Sunshine Coast adventurer James McAlloon has made it to the top of Antarctica’s tallest mountain, after an epic coast-to-summit trek.
“Seventeen days of skiing and climbing, 250km of polar mountain travel, nearly 5000m of elevation gain. Sea2Summit Antarctica is done!” he posted to social media on Tuesday.
“Descended to base camp yesterday and now waiting for a flight out.
“I was simply too overwhelmed until now to post and am so thankful to everyone that has been with me over the last three years as I turned this dream into reality.”
The journey started at Constellation Inlet and covered about 500km through the Ellsworth mountain range to Vinson Massif.
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Sunshine Coast News has been following his preparations and reported in November that he was aiming to leave Punta Arenas, Chile, on about December 15, with the aim of completing the journey around January 19.
Mr McAlloon also collected scientific data on the expedition in partnership with the University of Canterbury Antarctic Science Division.
He posted to social media again on Thursday reflecting on his journey.
“As I sit here in the main tent, drinkin’ a cuppa waiting to come home, I’m struggling to find the words and understand the rawness of how it feels,” he said.
“I think it’s a difficult thing to process. It’s not so much the trip itself, which went amazingly and was an incredible adventure, but what it represents to me.
“Three years from conception of an idea to taking thousands of steps over an equal number of days to bring that idea to reality. To making sacrifices and difficult choices that not only affected me, but those around me. To doing whatever it took to gain the experience, knowledge and support I needed to make this trip seemingly straight forward and successful.
“To recount the journey would take so much more than a simple post, but I suppose, and I’m paraphrasing Pierre De Coubertin here, but ‘the important thing is taking part, it’s not the triumph but the journey that matters’.”
