In his first attempt to cross Antarctica last year, Omar Di Felice was prepared for minus 38C temperatures and gale force winds — but not extreme loneliness
In his first attempt to traverse Antarctica last year, Omar Di Felice was prepared for minus 38C temperatures and gale force winds — but not extreme lonelinessto undertake the first coast-to-coast crossing of Antarctica by bicycle, Italy’s Omar Di Felice thought he had prepared for everything.
Di Felice in sub-zero temperatures on his last trip to Antarctica. ‘You must be really focused … every distraction, every problem that can keep your mind away from the adventure, that is dangerous.’As soon as he left, evacuated by Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, Di Felice knew he would be back. “This is a really big dream for me,” he says. “I’ve worked all my life, all my career, to realise the dream to cross Antarctica – so I can’t imagine to stop my dream just because of a problem.
through snowy terrain has been made possible by the development of fatbikes, with the first Antarctic cycling expedition taking place two decades ago.In 2013, Maria Leijerstam became the first person to cycle from Antarctic coast to the south pole, a distance of more than 600km. The following year, Juan Menéndez Granados and Daniel Burton each separately rode the 1,250km from the coast to the pole. But no one has yet managed the coast-to-coast crossing.
“In the Arctic, or in Canada, or in Alaska, or in Iceland, north of Russia, I experienced strong winds and cold conditions and ice and snow, and so on,” he says. “But in Antarctica, you will never find any people, any places to stop, any villages. There are no spots – it’s just you, your tent and your bike. You will live like that for 65, 67 days. You have to manage everything completely alone – mentally that is very challenging.
The journey requires months of training and intricate planning, and there is only a small window in which to travel.In addition to his expeditions, Di Felice is a climate activist through a project called Bike to 1.5C project. In 2021 he rode his bicycle from Milan to Scotland to attend Cop26 in Glasgow. “The bicycle is the best vehicle to tell the story of climate change and raise awareness about reducing our carbon footprint,” he told the Guardian last year.
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