A British Army officer, Preet Chandi, has just broken a world record and claims to have become the world’s fastest woman ever to complete a solo South Pole ski expedition. Chandi has already achieved two world records for Antarctic trekking, and now she believes she has broken a third by completing a solo ski expedition that crosses 1,130 km (or 702 miles) of Antarctic ice in just 31 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes. However, the Guinness World Records team will have to verify this latest record.
Dubbed “Polar Preet,” Chandi departed from the Ronne Ice Shelf’s Hercules Inlet on November 26th and arrived at the South Pole on December 28th at around 2:24 GMT. During her expedition, she had to ski for about 12-13 hours a day on average and pull a sled weighing 75 kg, which included everything she required to survive.
Chandi previously trekked from the Hercules Inlet to the Reedy Glacier in the Antarctic between November 13th, 2022, and January 23rd, 2023. By doing so, she managed to surpass not only the world record for the longest polar ski expedition for a woman but also the overall record. In 2021, she was also the first person to trek to the South Pole, making history once again.
Antarctica is an incredible place, and Chandi feels privileged to experience it. However, she said that her latest trek was no sprint and required constantly weighing up her effort and how long she would ski each day. If she skied too hard or too long, she would burn out, too slow, or finish too early, and she would miss out on the record. Temperatures plummeted to -30C, there were whiteouts, and Chandi faced many challenges; nevertheless, she persevered.
Chandi is a physiotherapist at a facility in Buckinghamshire and provides rehab services for injured soldiers and officers. She is also on a break from military service. The officer told reporters that: “Antarctica is not a place any person can conquer; it is a place you treat with respect and hope it allows you safe passage.” She just focused on what she could control, taking it one step at a time, and is delighted it allowed her safe passage
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