Wayne Pollock is doing just that. His biog on the site goes like this:

A former Ireland U-21 rugby international but first time marathon runner. Wayne will follow up on his debut at the North Pole Marathon by attempting the Antarctic Ice Marathon & 100k later in the year. Aged 42, Wayne works in the travel business and lives in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Together with his running colleague, Peter Ferris, Wayne hopes to raise €150k for cancer charities in the process. He has also set a longer term goal of running 100 marathons on all of the continents.

Peter Ferris has run almost 300 marathons according to the site. If they complete it they’ll join a list of superheroes who’ve done it before including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Everest summiteer and previous winner Sean Burch and Irish novelist Michael Collins. The fun starts next week, 26th March and there are strong Irish connections with race director Richard Donovan and last year’s winner Thomas Maguire.

-Aisling-

SINGAPORE - The first scheduled passenger flight to Antarctica landed yesterday. The Australia/Hobart to the Australian Casey Station will fly weekly transporting public and scientists to the base.

The first scheduled Australian passenger flight, Airbus A319, left the Australian city of Hobart the previous evening, destined for the newly built Wilkins ice runway, 70 kilometres from the Australian Antarctic Division’s Casey Station.

Video on Reuters.com

I like the air-stewardess announcement “15 mins to landing - please put on your survival suits.”…. yes there’s no nice warm airport terminal to step into here!

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Reuters video still.)

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - So, you may get the hint here, I’m a little giddy :-) As of today I’m all booked up - flights Dublin>Chicago>Denver, greyhound bus Denver>Vail, hotel, ski rental & ski-pass. I’m ready to hit Vail in the Rockies, North America, for 8 days in 2 weeks time. How good will this be!

Video:

Just advance warning, as you’ll hear more on this one at Christmas! Mind you, I’ve still to write up part 3 of the Summer Alpine Mountaineering!

I want to do the advanced sessions, herself things I’m a joke on skis and thinks we should join the intermediate group. Hmmm. Look what happened the last time TGU went to a ski resort!

-Robin-

BANGKOK, THAILAND (Team Geared Up) - Ben Saunders clearly has a love of the cold. An unknown name to me until last week, I found out that Ben was the youngest person to ever ski solo to the North Pole.

Born in 1977, Ben grew up in Devon, was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and lives in London. He is passionate about the great outdoors and is a record-breaking long-distance skier, with three North Pole expeditions under his belt. He is the youngest to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton. Since 2001, Ben has skied more than 2,500km (1,500 miles) in the high Arctic, which he recently worked out equates to two percent of his entire life living in a tent.

Starting late March, Ben is going on an expedition to the geographic North Pole, with the aim of setting a speed record, less than 36 days, solo, unsupported. Ben is also planning SOUTH (October) which will be the first return journey to the South Pole on foot, and back to the coast again. At 2,900km and four months, SOUTH will be the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

Ben has a book coming out in 2009. Keep your eyes peeled for it! See BenSaunders.com

-Robin-

(Image Credit: bensaunders.com)

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Two of us are just back from a European Alps climbing trip so this news hits home. Six alpine climbers have died in separate incidents yesterday when temperature on the high mountain plummeted.

1,2,3,4:

French authorities found four dead climbers on the Bionassay crest, on the French side of Mont Blanc.

5:

Belgian man in his 50s, died in the Italian Alps in the Trentino area.

6:

A person died near Monte Rosa, about 40 km (25 miles) east of Mont Blanc.

Sad Story.

(Image Credit: TGU Blogger Eoin checks the map in the Monta Rosa, by Robin).