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Tuesday, 01 January 2008 |
Brit Breaks “3 Poles“ Record
A former British army officer from the New Forest has become the fastest man to complete the Three Poles Challenge. Adrian Hayes, 45, reached the South Pole on Saturday after having climbed Mount Everest and walked to the North pole - all in just 19 months.
It took Mr Hayes, who is from Netley Marsh in Hampshire but lives in Dubai, 47 days to walk unsupported and unassisted across Antarctica. He climbed Everest in May 2006 and walked across the Arctic in April.
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 The "Three Poles" is the term used by explorers to denote the three latitudinal and altitudinal extremes of the planet. He beat the previous speed record of 24 months held by a Swedish couple, Thomas and Tina Sjogren. The task of reaching all three was first achieved by Young-Ho Heo, a South Korean, in 1994 and Hayes is now only the 15th member of this exclusive club.
When he completed his mission, it was 19 months and three days since he stood on the 29,029ft summit of Mt Everest on May 25, 2006. It was also a mere eight months and three days since he stood at the planet's polar opposite - the North Pole - on April 25.
Speaking from Amundsen-Scott's base at the South Pole, Mr Hayes said: "Most explorers take several years to complete the challenge, but I am very lucky to have done it within 19 months. It's really difficult to do it any faster due to the sheer amount of physical and mental effort it requires, let alone preparation time and all the other resources. However, I must say that although it was an arduous trek it was fractionally easier than doing the North Pole. I’m just savouring the immediate emotions of deep tiredness, satisfaction, sadness, pride,” he said after reaching the pole.“I’ll admit I began to choke up, tears welling in my eyes.”
 Mr Hayes set off on12 November with a team of five from Canada, Britain, Norway, Switzerland and Lebanon. They walked for about 10 hours a day covering an average distance of about 15 miles (24km).
Speaking on a satellite phone just before he reached the pole, Hayes said in an interview he was looking forward to becoming a member of "one of the world's most exclusive clubs".
Describing what he called "a nice day in Antarctica - not that windy, sunny and only -26C", he said: "The three poles are the three extremes of the earth - the top, the bottom and the roof of the world. I've wanted to do this for a long time. I wasn't trying to do it in record time. It's all rather informal and I only realised I could set a record when somebody told me in September."
 Hayes, a former Airbus sales executive who is now a motivational life coach, said that when he set out success was far from certain.
"Everest has got about a 33 per cent success rate, the North Pole about a 25 per cent success rate and the South Pole is slightly higher. Combined", he said, "the failure rate is high."
Apart from the complexity of the logistics, one reason why so few people have reached the three poles is that polar exploration and mountain climbing are different disciplines: mountain climbers tend to stick to big climbs and explorers to long, cold hikes.
Hayes, whose "normal" life in the desert appears far removed from both, said his discipline was mountain climbing. But he added: "I'm super-fit and that really helps."
The former Gurkha officer and Special Forces soldier said the sense of achievement was incredible but it had been arduous. "We have done this unsupported, so no re-supplies, nothing," he said. "We carryied everything for what we estimated to be a 50-day journey. It's damn hard, pulling your sled into wind 10 hours a day."
Mr Hayes, who is married with two children, said what he had most missed at Christmas was seeing his wife Dawn and children Alexander, nine, and Charlotte, six. Hayes’ achievements have raised awareness and funding for the Children’s Hope Foundation and Friends of Cancer Patients charities.
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