“I came to spend a privileged time enjoying the great nature of Antarctica”

Korea’s first ‘reaching non-supply’ Kim Young-mi returns to Korea

“The pain I felt after living on a 100kg sled
for more than 20 years
without a day off, the feeling I experienced after compressing it for 51 days”
Captain Kim’s expeditionary story, documentary scheduled to be released

“The privilege of enjoying the wind and Mother Nature with your whole body I’ve been spending a lot of time in Antarctica.”

Kim Yeong-mi (43, The North Face Athlete Team), a mountaineer who became the first Korean to reach the South Pole without supply, had a bright expression on her face. On the 25th, the lowest temperature in Incheon fell to minus 16 degrees Celsius, but Captain Kim, who returned home through Incheon International Airport that day, smiled and said, “Korea is warm.” 토토사이트

Captain Kim walked 1186.5 km alone for 51 days without receiving any supplies, reached the South Pole, and returned safely. He departed with a 100kg sled from Hercules Inlet, west of Antarctica, on November 27 last year (local time) and reached 90 degrees south latitude on the 16th. In 2004, an expedition led by Captain Park Young-sik reached the South Pole without supplies, but Captain Kim is the first Korean to meet the same conditions alone. If it is limited to women, the path that Captain Kim has walked shines even brighter. A total of 17 women stepped on the South Pole, and 7 of them received food or supplies along the way. In other words, Captain Kim was the 11th and the first Asian woman to reach the South Pole without supplies.

Captain Kim said, “I didn’t take a single day off while heading to the South Pole,” and looked back, “I felt like I was alive every moment.” He continued, “I dragged a sled that weighed more than 100kg with luggage, but the weight did not decrease at all. He condensed the pain he felt after going through the mountains for over 20 years into 51 days, and it felt like he suffered with different symptoms every day. (Morning on the last day) I was overcome with emotion at the thought that if I walked today, the remaining distance would be 0 km,” he said. Because he took on such loneliness and set off, he did not feel much of a sense of isolation. He gained strength by listening to the sounds of machines, cars, and voices of acquaintances recorded in Korea.”

While Captain Kim was moving towards Antarctica alone, he could not be contacted by anyone. His father, Kim Hyung-soon, and his mother, Park Chun-ha, also waited impatiently for news of their daughter, until they met at the airport that day. Mr. Kim said, “There was a time when I dried up her daughter who was going through difficult challenges where her safety could not be guaranteed.”

Captain Kim is a representative explorer of Korea. He climbed Everest in 2008, becoming the youngest person in Korea to climb the highest peaks on seven continents, and in 2017, he crossed 723 km on the ice of Lake Baikal in Russia, the world’s largest freshwater lake.

After a long journey, what is the next goal of Captain Kim? Captain Kim said, “The Antarctic is so big and heavy that I couldn’t even think of my next goal. I will think about it while resting enough at home,” and left. Captain Kim’s solo expedition to the South Pole will be made into a documentary and will be released soon.