Adventurer Ogita reaches South Pole

January 7, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese adventurer Yasunaga Ogita reached the South Pole on early Saturday morning Japan time after walking 1,126 kilometers without receiving supplies.

According to his expedition office in Tokyo, Ogita, 40, became the first Japanese to achieve the unassisted solo trek to the South Pole.

Ogita left Japan on Nov. 10 and arrived at Punta Arenas, Chile, the same day. He then flew to his base camp in Union Glacier in Antarctica and started the trek at Hercules Inlet on Nov. 17 local time.

Sledding some 100 kilograms of food, fuel, a tent and other goods, Ogita took 50 days to reach the South Pole some 2,800 meters above sea level.

Early on Saturday, Ogita told the expedition office using a satellite phone that he accomplished the mission at 1:45 p.m. Friday Chile time.

Ogita said in a bright voice that he moved forward steadily. "I experienced a new world and felt something I had never felt," Ogita said.

Born in Aikawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, he started Arctic exploration mainly by foot after joining a project led by another Japanese adventurer Mitsuro Oba in 2000. Ogita had walked a total of more than 9,000 kilometers in the Arctic before coming to Antarctica. Jiji Press