CYCLING THE SOUTH POLE
One of the ambassadors for the Wales 2016 Year of Adventure, Maria Leijerstam speaks with Amanda Hunt about her passion for exploration and being the first person to cycle to the South Pole.
Do you think living in Wales has helped fuel your passion for the outdoors?
100%. I was born in Aberdare, went to school in Cowbridge and then I went away for University and to work for about 15 years and then I came back home. I think for the fact that whichever way to turn, you get the sea in the southerly direction, so it is very conducive to kayaking or open water swimming. Within half an hour to 40 minutes’ drive you’ve got the mountains to the north. There are many facilities now that are popping up left, right and centre. I went to New Zealand in 2010 and I made a big career change actually. I cycled the length of the country and really understood how sport is a way of life for them there. So it was this approach that I thought “Hey, I am going to go back to Wales and start my own business, make sport a way of life there because we’ve got all these facilities”.
What has been the most challenging thing for you so far?
Absolutely the South Pole. It was the actual cycling itself that was incredibly challenging and then just the planning and preparation for the thing. It took me four years from start to finish to plan and organise it all. Most people that go to the South Pole pay an organiser their money and they get flown out and then ski and everything is covered. I organised it from scratch. I didn’t go the standard route, I went a different route, which was similar to the one that Scott and Amundsen went; from the Ross Ice Shelf travelling over the Transantarctic Mountain range. All of that required me to organise all of my travel to Antarctica, and across Antarctica. The cycle itself was the easiest part.
When you’re doing your challenges, are you able to fully appreciate where you are and what you are doing?
You know it is a good question because quite often I am so focused on trying to get somewhere efficiently and as fast as I can. In particular the South Pole, I made myself really look around and occasionally stop. Just so to start to appreciate it because I have been to some incredible places. Places that other human beings have never been before. Like when I did the race across Patagonia, I was crossing glaciers, I was fighting Patagonian forests and all sorts. As I have gotten older I have started to really begin to appreciate it.
When you choose your missions, do you purposefully look for things that haven’t been done before or achieved?
Yes definitely. I don’t like to follow in anyone else’s footsteps. I like to take inspiration from other people. The point of the South Pole was to prove that cycling is a really good form of polar travel. Given the speed record of doing it in 10 days 40 hours, I think it also proved that it could be more efficient than skiing, which is obviously the proven method of polar travel.
In April 2016 you are planning on going to the North Pole to run a marathon on the floating air base and then cycle 111km. Can you tell me what this challenge is all about and if it is still going ahead?
The marathon is an organised marathon. It’s more because I really want to see that area. I am getting back into running. I haven’t done a lot of running since the South Pole or the leading up to the South Pole because I was so focused on the cycling. That’s definitely 100% going ahead. What I am aiming to do is to get on my bike and cycle the last 100km to the Pole. The marathon isn’t actually run exactly at the North Pole, it is run at the airbase, which is about 100 km south of the North Pole.
Info: www.burnseries.co.uk / www.visitwales.com