Mark Pollock - South Pole Trek

South Pole Trek

The trek cost Pollock around €250,000. His training included spending five hours in June 2008 pounding the streets with his father, dragging two tractor tyres behind him and spending time in Norway to acclimatise himself to the sastrugi. Pollock, O'Donnell and Solheim travelled 770 kilometres over twenty-two days, averaging fourteen hours journey time each day, whilst lugging 90 kilogram sleds behind them. He pulled a 200lb sled for at least twelve hours each day, for a consecutive forty-four days. His blindness slowed his team down and created difficulties such as pitching their tent, which had to be carried out by O'Donnell and Solheim. Temperatures dropped as low as -50C during the expedition, with the team suffering from blisters, hunger and extreme exhaustion. O'Donnell endured severe frostbite on one ear and fingers and Solheim lost a filling from his tooth due to the extreme temperatures. Pollock told the Irish Independent that they "just can't believe" they had arrived and that they "only started to believe it was possible when we were one hour away, which was an amazing feeling". He described how they did not know what to do when they arrived, describing "such a burst of energy" that had engulfed them.

Pollock returned to Ireland on a 3 February 2009 where he was greeted at Dublin Airport, although he was delayed by the extreme weather conditions which gripped Dublin that week. He is now working on another book about his participation in the race. Pollock's father has also mentioned other challenges his son intends to partake in, including “kite skiing, whatever that is” although he hopes he will do “something easy like a few marathons instead”.