The UAE’s answer to Robert Falcon Scott is 26-year-old Emirati Abdullah Al-Ahbabi. In December 2018, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia reports, he skied 130km across Antarctica in an altitude of 300m and beat weather conditions of -50 degrees Celsius, to become the youngest Arab to journey across both the North and South Pole.
Last year, Abdullah Al-Ahbabi began his journey to both the South and North poles.
In April 2018, after skiing 160 km over the Arctic Ocean in -40 degrees Celsius, he conquered the North Pole. Doing so, he became the youngest person from the 22 Arab League countries to have reached the North Pole.
Not long after that he set his sights on conquering the South Pole.
“Waving the UAE flag proudly at the bottom of the world,” he writes on Instagram “After skiing over 130km across Antarctica at an altitude of over 3300m and weather conditions at -50 C I have reached the South Pole after conquering the incredible odds that laid in front of me.”
“I am honored to place the UAE at the top of Arab League (22 countries) for having the youngest Arab to ski to both poles unassisted,” he adds.
Al-Ahbabi trained weekly at Ski Dubai, sharing his journey on his social media.
So how tough was it?
“It’s one of the very toughest expeditions if you compare the North Pole, the South Pole and the seven summits. It is right at the top, under [climbing Mount] Everest. I knew it would add more value to the claim that nothing is impossible,” Alahbabi said to The National in 2018.
He also had to worry about frostbite, high altitude sickness and pulling his own equipment.
.jpg)