“It’s about what’s in your head”
Darius Vaičiulis is a Lithuanian businessman, mountaineer, Dakar Rally navigator, who ventured to the South Pole earlier this year with a team of five other enthusiasts. Although extreme weather conditions modified the adventurer’s plans, he reached his final destination in 33 days. In an interview with LRT TV, he said “Very few people were there before us – around 50 in 110 years.” According to the traveller, such an expedition requires immense physical and psychological strength. “If you have any doubts, the challenge can become too difficult. The desire is essential, otherwise, every moment you start wondering what you’re doing here,” Vaičiulis said.
The first phase of the expedition consisted of climbing three-kilometre-high Axel Heiberg Glacier. Due to severe weather conditions, it took 28 days instead of the planned 18. The second phase – covering 500 kilometres on the Polar plateau – had to be modified. Here, one of the team members was evacuated due to frostbite in his limbs. “We had to decide whether to risk not reaching the South Pole if we ran out of time or choose a safer option,” Vaičiulis said. “Finally, a plane arrived and flew us several hundred kilometres closer to our destination. From there, we continued the last 111 kilometres on skis to reach the South Pole,” he added.
According to Vaičiulis, the experience is hard to convey to those who have never been on a similar expedition. “You carry everything on the sledge, including food, clothing, equipment, communication tools, first aid kits, and so on. This adds up to around 80 kilograms that you must haul three kilometres up the iceberg,” he said. “Every day, we skied for 9-10 hours regardless of the conditions and wind,” the adventurer added.
Vaičiulis crowned this expedition planting the flag of the NGO Gelbėkite vaikus (“Help the Children”) at the South Pole. In Lithuania, children attending Help the Children day care centres had written their hopes and dreams on the flag, which they presented to the adventurer. His goal was to increase awareness about the problems of underprivileged children in Lithuania and to bring together the public and the business community to help those children. During the expedition, organizers in Lithuania conducted a fundraising campaign and collected more than 38,000 euros for “Help the Children”.
Before this expedition to the South Pole, Vaičiulis had also crossed Africa by motorbike and the Atlantic Ocean by yacht as well as climbing the Seven Summits. He is the second Lithuanian (after Vladas Vitkauskas) to have done all seven. He climbed the final peak, Mount Vinson (4892 m) in Antarctica in December of 2021. He said they were prepared for a 6 to 9 day expedition, but it took them 21 days in all, and they were running out of food and patience.
His mountain adventures started 20 years ago during a business trip to Tanzania, when he and his wife succeeding in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with no prior experience.
Vaičiulis stars in the Discovery Channel documentary Everest: Beyond the Limit.
LRT.lt, Sportas Info
