Audi 2010 Annual Report Download - page 32

30
the fi rst successful expedition to the
North Pole – by Robert Edwin Peary in
1909. And 2011 is also the anniversary
of the fi rst successful journey to the
South Pole, which Norwegian Roald
Amundsen reached following a spec-
tacular race against another team on
December 14, 1911 (see p. 35).
“I will be following in the footsteps
of those great explorers in history,”
comments Nilson, “with the diff erence
that I will be far better equipped.” The
adventurer will be relying on a perfectly
calibrated sled that he will pull along
behind him. This sled, which features
an Audi design, has been customized
to meet the extreme conditions at the
North Pole. It must be exceptionally
light, waterproof and sturdy – and be
able to carry loads of up to 120 kilo-
grams without breaking.
The tent, sleeping bag, substitute
clothing, cameras, navigation system,
food and tools need to be kept dry. In
the Arctic, the temperature in April is
around -40°C. In places, the pack ice
is several meters high, and elsewhere
only a few centimeters thick. It is not
unknown for those making the trip to
the North Pole to have the ice break
beneath them. Nilson will be accom-
panied on this stage of the expedition
by an adventurer friend of his, who will
rescue him from the water should such
a situation arise.
After arriving in Greenland, Nilson will
sail to Ottawa in Canada. There, he will
switch to a bike and pedal the length
of North, Central and South America,
which he plans will take him six months,
at “100 kilometers a day.” Right through
to Patagonia, from where the Swede will
set sail for the Antarctic; here he will be
greeted by temperatures of as low as
-60°C. Johan Ernst Nilson is aware that
“the South Pole leg will be the most
critical point in the expedition.” The long
trek may all come to nothing in the eter-
nal ice – owing to dangerous storms,
broken equipment, or simply because
after almost one year of constant eff ort
Nilson may be absolutely exhausted and
unable to go on.
If you thought there was too much
snow last winter you will be asking
yourself: Why choose to embark on
such an undertaking? What drives a
man to suff er for 365 days simply to
get from the top to the bottom of the
world? One could fl y it in a day, and it
would cost only a fraction of Nilson’s
expedition expenses.
“I am not addicted to adrenalin,”
he responds, “but I love waking up in
the morning and not knowing what the
day will bring.” As a child he was shy
and withdrawn, he says, and got poor
grades in sport. Nilson preferred to
write poems and play the piano.
“I never actually wanted to learn what
I could read in books anyway,” he ex-
plains. “I wanted to see and experience
things that no one had before me.”
He has been busy with preparations
for his Pole2Pole expedition for almost
two and a half years now. None of it
has been simple. How to protect a high-
resolution camera against continuous
sub-zero temperatures? How to shoot
a fi lm if you can hardly move your
fi ngers? Questions to which Nilson
had to fi nd answers.
Audi engineers helped him in the
search for solutions. With Audi’s
support, sled experts from Acapulka
developed a super-fast special-purpose
sled for the journey to the South Pole.
“It will be made of carbon and thus
extremely light,” explains Audi engineer
Dr. Karl Durst. But just being light is not
enough in the eternal ice. “The function-
ality is what counts. In the Antarctic
the sled will be pulled across crevasses
and will need to withstand falls of
several meters.”
Unlike in the Arctic, in the Antarctic
there is virtually no humidity in the air.
Modern pioneers
“I wanted to see and experi-
ence things that no one had
before me.”
Nilson plans to cycle from
Canada to Patagonia in six
months. 100 kilometers a day.
The Antarctic ice is as coarse as
rough sandpaper. Nilson wants to
exploit this hard ground and use a
kite to pull him along on skis
for large sections of the journey –
like a kite surfer on the ocean.
PHOTO | JOHAN ERNST NILSON SKETCH | AUDI AG