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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

At first I was shocked by how large a sled he dragged. I use a much smaller sled (just a deer sled). Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken.

Then I read that he was out for 53 days. And of course his conditions are far, far more grueling than I have ever faced (all in North America). So then I was shocked at how little he had with him!

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I talked to a guy who tried to cross it once. To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil. He didn’t like it and it sure sounds nasty.

> To get the huge number of required calories in a compact form they drank olive oil.

Eating sticks of butter is common too.

Thru hikes sometimes it's peanut butter and Nutella

A few weeks in to my first long trip, a mentor said in a grocery store in Franklin, North Carolina: "You'll become one of two kinds of hiker: you'll count calories per pound, or you'll count calories per dollar. Either way, you win with cake frosting".

Carbohydrates are 4 calories/gram. Fats are 9 calories/gram. Frosting does not win.

I believe frosting is mostly fat by weight. Nevertheless butter beats it, pretty much by definition.

https://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/creamy-supreme/clas...

Looks like a >4:1 carb:fat ratio by weight.

But eating cake frosting by the spoonful is far easier and more pleasing than downing pure butter or olive oil.

(speaking from experience)

And climbers already have an equivalent of cake frosting: kendal mint cake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake

Thanks for looking this up!

Appalachian Trail? I did it too!

Fritos and Nutty Buddies were my go-to. I added a few notes about my trip here: https://pkshultz.com/at/

Yep! Dropping out of high school to go backpacking on the AT was one of the better decisions I've made. It's been a decade and a half, and I'm still making connections through the trail network.

Since you're such a recent finisher; Springer Fever is a real thing, and I think it's best not to suppress it too much.

I struggle with his on through hikes bc as a diabetic I can’t eat a lot of the standard calorie dense foods. A lot of fats is really all that works for me :-(.

O'brady describes his diet here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqOWpIMl7Si/?utm_source=ig_share...

7000 calories a day!

Truly amazing this guy is crossing Antartica and plugging for a nutrition bar brand at the same time. I wonder why Red Bull didn't sponsor him.

> Then I saw how smooth the terrain was at least where the photo was taken.

If you look through Colin's earlier instagram posts [1] you'll see that the terrain was not smooth for much of his journey. The terrain is covered in sastrugi [2] and this year was marked with unexpected higher temperatures and snowfall which made the skiing very slow for Colin and all the other explorers out there. Explorers Web has a good collection of blog posts about the various expeditions that are happening this season [3].

[1] https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sastrugi [3] https://explorersweb.com/category/poles/antarctic/

For long stretches the terrain was awful, as well there was climbing up to ~8500 feet or so

All solo...truly amazing!

That's got to be the best place in the world, imagine the solitude, the quietness and amazing scenery. Must have been an amazing experience.

If you haven’t already, have a read of South, by Shackleton. It can be pretty unpleasant and far from quiet.

I have read Shackleton's book and also one by a member of Scott's expedition. From that I got the sense that it's a place of wind, danger and misery. It's not a quiet stroll after fresh snowfall.

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