After 525 days and many many kilometers I am back again in civilization.
The 18 months long journey has been filled with joy, happiness, tears, problems and solutions. Most important of all was the meetings with all the charity organizations. They gave me a lot of inspiration along the way.
A journalist once asked me what the most important skill is if you want to become an explorer. I answered; flexibility! To be able to find new routes, find solutions to problems and to think outside the box. There is a known climber called Reinhold Messner who crossed Antarctica and published a book called “Heaven and Hell”, and I can really see his point. There has been moments during these 18 months that has been the best of my life, but also moments that has been the worst ever.
The first problem came when we were trying to reach Greenland from North Pole and there was no ice left so we could reach land. We had two options; give up or find a another solution. I chose the other solution which was to ski to Canada instead of Greenland.
From Greenland our plan was to use dogs instead of human power and that would have been nice after 47 days of pulling a 110 kilo sled. In Greenland we had fuel for melting water, food, supplies and people that would meet us on the coast at N82°, but in Canada we had nothing. No maps, no food, fuel and most important; we had no clue how to get through Nunavut since that was not a part of the plan or our schedule. So when arriving to the Canadian coast line the only solution for me was to fly to the closest place to get food and then find a place from where I could bike (Tuktoyaktuk in Canada). I tried to get through Nunavut with both kayak, boat and hiking but since I had no maps or equipment that was a bad idea.
So what about flying to northen Greenland and start going down with sled dogs?
Well, the sled dogs where no longer available and skiing would take to long time if I was going to make it to South Pole in time so the only solution for me was to leave this part undone and return later after South Pole.
From Canada I started biking with a support car following me. I didn’t have my Audi bike yet since I was a bit early so I had to find a bike somewhere and then start down. I found a bike that was far from what I wanted but that could take me through Canada. The roads were not bad and the wildlife was impressive. After the snow storms on North Pole this was almost vacation. My knee was hurting and my back was getting worse so with the support car taking the heavy load I was able to make it down to Vancouver.
From Vancouver I changed bike to a better one and hooked up with my school friend Carl Robert who would join me all the way down to Bogotá. He is a close friend that also was with me on Mount Everest. The biking through USA was great, but my knee was still bad. Now we could split the heavy weight between us and that was good. In Mexico the support car got stuck in customs so we had to bike all the way through the deserts by our selves. I ran out of water and ended up in a hospital due to heat struck and we didn’t meet the support car until we arrived to Guatemala.
Central America was one big long rainfall with landslides and after 50 days of rain and biking I sailed over to Colombia.
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile was a long long endless road through jungles, over 4500 meters in snow storms, over mountains and through salt deserts. In the middle of Colombia I got a very alarming information that a crack in the ice in Antarctica had been seen by NASA, the largest crevasse ever reported. At the same time ice bergs started to crack from the continent and the three captains that I was discussing my crossing with refused to sail at that time and to that area. Instead I again had to make a difficult decision; give up or find a new solution. Again I refused to stop and started to search for new solutions. My only option was to take a flight on a plane with scientists to a Russian base called Novo. This route was much longer than the original plan but it was my only option. We reached the coast of Antarctica and after 2400 km we reached the South Pole. But it was a little bit more complicated than that.
The second day my co explorer’s fuel tank started to leak and we lost at least one week of destroyed food and fuel to melt drinking water. This means that we had no extra days or spare time. We had to move fast. My knee started to get worse again and one day I had an accident with the kite and broke two ribs. On top of that a hurricane came in and took another four days from us. The season was heading to its end and Antarctica is one of those places you don’t want to be left alone. So to be able to make it to the South Pole in time we had to move as one machine, with one kite pulling us both the last part. With my broken ribs and wounded knee, a harness over my chest was not possible. Since the food was ruined and time was running out…..this was the only solution.
After reaching the South Pole I had to go back again to South America and then bike the last distance and then sail over to Antarctica. This was hard with my knee and broken ribs. I didn’t feel any of my 10 toes for about three weeks so I was afraid I was going to loose a few, but all went OK.
The sailing over to Antarctica was fantastic, but it felt strange to sail over to a place I had just visited. But since I wanted to do everything with natural powers…this is what I needed to do.
After getting back from sailing to Antarctica, I still had the Greenland part left to cover. I was late in the season and the world climate is really complicated to predict so skiing all the way from Ilulissat in Greenland to N82° was not an option, so again I had to make a hard decision….quit or find an alternative way. The year before I started this expedition I crossed Greenland with ski and kite and covered 1700 km so I knew the area and had already done it when training for Pole2Pole. I found a sailboat that could take me from Ilulissat to Thule and that would solve all my problems. I would travel with a sailboat and I would cover the distance. After a few weeks I reached the north part of Greenland and I had to ski, kite and hike close to the coast line to be able to reach N82°. This spot was the exact location to where we where about to go after the North Pole so that would close the circle. I did not want to go out on the big ice cap since the crevasses where very bad and the melt water was covering the ice. Instead I followed the coast to Lincoln sea and then after 525 days I had made all the distances between the poles.
There was no possibility to do all distances in one stretch, but I can proudly say that I have covered all the distances from North Pole to South Pole with ski, sail, kite, climbing, hiking, kayak and bike.
This expedition was more than just an adventure. We visited 14 very important and amazing charity organizations and the impact they made on me changed my life.
The expedition between the poles was a challenge. Both physically and mentally. I was forced to fight against time, nature and politics. I have been through minus 50 to plus 50. I have used everything from bike, skis and sailboat to climbing gear, swim suit and kites to able to travel through 19 countries. But I have not been alone. During this long adventure the team is of course a very important part. I thank all the people who have traveled with me during this odyssey and I also thank the millions of followers who have followed me in media along the way. It’s fantastic that the expedition and its purpose to highlight the charities has been covered by up to a billion viewers through media like
Wall street Journal, Financial Times, CNN, CBS, NBC, BBC, National Geographic, Playboy, GQ, TIME, Miami Herald, SVT, Terra.com, Wired etc.
To predict and to plan an expedition is always the most difficult part and during this expedition I had to take new routes, find different solutions to problems and fight against time and nature. But I never gave up and even if I had to go back and fulfill some distances I never even thought about giving up.
With two broken ribs, injured back, hurting knee and frostbites on my nose, fingers and toes I was many times thinking to myself
“why am I doing this?….when is this ever going to stop?”.
When I climbed Everest I was told that no matter how hard it will be, it will be worth it afterwards. This was something that I took with on Pole2Pole. I knew that I would had to fight pain and now 18 months later I am back home and guess what?
It was worth it….
Everything is possible – the Impossible just takes more time
Thank you for making this possible
- AUDI
- Svenska Postkod Lotteriet
- Ramlösa
- Zenith
Johan Ernst Nilson
