How to get to South Pole? Preet Chandi became fastest woman to ski across Antarctica solo with a little googling, a lot of guts and a pioneering streak
- Chandi, appearing in Hong Kong on International Women’s Day, reveals how being told to get married and conform to expectations ‘lit a fire’ in her
- In three record-breaking Antarctic expeditions, the British Army medical officer went to ‘some of the darkest places I have been’
Preet Chandi may have felt safe to assume she would not see polar bears in Hong Kong this weekend, but she “did not know they lived in Antarctica” before planning her three record-breaking expeditions there.
The physiotherapist and British Army medical officer in December became the fastest woman to ski solo across the ice-covered continent, taking 31 days to cover 1,130km (702 miles).
Almost 12 months earlier, she did not make it all the way across but managed the longest solo unsupported polar expedition. A year before that, she became the first woman of colour to ski to the South Pole solo.
She says she typed “how to get to Antarctica into Google, and went from there”.
Appearing in Hong Kong as a guest of JP Morgan for Friday’s International Women’s Day, Chandi said being told no “lit a fire” in her to confound expectations.
She did just that, from trying to outdo her brothers, to leaving home at 14 to pursue a tennis career, to having the idea of Antarctic expeditions while competing in the furnace-like Marathon des Sables in the Sahara.
Labelled “disrespectful and rebellious” by members of her family and community in the English town of Derby when she refused to simply “get married, have the right job, and a house and car”, Chandi was not about to stop when she ran low on food during an “insane” second trip.
“That trip took me to some of the darkest places I have been,” Chandi said. “Those 70 days absolutely broke me. I lost 20kg [44lbs] of fat and muscle, I was frail and had injuries.”
Chandi would trek for 25 hours at a time. With the chocolates, nuts and flapjacks supplying her daily 5,000-calorie intake running low, she survived on one dehydrated meal per day.
“I would have the food ready in my little mug, and add water from my Thermos,” Chandi said. “So I would quickly eat this lukewarm meal, then go for another 12 hours.”
She would need “the whole year to return to normal, mentally”.
Visiting her grandmother a week before her first Antarctic trip, “All she wanted to talk about was when I would get married,” Chandi said. “It was not even on the cards.”
Chandi’s wedding is this week, but all anyone wants to talk about now is what she achieved under her own steam.
