Helen Skelton Starts South Pole Challenge

Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton, 28, a BBC Television host for a children’s show, is starting her cycle today, Jan.4, to the South Pole after some weather delays. It was moved back from a tentative Jan. 1 start date.

The journey’s distance is a total of 500 miles, against sometimes 80 mph headwinds and temperatures down to –50 C. She is pulling a sled full of equipment using an “ice bike” with skis and kite as transportation. The bike has been custom-built out of aircraft aluminum to withstand the harsh conditions.

“The magnitude of this challenge is finally starting to dawn on me,” Skelton said. “My friends keep pointing out that nobody has ever used a bike to reach the South Pole, possibly because it can’t be done!”

Don’t let her good looks fool you; she is one tough adventurer.  Skelton is not new to completing extreme challenges that have never been done. In 2010 she kayaked over 2,000 miles along the Amazon River collecting donations for a charity called Sport Relief.  She paddled for six weeks, six days a week and covered 60 miles a day. This journey qualified her for two world records (subject to verification, as the longest solo journey by kayak, and the longest distance traveled in a kayak in 24 hours by a woman).

The journey to the South Pole, if completed, will also be a world record as nobody has completed it by bike. Again her charity will be Sport Relief. Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world’s poorest countries.

In April 2009, Skelton became only the second woman ever to finish the 78-mile (126 km) Namibian Ultra Marathon. Skelton also walked a 150-metre tightrope between chimneys at Battersea Power Station in the UK, 66 meters above ground, to raise money for Comic Relief on Feb. 28, 2011.

Starting at 83 degrees south latitude she will travel 14 hours per day, pulling her sled loaded with 80 kg of supplies, towards the South Pole. She faces the possibility of dehydration, frostbite, snow blindness, impassable snow drifts and altitude sickness.

She is one tough and determined children’s TV host. Good luck, Helen!  See the video clip http://www.sportrelief.com/whats-on

Source: Press Association

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