Indian navy team becomes first military unit to ski to South Pole

[Contrarian]

Indian navy team becomes first military unit to ski to South Pole
Wednesday, 31 January , 2007, 21:36
New Delhi: An Indian Navy team has become the world's first defence unit to ski to the South Pole.

The 10-member team led by Commander Satyabrata Dam reached the South Pole on December 28, 2006 after skiing through the white continent and hoisted the tricolour in the coldest region of the world.

"It is a great achievement not only for the navy but for the country, which is proud of our men," Minister of States for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said at a ceremony here on Wednesday to flag-in the expedition.

Congratulating the navy personnel, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta said, "The navy provides an opportunity to show how to be adventurous in a non-combative way and the efforts of our men have brought laurels for the country."

The team, which also comprised Lt Cdr KS Balaji, Lt A Khajuria, Lt A Sharma, Raj Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Manoj Kumar, B Singh and Sonam Tamchos, left New Delhi on November 22 last year and travelled across half the globe. It reached the base camp at Patriot Hill in Antractica on December 22.

On December 16, the men were flown to 88.6 degree latitude - about 220 km from the South Pole - from where they skied to the South Pole. Their 12-day arduous journey ended at 0200 hrs on December 28.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14379256

 

[Keysersoze]

The first military team.........apart from this one......

A four man team of Royal Marines from Lympstone in Devon have become the first British military personnel to reach the South Pole for nearly 100 years.

The Polar Quest team are in high spirits after they reached the geographical South Pole at 0218 on 27 December 2006.

The Marines retraced the steps of Scott of the Antarctic, who led an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1912.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2006/11/20/polar_quest_begins_feature.shtml


Not to denigrate the endeavour of the Indian team. (I know hard it is to operate in that environment) but the Indian team started 220km from the south pole. The British one started approx 1150km away.

http://www.a2mediagroup.com/?c=127&a=12023

 

[joey]

We are going to make a naval abse in north pole as well, masked under being a research facility.

 

[joey]

oops i mean south pole i think the one that is down indian ocean.

 

[centaurzhere.abdul]

Btw Does Anyone have any pictures then plz share


Thanks

 

[CarbonD]

oops i mean south pole i think the one that is down indian ocean.

Technically you are right as South pole is actually North Pole. But due to lack of scientific instruments back then they had 50percent chance of getting the poles right and they guessed it wrong. Since then the name has stuck with it.
Reality is visa versa

 

[Unknowncommando]

Happy to here that
nic work by Indian navy
best of luck for north pole