On Jan. 17, Sparks resident Grant Korgan became the first adaptive athlete in history to reach the South Pole. The arrival of Korgan and his South Pole Push team coincides with the exact date of the 100th anniversary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition in 1912. Korgan, who was partially paralyzed in a 2010 snowmobiling accident, traversed 75 miles using a custom sit-ski, pushing approximately 250,000 times across Velcro-like snow and with -45 degree windchill. The expedition took almost two weeks to complete.
‘Grant just pulled off one of the most amazing athletic achievements in modern history and a first for adaptive athletes. This is a historic day in the name of recovery, technology, adventure, and the human potential,’ said Steven Siig, director of the documentary film about the project called ‘The Push.’
The expedition was led by Doug Stoup and Tal Fletcher, of Squaw Valley and Truckee, respectively; they were accompanied by a three-person production crew composed of Warren Miller cinematographer Tom Day and photographer Keoki Flagg, both from Squaw Valley, and Petter Nyquist from Norway. The team trained for a year with various missions in Alaska, Norway, Lake Tahoe, and South America. The overall purpose of the project was to make strides for spinal cord recovery and to support the Truckee-based High Fives Foundation, which helps athletes get back on their feet and, hopefully, back to their sport following serious injury. (Read more about the expedition from the January issue, ‘South Pole Pull.’)
Korgan likened propelling himself in a sit-ski across the sticky ice to pushing oneself in a laundry basket across a shag carpet for nine hours, or doing nine straight hours of seated rows.
On the day before reaching the South Pole, Korgan said in an audio recording posted to the team’s website that the snow was especially slow going, but he was energized with his goal in sight.
‘I felt like the Velcro and Styrofoam [of the snow] was getting stickier,’ he said. ‘I got to the top of the hill, I could see the research buildings, and it was like hitting me with a shot of nitrous oxide. I just got after it.
The team went on to achieve a record for their expedition – 8.2 miles in one day. It had always been Korgan’s goal to stand and ski the last bit of mileage to the South Pole. And he did, skiing in Nordic skis the last 100 feet, where he was surprised by his wife Shawna.
‘The Push’ has streamed live satellite calls daily from Antarctica in collaboration with SocialTyze, which can be viewed on the Facebook page, ‘The Push: A South Pole Adventure.’ It will also be featured as a full-length film in late 2012 and as a four-part television series on NBC.
On Jan. 31, the Squaw Valley Institute is hosting a welcome home event for the Push team at Bar One from 6 to 9 p.m. Members of the team will be on hand to speak about the expedition and present a slideshow and footage from the future film. A no-host bar and appetizers courtesy of Mamasake, the Dubliner, and Truckee’s Full Belly Deli will be provided. Tickets are $10 for Squaw Valley Institute members and $15 for non-members. Tickets are available at squawvalleyinstitute.org.
‘The Push’ is in support of The Reeve – Irvine Research Center, a science research facility at University of California, Irvine devoted to the study of repair, regeneration, and recovery of function after spinal cord injury. Learn more at www.reeve.uci.edu. To learn about sponsorship opportunities and to follow ‘The Push’ journey, visit southpolepush.com.
~ Melissa Siig contributed to this article.
