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The First Africans to Walk to the South Pole | Alex Harris
“Alex Harris walked to the South Pole unsupported as one of the first Africans to ever do it. 65 days. 600 miles. Pulling everything they needed across Antarctica from scratch. This week on The God Seeker Podcast, Pastor Joe Martin Jr. sits down with adventurer and endurance athlete Alex Harris for the third chapter of one of the most extraordinary stories ever told on this show. In this conversation, Alex shares what it actually took to cross Antarctica without support, the olive oil regimen that kept him alive in minus 40 temperatures, the nine days of darkness when every thought told him to quit, and the revelation that changed everything on the flight home. This is a conversation about grit, calling, and what happens when God meets you at the absolute end of yourself.”
In 2005, Alex finally made it to the summit of Mount Everest, and completed the seven summits journey, the highest mountains on all seven continents. It was his third expedition to Everest over a period of nine years having spent 190 days on the mountain. Apart from the thrill of finally standing on top, it was also a deeply moving experience.
On his first expedition to Everest back in 1996, Alex had an encounter with the Lord and got saved at 23 000ft. Since then his life as a Christian and career as an extreme ultra-endurance athlete had taken him around the world on many exciting adventures and world firsts. But Everest eluded him. Finally, when the chance came in 2005 to return to the North side of Everest, Alex was beyond excited. But there was something different about this expedition. Alex felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to record this journey from the honest, battered centre of a soul crying out for relevance. And so, that’s what he did. Writing only when he felt stirred to record something in the strange format of a poem, from the outset of the expedition, all the way to the summit, Alex recorded a special journey.
This is both a collection of deeply personal poems, written on the go, as well as a descriptive narrative of what it’s like to actually climb the world’s tallest mountain. In between are scattered some faded pictures of a mountain the Tibetan’s call Chomolungma, the Goddess mother of the world. Everest is just like any other mountain on Earth, except for one thing. In a strange, tingly kind of way, it’s a little bit closer to heaven than anything else!
