British Sikh Army Officer Preet Chandi has become the first woman of color to complete a solo expedition to the South Pole. Chandi spent the past few months skiing solo and unsupported across Antarctica and completed the 700-mile trek in 40 days.
“Feeling so many emotions right now. I knew nothing about the polar world three years ago and it feels so surreal to finally be here. It was tough getting here and I want to thank everybody for their support,” said Chandi, via her blog.
Her only contact with the outside world was via a daily check-in with her support team, who posted updates on her blog and Instagram. As she persevered through illness, isolation, and extremely cold weather, these dispatches reiterated the scale of Chandi’s challenge. The officer dedicated each of them to individuals who’ve supported her along the way.
The Army Officer began her expedition on November 7, 2021, flying to Chile and then embarking from Antarctica’s Hercules Inlet. On her way, she hauled a sled weighing 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds) holding kit, fuel, and food to last for roughly 45 days.
The Preparation
She nicknamed herself as “Polar Preet” for her blog and fundraising efforts spent two and a half years preparing for the grueling expedition. This includes crevasse training in the French Alps, trekking across Iceland’s Langjökull Glacier, and enduring 27 days on the ice cap in Greenland – not to mention the months she spent dragging a heavy tire behind her back home in England, to simulate pulling a sled.
From having a role model to becoming one
Chandi isn’t the first woman to complete the feat. It all started with Norway’s Liv Arnesen the first in the world to make the trip alone and unsupported in 1994. Yet Chandi is the first woman of color to do so.
Her South Asian background, led people to comment that she did not exactly look like a polar explorer. And so while preparing for her expedition, which was undertaken as part of the officer’s active military service, she became increasingly aware of how much it matters for young people to see someone like her as a role model.
Following her success, Chandi plans to set up an “adventure grant” for women using half the money raised through the Go Fund Me appeal for her polar trip. This will be open to women of any age or background.
“This expedition was always about so much more than me. I want to encourage people to push their boundaries and to believe in themselves, and I want you to be able to do it without being labelled a rebel. I have been told no on many occasions and told to “just do the normal thing”, but we create our own normal. You are capable of anything you want. No-matter where you are from or where your start line is, everybody starts somewhere. I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces. Who’s with me?,” she concluded.