He will be dragging a 200-kg sled packed with food rations and fuel through the distance, surviving temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. It’s what adventurers call ‘manhauling.’
Preparation itself cost Nanavati – an entrepreneur, speaker and author – the tips of two fingers, lost to frostbite. One was removed because of gangrene. This happened while climbing the Axel Heiberg Glacier in Canada, within the Arctic circle. Back from this ordeal, Nanavati opted for part of the other digit to be removed as well.
This was despite its recovery. Nanavati felt the digit was getting cold faster than other fingers, something that may well prove dangerous during the Antarctic adventure.
The digits add up in other ways too. Nanavati, along with wife Melissa, had to raise $1.12 million through crowdfunding for the mission.
Long Way to Travel
Born in Mumbai and raised across Bengaluru, Singapore and the US, Nanavati has led an eventful life. He served six years in the US Marines and was deployed in Iraq during 2007-08. He later opened up about his struggles, including being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the guilt he felt having survived an attack that took the life of a fellow Marine. Once he retired, Nanavati wrote a book, Fearvana, chronicling his formula to “transform all your seemingly negative emotions into health, wealth and happiness.”
According to Melissa, the trek across Antarctica is the culmination of his long journey from “a kid who was afraid of the darkness, to what he is now. He’s been preparing for this for four years.”
The duo got married a year and a half ago. Melissa helped him train for the harsh environs of Antarctica. The regimen consisted primarily of tyre dragging, which is exactly what it sounds like – pulling truck tyres attached to a harness for hours on end, simulating the effort needed to haul a heavy sled across the ice. The couple, who live in Arizona, also installed a hypoxia machine, which, when paired with a mask, reduces the amount of oxygen that’s being breathed in.
Talk to his parents and it’s easy to see where Nanavati gets his fortitude from. Mother Anjali has one message for young parents everywhere: “I have seen parents protecting their kids all the time. If we don’t let them fall, how will they rise on their own?” Father Ajay was formerly managing director of 3M in India and Israel, and chairman of Syndicate Bank. He’s currently chairman of Alicon Castalloy.
Nanavati also travelled to Greenland, Norway and Iceland to prepare. He stayed in a cabin near a frozen lake in Alaska and skied with sandbags attached.
With the mental aspect of the lonely adventure being especially taxing, what with miles of endless whiteness being the only visual through 110 days, Nanavati has also been steeling himself in darkness retreats, a Buddhist practice.
Trek of a Lifetime
Crossing Antarctica unassisted is one of the last great adventures, and, naturally, there have been quite a few attempts to conquer this final frontier.
US athlete Colin O’Brady reportedly completed the feat on December 26, 2018, in 54 days, but that was 932 miles (1,500 km), significantly less than Nanavati’s trek. It was also controversial, with other adventurers accusing O’Brady “of exaggerating his accomplishment, or worse,” according to the National Geographic. There was also a view that O’Brady traversed only what is known as the inner coast, and did not start at the permanent ice shelf that extends far beyond.
In 1997, Norwegian adventurer Borge Ousland traversed 1,864 miles (3,000 km) in 64 days. He did this solo and mostly without assistance. But a technicality over the occasional use of a kite-like device to increase speed was deemed as an external aid, which meant he didn’t do it unsupported.
That has resulted in the record still being open.
Nonetheless, Nanavati’s aim is not just the milestone. As Melissa says, “The goal is to expand people’s belief of what is possible. Everybody has an Antarctica to cross.”
