Blizzard: Race to the Pole

I was slightly startled, but very pleased to see my old mucker Rory O’Connor on TV last night. He was on BBC2’s programme about the race to the south pole by Scott and Amundsen. He’s the team doctor for the British Team.

It looks like he’s been busy since I worked with him at Faraday, the British Antarctic Survey research station…

Background: Rory is 37 years old and is a medical director for an oil company in Kazakhstan.

He also spent a year-and-a-half as the doctor on a British Antarctic Survey base where he got to practice cross-country skiing, man-hauling, sea ice travel, mountain ascents and glacier travel.

Since then Rory has continued to challenge himself physically and mentally with a wide range of expeditions.

Experience: Rory’s expedition experience spans more than 15 years and includes both mountaineering and skiing. He has cycled from Lhasa to Kathmandu, crossed both the Greenland and Norwegian icecaps, climbed Kilimanjaro and climbed in the Himalayas.

Go, Rory, go!