⓿ Go! Go! South Pole / Adventurous Horizon

Antarctica is a lonely existence on the southern tip of planet Earth and also the last continent to be ever discovered by the human race. Natural forces on the Earth’s surface dominates this land where fierce winds, blizzards, and unforgiving coldness maintain a permanent residence. People of the West were influenced by their marine cultures, traditions, and scientific explorations when they began pouring into Antarctica starting from the 19th Century, leaving behind many moving passages in the record that is history.

December 22nd, 2018 CLT, the First Antarctica Expedition Team of Taiwan reached the South Pole via cross-country skiing. At the southern axis of the Earth’s rotation, Taiwan’s culture of adventure had also found its new start.
Everyone has an Antarctica that is distant, challenging, and filled with obstacles but, once reached, will incur a momentous change in your life. With passions ablaze and eyes of resolve, we dare you to set sail onto your own Antarctica.

❶ Starting Point /
Adventure is the Core Experience of a Game

Open up the Oxford Dictionary and you’ll find that ‘game’ is defined as “a competitive and entertaining activity that must follow certain rules.” After the World War II, people were finally able to enjoy leisure time and they began integrating the elements of adventure into games. From the text-based games of the 1970s to image adventure and action adventure games later on, we’ve seen a progression of gaming medium from board games to home computers and, ultimately, the phones of today.

Dungeons and Dragons is widely regarded as one of the most influential adventure role-playing games of all time, but it contains no action. This begs the question: what does it mean to finish an adventure? A beautiful definition would be that, “telling a story IS an adventure.” A story entails characters and plotlines, but also a goal lying in wait, waiting to be discovered.

❷ An Unknown Land / The Earth’s most Remote Location

Before the 19th-century explorers arrived in Antarctica on icebreakers, no human had ever left a single trace on these thick slabs of ice. The white desert is akin to the open sea or space: unclaimed and perilous with neither natives nor civilizations but just the mysteries of nature itself.

Explorers discovered quite a fantastical phenomenon in Antarctica. Being on the Prime Meridian, the South Pole belongs to each and every time zone, invalidating time itself. Because it is the southernmost point of the Earth, everything is also north, blurring your sense of direction. Near the South Pole, the Sun never rises for half a year and never sets for the other.

❸ The Plan / Embarking on the Road to Courage

Successful explorers all remember one saying: “Be well prepared before embarking on an adventure.” Being fully prepared prior to departure can create a better understanding of one’s destination, ease one’s fear of the unknown, and allow one to make the most level-headed judgements under the harshest conditions.

The team’s plan was to take the Coast to Pole route, going first from the Union Glacier Camp to the Axel Heiberg Glacier, and then making their way, step by step, towards the South Pole. This path of courage pays tribute to the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911.

❹ The Partnership / The Community behind the Journey

The Gamania Antarctica Expedition Team faced one of the world’s most extreme climates in their nearly-30-day journey from the frozen coast to the distant South Pole. With temperatures of -30ºC, typhoon-strength wind speeds of 50m/s, unforgiving blizzards, and altitude sickness at over 2,000m above sea level, the team quickly became as close as family.

In a land blanketed in white for as far as the eye can see, the five team members were intimately interconnected, each person’s emotional changes and physical condition affected the entire team’s mental state. During the summer in Antarctica, the sun hangs high in the sky. Every day, the Gamania Antarctica Expedition Team cross-country skied for 10 hours, only to drag themselves back to the tent to eat, share stories, and spend time healing from their trek.

❺ The Challenge / Accidents become a Part of Adventure

In Antarctica, accidents are simply another companion. It lingers like a shadow, testing how well the team can manage crises. The Gamania Antarctica Expedition Team took stock of their equipment at the Amundsen Coast and found that their food supply, prepared by the logistics company, was far below safety standards. The team decided to change their route as they considered the coming blizzard, skipping the low-altitude gentle slope from the previous section, opting to enter the region from an altitude of 2,500m above sea level.

Avoiding nature’s traps and enduring physical torment, the most tortuous element for the team was psychological. The relationship between man and the environment grows tense in such extreme environments – every feeling is magnified, including intense loneliness and thoughts of death. As the South Pole drew near, their fears also became clearer. On this snowy white land of lost directions, the teammates would stick together even closer.

❻ Home / Home, the Final Destination

On December 22nd, 2018, 6:00PM CLT (GMT-4), the Gamania Antarctica Expedition Team safely reached the South Pole, the first time that Taiwan would leave its mark on this land in the name of adventure. In 1991, The Antarctic Agreement declared Antarctica as a world park. It was claimed to be a land of peace and science that did not belong to any one country, but, rather, to everyone on this planet Earth. So on that day, the expedition team returned for the first time – back to the home of the world.

Great efforts were made in preparation for the team’s safe return. Leaving the South Pole, team members gradually detached themselves from the surreal and took their worn belongings and extraordinary experiences back to their old lives. All that had happened on this journey will be impressed upon their hearts, forever changing them.