Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: August 31, 2002
Article Type: Journal

Two intrepid Belgian explorers conclusively proved the worth of kites while transiting the White Continent, Antarctica. Their 99-day trek is documented in a fine new book titled In the Teeth of the Wind: South to the Pole published in England by Bluntisham Books (bluntisham.books@btinternet.com). At $45 postpaid, the hardback is good value not only because of the crackling text but also its superior photographs, 54 of them.

Adventurers first and foremost and scientists a distant second, mainly it would seem to justify some of their funding, Alain Hubert and Dixie Dansercoer, veteran Himalayan climbers, wind surfers, hang glider pilots, and polar trekkers, spent 400 hours training themselves in the use of modified Francis Rogallo No. 5 NASA Parawings, in three sizes to cope with various wind speeds, before starting their 1997-98 trudge, mainly on skis, from Dronning Maud Land south to the American base at McMurdo Sound, stopping en route at the Amundsen-Scott Base at the South Pole, another U.S. facility. As Hubert points out, the Pole symbolizes absolutism because it straddles all the meridians while at the same time it undermines space because all directions read north. It’s a place for perceiving the great relativity of human existence, he concludes.

En route, the pair had the usual setbacks, from annoying to grave. “Untangling sails and undoing knots was the recurring theme of the crossing,” notes Hubert. There were dangers such as crevasses, high altitude ills, poisonings, broken bones, psychological traumas, but the two managed the route carrying all their own supplies on sledges without any outside assistance, eating a specially designed, untasty diet high on fat. They also took ice core samples and collected ice crystals as part of their work. Admirably, they carried all of their waste with them.

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