A British adventurer was close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted just a few days after an American became the first to conquer the feat, which was previously said to be impossible. Louis Rudd's expedition blog on Thursday showed that the 49-year-old has only has about 50 miles (80 kilometers) left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If Rudd — a Hereford, England, resident and captain in the British Army — completes the journey, he'll become the second man to do so after Colin O'Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first on Wednesday. O’Brady, 33, took 54 days to complete the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) crossing of the frozen continent from north to south. O'Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. He’d pushed really hard all the way across and done extremely well, so congratulations to him.”

Rudd wrote that he never felt like he was in a race and that “it’s always been about completing the journey.”

It’s been an emotional trek for Rudd, who decided to do the solo in honor of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016.
After a 56-day trek, British Army captain Lou Rudd becomes the second person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, over two decades after the first solo crossing by Norwegian Børge Ousland.