Bacon, butter fuel fastest South Pole trek

updated 6:05 a.m. ET Jan. 9, 2009

SYDNEY, Australia - A trio of Canadian adventurers said Friday they have set a new record for fastest trek across Antarctica to the South Pole, after suffering through whiteout conditions, temperatures as low as minus 40 — and a steady diet of deep-fried bacon and butter.

Ray Zahab said he and his teammates completed the 700-mile journey from Hercules Inlet on Antarctica's Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole in 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes, finally arriving Thursday.

"If you took a cloud, wrapped it around your head and then duct-taped it, that's what a whiteout is like," a weary yet animated Zahab, 39, of Chelsea, Quebec, told The Associated Press by satellite phone from Antarctica. "It was exhausting."

Zahab is best known for his epic 4,300-mile run across the Sahara Desert in 2007, which was the subject of a documentary narrated by actor Matt Damon entitled "Running the Sahara."

Tom Sjogren, founder of ExplorersWeb.com, a New York-based Web site that compiles statistics on adventurers' feats, said the men beat the previous record of 39 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes, which was set by American Todd Carmichael just last month.

"They have definitely broken the record," said Sjogren, who uses a variety of materials, including photographs of explorers' GPS coordinates and their logs, to help verify adventurers' records.

Massive blisters
Zahab and his teammates — Kevin Vallely of North Vancouver and Richard Weber of Alcove, Quebec — documented their journey on their Web site, using their satellite phone to post photos and podcasts along the way. They pulled 170-pound sleds of equipment, with Zahab traveling on foot and on snowshoes while the other two men skied. At night, they hunkered down in a tent to sleep.

The men suffered altitude sickness, vertigo and massive, painful blisters. They kept themselves fueled with a 7,000-calorie-a-day diet of deep-fried bacon, cheese and huge chunks of butter.

"I am dying for pizza," Zahab said with a sigh Friday. "All I've been thinking about is pizza."

He was longing, too, for his 6-month-old daughter, Mia Sahara, and wife of two years, Kathy.

"All I would do is think about them and think about how I would spend the day with them and how I would never complain about changing a diaper again," he said.

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