Skiing in the Dark - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 209

carefully prescribed series of GPS coordinates distributed by
ALE. The crevasses were well documented but knowing they
were so close was unnerving.
Three years previously as I'd set out for the South Pole with
my international team of women, another woman (a Major in
the Canadian Air Force) had set out alone on a solo expedition
to the South Pole from Hercules Inlet. A few days after leaving
the coast she took off her skis and fell through the snowpack
into an unseen fissure somewhere in this same crevasse field.
Fortunately for her, she fell onto a ledge within the crevasse
relatively near to the surface and was able to get a signal on
her satellite phone. Not being far from her start point, ALE
found her quickly and she'd been rescued having spent six long
hours in the cold. (Considering how frightening the experience
must have been, it is incredible that shortly after being rescued
she restarted her expedition from the beginning. Crossing the
crevasse field again, without incident this time, she went on
to become the first Canadian to ski solo and unsupported to
the South Pole.) The story had horrified me when I'd heard
it, as all crevasse stories do, and it had stuck in my mind as I
planned the route for this last part of my journey.
'Make sure you stick to the coordinates and you'll be fine,'
Steve had reassured me at Union Glacier. 'And whatever you
do, don't take off your skis.'
I followed his advice minutely, skiing carefully along precise
coordinates using my GPS. When it was time to camp I took off
just one ski at first and used it to thoroughly probe the ground
around my camp site to check for any concealed fissures before
pitching the tent.
It was perfectly still and brilliantly sunny. Pulling my sleeping
bag from one of my sledges I deviated from my usual routine