Ine-Lill and Rita arrived at the magic position south 90.0.0, west 0 at about 21 hours local time (still the chilean time ALE uses). - We skied another 40 km today, Rita said. The very last leg of their journey was also the coldest.

Absurd feeling. - We are happy, but don´t quite think we have realised we are here. We thought we would get very emotional, but actually it feels a bit absurd to be here, Rita told.

Amazing. They arrived after 53 very exciting and impressive days of skiing: 1289 km along a new route, after climbing Mt Vinson. - I think our expedition attracts some attention, Rita said, rather modestly.

Westwards today. They will probably get a flight to Patriot Hills this afternoon local time. - The weather there is rather poor for flying, so we don´t know when we will get out of the continent, Rita explained.

Congratulations! Meanwhile we hope they get to relax and eat a lot, and enjoy their amazing achievement. Any greetings are welcome - please e-mail www.friluftsaktiviteter.no and we will publish for Rita and Ine-Lill to read from Chile.

These efforts left them at south 89.38.422, west 87.14.718. - We have 40,2 km and one more day to go, Rita just told me. Due to bad weather, they may be able to ski tomorrow as well, but are now heading south at full speed.

Beaten track. They are clearly close to the pole. - We have seen traces from other skiers, possibly from last degree-trips. This means we are on the right track, Rita said.

Skinny. Ine and Rita are suffering from lack of sleep, and they are both terribly thin. - But we eat as much as we can, and we feel fine. The conditions are quite light, så we are going for it!

More precisely their position was south 89.16.294, west 87.00.556. They reached it after the second longest stretch so far; 39,1 km. They still have 81,4 km to go, which means they might have to beat the record long 41 km stretch.

Good conditions. - Yesterday was as cold as earlier, but with no wind. This means the conditions are quite good, Ine-Lill told me earlier today. They are tired from the long days, going to bed after 23 hours and getting up before 6. - But we think we´ll endure this all the way there, Ine-Lill said.

This partly due to smoother surfaces with less ups and downs. - The terrain is easier now, which is really good. I don´t know if we would have managed the conditions we had a few days ago, Ine said earlier.

Another degree. The duo was then at south 88.55.293 west 86 something - the details got lost due to the squeaky satellite connection. This means they have a bit more than one degree of latitude left, or 120,5 km.

Countdown... Their countdown feels increasingly dramatic, with three more days of skiing included today. - We are beginning to feel tired, but hope that we´ll fight it all the way, Ine-Lill said.

The temperature keeps dropping; yesterday to -30 C, but at least no wind. - We were very tired at the end of the day, Rita told me earlier today. This morning they still had 157.5 km left to ski in maximum four days. Tough.

Nose risks... Time pressure is not the only challenge. - Today it´s -35 C and windy, so this will be demanding. It´s important to take extra care of nose and hands in these conditions. We will probably make fewer stop than ususal, Rita said.

Still racing. They have now probably done most of the uphills; if  the satellites are fairly right in claiming they were at 2752 m this morning. That is less than 100 m below the South Pole´s altitude. - We´ll keep working hard, and drink well, Rita promised.

- We are eating double portions for breakfast, 1,5 dinner portions and lots of crisps, chocolate, nuts and biscuits during the day, Ine-Lill told me earlier today. They still ski 11 hours a day, but are increasingly feeling the strain.

Slow snow. Yesterday they made 33,4 km - which is below their current schedule: 37,2. - The snow conditions are heavy, and it´s colder. Even to ski one kilometer here is quite an effort, Ine-Lill emphasized. This morning their position was south 88.16.467, west 86.21.938 - 192,7 km from the Pole.

Higher and higher. Saturday they managed 34 km, with fresh snow, -27 C, lot of sastrugi and climbing uphills. Their current altitude is somewhere above 2500 m, which translates to at least 3500 in non-polar areas.

Racing. And they are running out of time. Their pick up date is on Friday, but they will probably be able to ski during the day. This means they had 5 days to ski 192,7 km before take of this morning. No choice but to keep skiing like crazy!

Although the conditions were tiring, they managed 35,6 km yesterday, which left them at south 87.39.603, west 86.49.803. Another 260,5 km to go!

Thursday they did another neat piece of work: an estimated 37,4. This is based on the sparse data I was able to gather over a rather faulty satellite connection. 

Wednesday they were struggling with low contrast and the added strain of skiing uphills, but even so they progressed 34,8 km.
- We have fun skiing, they said.

The conditions were quite good. - Althoug fresh snow meant high friction, there was no sastrugi, Rita told me on the phone earlier today.

Tired. This morning they were at south 86.41.814,west 86.40.455, with another 368 km to go. - We are both starting to feel tired now, and it´s not given that we can keep this up all the way to the pole. But although we are a bit concerned, we will continue to do our best, Rita emphasized.

Thinned. Their long days of skiing has had a clear physical effect too. - We are both quite thin now, and have probably lost about 15 kg, Rita said. They are compensating by eating more calories all day; nuts and cheese added to their usual breakfast, 250 g chocolate plus nuts an biscuits during the day - and crisps before dinner.

This neat progress took them 11 hours yesterday. - It was very motivating to finally have large, flat areas with no sastrugi, they reported this morning.

Their position last night was south 86.21.180, west 86.40.068, which amounts to 407,3 km from the Pole. Today they were hoping for some sunshine in order to charge batteries - and for no more sastrugi, we presume!

Yesterday´s record did require a substantial effort, though. - It was both mentally and physically challenging. We had a lot of sastrugi and at times no contrast, Rita said earlier today.

Third increase. Saturday also resulted in a longer stretch than the previous day, namely 34,5 km. Their position this morning local time was south 85.59.155, west 86.30.942 - which is 448 km from the Pole.

- One of the problems with the sastrugi is that it is hard to establish a nice skiing rhytm, Rita explained this morning. Despite the holes, high friction and strong winds they managed a record long stretch of 34 km yesterday.

Tough days. Thursday and Wednesday both presented very difficult weather conditions, especially due to strong winds. The duo then skied just above their own absolute minimum of 30 km a day. To achieve this, they had to increase to about 10 hours of skiing.

Minor injuries. Rita still has some problems with her neck, but cope by means of massage, warm bottles and occasionally pain killers. Ine-Lill is fit as ever, although they both are beginning to feel the strain of prolonged skiing.

Good spirits. Before take off this morning, they had about 518 km left before the ultimate deadline the 25th of January. - It´s a tough challenge, but we are still optimistic, Rita says.