We attended the welcoming reception for the team members of The Push: A South Pole Adventure organized by Squaw Valley Institute.  This was the first public welcome of the team since their return from the South Pole.  The Push was a goal for the first ever adaptive skier to push himself to the South Pole and arrive on the 100th year anniversary of the first explorer to the South Pole.  Goal accomplished.  I learned so much about the whole adventure, the planning, the motivation and the strength of the human spirit, as did a large group of attendees…the place was packed.  Here is a brief synopsis.  All the team members had a chance to get up on stage and share their empowering experiences.  Video clips and photos were shown to give a taste of the adventure.  A movie is in the making.

Roy Tuscany and Doug Stoup

Roy Tuscany: President and Co-Founder of the High Fives nonprofit organization spoke about High Fives and their involvement in The Push.  They have given $300,000 to athletes with life altering injuries from winter sports in just the 3 short years they’ve been in existence.  Originally Roy was supposed to be the adaptive athlete in The Push but he was so involved in getting High Fives going that he didn’t want to take time away from that to train.  I’m sure quite a few athletes are grateful for that decision.  What a well spoken and vibrant guy.

Director Steve Siig

Steve Siig: Director of The Push.  Based on the photos and video clips it is going to be an amazing and emotional movie.  Siig has been involved from the beginning and sounds really excited to tell the story.  The Push was a year in planning and training before the actual event.  I can’t wait to see the movie.

Tal Fletcher

Doug Stoup and Tal Fletcher: Guides to the South Pole.  These two men were the knowledge and know how to guide Grant Korgan to the South Pole one push at a time.  Each push moved Grant about 2 feet on his sit ski.  If he stopped moving for more than 30 seconds he would risk hypothermia.  He would wake each morning and push himself for 12 hours a day, non stop.  Doug and Tal guided, motivated, and even fed Grant along the way.

Steven Siig and Keoki Flagg

Keoki Flagg: Camera man extraordinaire.  Keoki talked while the slide show was playing giving the audience insight to the adventure.  He shared feelings about the peace, solitude and the human soul as he motivated himself through the adventure, continually looking for the best angle to capture the team as they pushed over the white frozen landscape.  He kept his batteries in his under layers so they had life when they came out in the cold.  The images he shared were stunning and so full.  ( Tom Day and Petter Nyquist, the other crew/camera men were not there to share that night).

Grant Korgan, an amazing person and athlete

Grant Korgan: Saving the best for last, the adaptive athlete who pushed himself to the SouthPole and actually got out of  the sit ski and walked the last 100 feet.  Grant is an amazing story teller, so comfortable and charismatic on stage.  He shared with us on so many levels getting the audience to both laugh and cry during his talk.  Not knowing Grant personally, it sounds like his life may have changed for the worse at first and then for the better when he injured his back in 2010 changing the course of his life.  It is to hard to summarize all the stories and emotions that were shared but I am sure the story will be well told by Steve Siig when the movie comes out.  We had a chance to briefly meet Grant at the end of the evening.  What a charming athlete.

To close, a few intersting tid bits shared by the team…

• it took two hours every morning to boil enough snow to make soup for the team for the day
• water, not kept in a thermos, froze solid in about 90 minutes
• the crew/camera men would pack up the tents in the mornings, catch up to the team, weave on and off the track as they captures photos, then hurry ahead to get the tents set up for when Grant, Tal and Doug arrived
• Grant’s toes were hooked to wires so he could monitor their temperature, the got to 23 degrees at one point halting the progress to immediately warm him up

Grant and his wife with my two kids.