He did it. Vincent Colliard managed to reach the South Pole in 22 days, 6 hours and eight minutes, beating the previous record by two days. Tenacious and extremely resilient, the strong Frenchman covered the 1100 km, alone and without assistance, pulling his sleds 50 km a day. A real feat.
If you find the European weather chilly, take a look at his GPS tracker, planted at the South Pole. Temperature minus 30 degrees Celsius. Feel? Minus forty. If perseverance pays off, then Vincent Colliard is a fine example. Based in Norway and endorsed by Borge Ousland, the greatest modern polar explorer, the Frenchman has a wealth of experience, including when it comes to failure. In 2023, after two years of preparation, he had to give up trying to reach the North Pole because of the closure of the Russian Arctic base from which he had set off. It was a hard decision to make on the eve of departure, but Vincent Colliard has not given up on his dreams.
Over the last ten years, he has developed a passion for the polar world and has become a certified polar guide: Colliard has launched a series of expeditions, Ice Legacy, with Ousland, to see first-hand the climate changes taking place in the planet’s great ice zones. The poles are becoming witnesses to climate change – particularly the North Pole – but they also remain the most hostile universe to human presence, and the temptation to fulfil one’s destiny there