Norwegian woman becomes youngest to reach the South Pole

A 21-year-old Norwegian became on the night of Monday to Tuesday the youngest person to reach the South Pole on skis, alone and without assistance, which she said she found… “a little ugly” due to the presence human.

One hundred and fourteen years after her compatriot, the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole, Karen Kyllesø, born May 9, 2003, traveled some 1,130 km in 54 days on the Antarctic continent.

“It’s both fantastic and a little strange,” said the young woman, contacted by the Norwegian channel TV2. “I of course have a feeling of accomplishment and joy but I also have to admit that it’s a little weird to leave the bubble I’ve been in for the last two months,” she said.

Karen Kyllesø dethrones Frenchman Pierre Hedan who, according to Guinness World Records, was since January 7, 2024 the youngest person to have reached the South Pole, alone and without assistance, at the age of 26.

“I thought it was a bit ugly”

Very small – 1.52 m and 48 kg – Karen Kyllesø pulled a sled weighing around a hundred kg, twice her weight, to reach the pole which she reached late Monday evening, in very cold temperatures. -25°C.

“I actually thought it was a bit ugly when I got here,” she told TV2.

“After 54 days of beautiful nature, we arrive and there are buildings, machines: it just doesn’t seem like it really belongs here,” she said, referring to the resort. of American research Amundsen-Scott and the tents there.

Karen Kyllesø, who had trained for six years, had to slow down in recent days after suffering from what she thinks was cold-induced asthma.

Once she reached her destination, she said she asked for “pasta bolognese, salad and vegetables” washed down with a can of soda and a small flute of champagne.

“A page of polar history that has been written”

“It’s a page in polar history that has been written,” commented his mentor, Norwegian adventurer Lars Ebbesen, to AFP.

In 2018, at age 15, Karen Kyllesø had already become the youngest girl to cross Greenland on skis.

“As soon as she arrived, she asked me: ‘Do you think I can also go to the South Pole?’” recalls Lars Ebbesen.

The adventurer’s father, Håkon Kyllesø, credited his daughter’s exploits to “a combination of good genes.”

“Her mother was a cross-country ski competitor”

“Her mother was an accomplished cross-country ski competitor when she was younger and I am a hunter, fisherman and lover of long hikes in nature,” he told AFP.

For his part, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre praised a young adventurer who “follows in the path of Norwegian polar heroes”.

On December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the geographic South Pole after a tragic race with the British Robert Scott, who died of cold and exhaustion, with his teammates, on the way back.

AFP

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