A 33-year-old from Portland, Oregon, made history on Wednesday after becoming the first person to traverse Antarctica unassisted.
Colin O’Brady set out on the 930-mile epic journey in early November, documenting his 54-day trek across Earth’s southernmost continent on Instagram.
After leaving his makeshift camp in the early hours of Christmas morning, the adventurer said he covered the last 80 miles to the finish line in “one continuous ‘Antarctica Ultramarathon.’”
“While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady wrote in a post on Instagram. “I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey.”
The 33-year-old added that the first thing he did was call his wife, Jenna Besaw.
“I burst into tears making this call. I was never alone out there ... you walked every step with me and guided me with your courage and strength. We did it!!” he said.
Englishman Louis Rudd, who was competing against O’Brady, is currently 50 miles from the finish line.
The 49-year-old is a friend of explorer Henry Worsley, who died in 2016 after attempting to complete the crossing.
O’Brady’s wife told The Associated Press that her husband plans to stay in Antarctica until Rudd crosses the finish line.
“It’s a small club,” she said. “His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished the same thing.”