Ben Saunders: To the South Pole and back — the hardest 105 days of my life
Ben Sonders (Ben Saunders): Do Južnog pola i nazad - najtežih 105 dana u mom životu
In 2004, Ben Saunders became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole. In 2013, he set out on another record-breaking expedition, this time to retrace Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole on foot. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
intelligentsia that is TED,
koji je jezgro inteligencije,
stuff around cold places.
teških stvari po hladnim mestima.
for most of my adult life,
predvodio sam polarne ekspedicije
Tarka L'Herpiniere and I
Tarka Lerpinijer i ja
expedition I've ever attempted.
ekspediciju koju sam ikada pokušao.
transported straight here
pravo ovde bio transportovan
straight to the TED stage.
pravo na TED binu.
that hasn't been entirely seamless.
baš glatka promena.
memory is entirely shot.
izgleda potpuno otišlo.
in the next 17 minutes.
u narednih 17 minuta.
about this expedition,
o ovoj ekspediciji,
or building space telescopes,
ili pravili svemirske teleskope,
we had to achieve something
sve što imamo da postignemo
find some food for thought.
materijal za razmišljanje.
expedition in Antarctica,
highest altitude continent on Earth.
i najviši kontinent u Evropi.
It's a huge place.
Ogromno mesto.
as China and India put together.
Kine i Indije zajedno.
in the last few days,
u poslednjih nekoliko dana,
may get at TED in a few years' time,
Krisu Hedfildu na TED-u za koju godinu,
with Lindblad for our anniversary."
i Lindblad za godišnjicu braka."
for the marathon?"
69 marathons back to back
kao 69 spojenih maratona
on foot from the coast of Antarctica
pešaka, od obale Antarktika
journey in history by more than 400 miles.
u istoriji, za više od 400 milja.
here to San Francisco,
odavde do San Franciska,
and walking back again.
bilo je baš dugačko,
most succinctly here
of Business Insider Malaysia.
malezijskog "Biznis insajdera".
That Killed Everyone The Last Time It Was Attempted"]
na kome su poslednjeg puta svi stradali"]
and indeed the odds of survival.
i zaista, o šansama da preživite.
attempted this journey before us,
ovo putovanje pre nas,
to attempt this expedition.
koji je pokušao ovu ekspediciju.
ser Ernest Šeklton,
the first to reach the South Pole,
da budu prve na Južnom polu,
the interior of Antarctica,
unutrašnjost Antarktika,
the moon through telescopes.
kroz teleskope.
a century ago, uncharted.
bio neistražen.
Terra Nova Expedition in 1910,
Tera nova iz 1910. godine,
siege-style approach.
poduhvat nalik opsadi.
koji je koristio ponije,
depots of food and fuel
depoe hrane i goriva
would travel to the Pole,
prošao na putu do pola,
back to the coast again on foot.
peške, vratili do obale.
in January 1912
januara 1912. godine
by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen,
norveški tim Roalda Amundsena;
this journey has remained unfinished.
ovaj put je ostao nezavršen.
on the return journey.
umro u povratku.
the high-water mark?
of human endurance,
ljudske izdržljivosti,
human athletic achievement
ljudskog atletskog dostignuća
predictable combination of curiosity,
i predvidiva kombinacija znatiželje,
to try to finish the job.
da mogu biti taj koji će završiti posao.
there were just two of us,
bili smo samo nas dvojica,
of Antarctica in October last year,
u oktobru prošle godine,
"ljudska vuča".
here to San Francisco and back,
do San Franciska i nazad,
something that weighs a shade more
nešto za dlaku teže
of Scott's ponies pulled.
najslabiji Skotov poni.
smo prelazili 0,8 kilometara na sat.
attempted this journey until now,
nije odvažio na ovaj put,
stupid enough to try.
dovoljno lud da pokuša.
da smo istraživali
sense of the word —
smislu te reči -
or mapping any uncharted valleys —
neistražene doline na mape -
territory in a human sense.
u neistražene predele u ljudskom smislu.
there is an area of the human brain
da postoji deo ljudskog mozga
psuješ sam sebe,
spends 90 percent of their time indoors.
90 odsto vremena u zatvorenom prostoru.
for nearly four months.
skoro četiri meseca.
prilično spartanski.
three times in 105 days
tri puta
30 square feet on the canvas.
2,7 kvadratnih metara platna.
that Scott could never have imagined.
koju Skot ne bi nikada ni zamislio.
from the tent via a laptop
iz šatora, preko laptopa
satelitskog odašiljača,
panel over the tent.
bio je nad šatorom.
literature of adventure and exploration,
avanturistička i istraživačka književnost,
here this week
ove nedelje ovde videli
the power of storytelling.
challenges that Scott faced
izazovi sa kojima se Skot suočavao
what Scott called glide,
i ono što je Skot nazivao klizanje,
the sledges and the snow.
saonica i snega.
we experienced was in the -70s,
od oko minus 70-ak stepeni,
what's called white-out,
ono što se zove belinom,
jednim od najvećih
in the world, the Beardmore glacier.
glečerom Birdmor.
is what's called blue ice.
je takozvani plavi led.
shimmering steel-hard blue surface
blistava plava površina, tvrda kao čelik
and thousands of crevasses,
i hiljadama pukotina,
up to 200 feet deep.
sežu i do 60 metara.
izloženi riziku,
chance of being rescued.
najmanje šanse da nas spasu.
after 61 days on foot,
nakon 61 dana pešačenja,
zbog lošeg vremena,
something of an anticlimax.
bilo je antiklimaktično.
at the South Pole.
na Južnom polu.
they have a canteen,
imaju kantinu,
toplom vodom,
as a movie theater.
i bioskopska sala.
365 days of the year
postoje 365 dana u godini
and movie theaters,
i bioskope,
mnogo praznih kartonskih kutija.
a lot of empty cardboard boxes.
this photograph,
možete videti
from the South Pole.
odneti sa Južnog Pola.
postoji pol,
bez podrške,
than anyone in history.
od bilo koga u istoriji.
and flown home,
i odleteli kući,
the eminently sensible thing to do,
the right tools, the right technology,
pravi alat, pravu tehnologiju,
and enough determination,
i dovoljno odlučnosti,
da budu zanimljive.
very cold, very dry, we were exhausted.
hladno i suvo, bili smo iscrpljeni.
i satelitskih telefona
that didn't exist for Scott,
koje Skot nije imao,
limits as human beings.
apsolutnih granica čoveka.
of starvation day after day
dan za danom
full of food.
saonice pune hrane.
in sponsorship proposals
potencijalnim sponzorima
of human endurance,
ljudske izdržljivosti,
a very frightening place to be indeed.
biti u toj poziciji.
headwind, which slowed us down.
direktnog vetra, što nas je usporavalo.
of eating half rations.
jeli smo pola porcija.
in the sledges to make this journey,
u sankama za ovaj put,
the calories we should have been eating.
koje treba da pojedemo.
increasingly hypoglycemic —
imali hipoglikemiju -
levels day after day —
nizak nivo šećera u krvi -
to the extreme cold.
ekstremnoj hladnoći.
od hipotermije.
with hypothermia.
something I hadn't experienced before,
nečega što do tad nismo iskusili
like to think, as I do,
of person who doesn't quit,
to lie down and quit.
da legnem i odustanem.
to be debilitated to that degree.
da budem toliko devastiran.
for our return journey —
za povratak -
could melt snow to get water —
da bismo topili sneg i dobili vodu -
to call for a resupply flight,
i zatražim avion sa zalihama,
to tide us over that gap.
kako bismo prebrodili tu rupu.
from the other side of Antarctica.
sa druge strane Antarktika.
the toughest decisions of my life.
jedna od najtežih odluka u mom životu.
standing here now with a sort of belly.
stojeći ovde sa stomačićem.
in the last three weeks.
u poslednje tri nedelje.
an interesting mental scar,
zanimljiv mentalni ožiljak,
every hotel buffet that I can find.
u svakom hotelu gde sam bio.
and in quite a bad way.
i to prilično.
for that plane for a second,
što sam zvao taj avion,
telling this story.
was never part of the plan,
nikada nije bila deo plana
is still struggling with.
the spikes on our boots
over this blue ice on the glacier —
preko plavog leda na glečeru -
da ih popravljamo.
of the Beardmore Glacier.
in the gap on the horizon.
mogli ste smestiti ceo Menhetn.
Mount Hope and Mount Kiffin.
između planina Houp i Kifin.
as I did in Antarctica.
kao na Antarktiku.
to the mouth of the glacier,
the dozens of deep crevasses.
desetine dubokih šupljina.
crossing this sort of terrain
prelazak ovakvog terena
of a railway station.
na železničkoj stanici.
than I can remember,
da ne mogu ni da se setim,
or a boot through the snow.
ili čizme kroz sneg.
the way up to our armpits,
after 105 days,
nakon 105 dana,
inauspicious finish line,
on the New Zealand side of Antarctica.
ka Novom Zelandu.
ski trail of nearly 1,800 miles.
od skoro 2900 kilometara.
polar journey on foot,
polarno putovanje peške,
of doing for a decade.
much thought to what happens
o tome šta se dešava
most of your adult life to,
većinu odraslog života
still figuring that bit out.
superficial signs that I've been away.
površnih znakova da sam otišao.
covered in makeup now, frostbite scars.
koji su sada verovatno prekriveni šminkom.
each cheek, from where the goggles are,
od naočari,
different person indeed.
and humbled me so deeply
i učinio tako skromnim
to put it into words.
to da predstavim rečima.
together my thoughts.
telling this story
i iznosim ovu priču
accomplish great things,
velike stvari,
hard enough, as Sting said,
kao što je rekao Sting,
saying, you know what,
more important than the destination?
bitnije od odredišta?
that the biggest lesson
might be teaching me
ova veoma duga i teška šetnja
a finish line,
us seem to dream of
here, today, now, on our journeys
ovde, danas, sada, na svojim putovanjima,
that we all inhabit,
the half-finished to-do lists,
poluzavršenim spiskovima,
and in front of hotel buffets.
u hotelskim restoranima.
of character to fight it. (Laughter)
da se borim protiv toga. (Smeh)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ben Saunders - Polar explorerIn 2004, Ben Saunders became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole. In 2013, he set out on another record-breaking expedition, this time to retrace Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole on foot.
Why you should listen
Although most of the planet's surface was mapped long ago, there's still a place for explorers in the modern world. And Ben Saunders' stories of arctic exploration -- as impressive for their technical ingenuity as their derring-do -- are decidedly modern. In 2004, at age 26, he skied solo to the North Pole, updating his blog each day of the trip. Humble and self-effacing, Saunders is an explorer of limits, whether it's how far a human can be pushed physically and psychologically, or how technology works hundreds of miles from civilization. His message is one of inspiration, empowerment and boundless potential.
He urges audiences to consider carefully how to spend the “tiny amount of time we each have on this planet.” Saunders is also a powerful advocate for the natural world. He's seen first-hand the effects of climate change, and his expeditions are raising awareness for sustainable solutions.
Being the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole did not satiate Saunders' urge to explore and push the boundaries. In 2008, he attempted to break the speed record for a solo walk to the North Pole; however, his journey was ended abruptly both then and again in 2010 due to equipment failure. From October 2013 to February 2014, he led a two-man team to retrace Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated 1,800-mile expedition to the South Pole on foot. He calls this journey the hardest 105 days of his life.
Ben Saunders | Speaker | TED.com