This 33-year-old just crossed Antartica, all alone in record time!

Antartica is often treated as a not-so approachable destination, though it is one of the most interesting destination a traveller ever want to go. Those who make it to the frozen continent, always take guided tours with preparations starting months before. Everyone who had tried to go on themselves gave up or died. Colin O’Brady, a 33-year-old American adventurer, just changed the whole concept of travelling to Antartica, and became the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.

O’Brady finished his 932-mile, 54-day journey on December 26, 2018 at the Ross Ice Shelf. He carried everything he had needed throughout the journey on a sled. His sled weighed 400 pounds, mostly contained food like oatmeal, freeze-dried meals, and special energy bars. “I ate the same items everyday in order to consume a total of about 7,000 calories,” he said.

O’Brady was hoping that he could finish the journey only in 70 days. But, he travelled with impressive speed and finished his adventure trip 16 days before, on the 54th day.

I used to start my day by boiling water for the oatmeal, into which I’d mix protein powder and extra oil as a source of fat. After that, I used to eat about 500 calories’ worth of the Colin Bars every 90 minutes,” he said. Each Colin Bar, that his sponsor, Standard Process Supplements, made for him, contained a blend of nuts, seeds, coconut oil, and other whole-food supplements.

For lunch, O’Brady used to ate ramen with extra salt and consumed a couple servings of veggie protein. The dinner was basically freeze-dried meals and 3-4 cups of chicken noodle soup. “The food added up to about 7,000 calories per day,” O’Brady said.

“While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced. I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey,” he wrote.”