and injurieswere an everyday occurrence; deadly crevasses emerged from the crackingice beneath their feet. But they also shared beliefs, ideas, philosophies andlaughter, made lasting memories and broke no less than six World Records.

Felicity Aston

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