WATCH ABOVE: Frederic Dion talks about his adventures in Antarctica
MONTREAL — Why would anyone want to travel and live for over a month in Antarctica?
This was the question on everyone’s mind when Frederic Dion came to the Global Morning News Wednesday morning.
Dion, an adventurer, spent 54 days travelling 4,382 km by himself across the Earth’s southernmost continent (a.k.a. the south pole)!
“It was extreme.”
“It was harder than I thought,” said Dion laughing.
“A lot bumpier on the field. I thought Antarctica was flat, but it’s not.”
Dion travelled first to the south pole of inaccessibility, the point in Antarctica furthest from any ocean.
After that, he travelled to the geographic south pole.
“Anything is possible,” he said.
“This is how you discover what your limits are.”
Putting himself in these extreme situations isn’t anything new to Dion.
At just 37 years old, he’s already wandered through the north of Quebec with a blindfold, no map, no GPS and no food.
He’s run 33 marathons in seven weeks and walked on the ocean floor: just because he can.
“All the other adventures prepared me for this one,” he said.
“It’s physically, mentally and financially the biggest project that I’ve been involved in.”
What was the hardest thing for Dion during his voyage to the south pole?
He withstood frostbite on his face and his toes; he slept in a tent in minus 60 degree weather … but that was nothing compared to his emotional struggle.
In the last five years, Dion said he hasn’t been away for longer than two weeks from his family.
“I was prepared for the suffering, for the cold, for the blizzard and the storms, but the hardest thing was to be so far away from my family, from my daughters,” he told Global Morning News anchor Richard Dagenais.
Although some may call him crazy, Dion insisted there’s a very specific reason why he puts himself through these hard situations.
“The biggest obstacle for us to realize our dreams of tomorrow are the doubts of today,” he said.
“We need challenges. It brings us happiness.”
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