FIRST CYPRIOT TO SKI TO SOUTH POLE READY FOR MORE ADVENTURE
The first Cypriot to ski to the South Pole, Stephanie Solomonides, has returned thirsty for more adventure.
Solomonides represented Cyprus in the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition,reaching the Geographic South Pole ahead of schedule at 11.09pm Antarctic Time(4.09am Cyprus time) on December 29, 2009.
Having spent three months away from home, most of it fighting the Antarctic elements, the 27-year-old implementation officer who goes back to work on Tuesday, remains on a high following her world-class achievement.
Solomonides told The Cyprus weekly that her accomplishment had yet to sink in although the experience had,amongst other things, taught her how people are capable of more than they expect and just how little we really need to get by.
Solomonides feet have barely touched the ground since the end of the expedition. Apart from appearing on the “Todat Show” during a whirlwind 24-hour trip to New York and BBC’s “Breakfast Show” she has also given a talk for pupilsat a London school and will be speaking with local pupils from this week and giving motivational talks to adults as part of the expedition team’s educational outreach programme “Children especially enjoy all the gritty details and ask the questions adults think about but are too embarrassed to ask,”Solomonides said.
To reach the South pole, the team, comprising seven women from six Commonwealth countries had to cover a distance of 900 km on skis.
They skied for six to ten hours a day averaging 24 kilometres in distance all while hauling an 80kg sled of provisions and battling almost -40C temperatures and blinding blizzards.
Marking the Commonwealth’s 60th anniversary, the expedition was the culmination of over a year of preparation, including training in Norway and New Zealand.
Solomonides said the team had remained in touch and were enjoying everyday luxuries.”When we got to Chile after the South Pole , we were all excited about the flushing toilets and showers,” se said.
Solomonides revealed that the team had become experts at “Making the most of our rations of wet-wipes and toilet paper. I realised how wasteful we can be in our daily lives”
Apart from the physical aspects of the expedition, the team also had to deal with the psychological trials of the experience. The team overcame its first stumbling blocks when their tents were badly damaged in a storm before the start and the seventh member of the team had to pull out after suffering six-finger frostbite.
One of Solomonides’fears came about around ten days before the end of the expedition when her i-pod broke:”you have to understand that there was nothing to look at, it is just a vast, white, wasteland. All you can hear is the sound of the ski poles.”
Successfully completing their mission the women were welcomed by title-sponsor representative Kaspersky and celebrated the New Year twice, once at the Antarctic and again, because of the time difference, in Chile.
Thanking sponsors the National Machinery for Woman’s Right, Medcon Constructions Ltd, the Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Computer Society, TSYS International, Caramondi Group of Companies, Piraeus Bank, the Cyprus Federation of Professional Women, Louis Tours Ltd, Cyprus Airways, Komanetsi, Fitness Centre, the Costas and Rita Severis Foundation, Cyta Cyprus and Totoheo Ltd., Solomonides said she would do it all again in a second and is already looking for her next adventure.
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