Kiwi twins plan trek into world's toughest ice fields

New Zealand twins are preparing for the second stage of a world-first crossing of the four largest ice-caps in the world.

Zac and Josh Lyon, 22, will travel to Chile in October later this year before flying to Antarctica to cross one of the largest ice fields in the world on their way to the South Pole – on foot.

The extended four-part trip is part of the “4Caps Expedition.”

The twins have already successfully completed the crossing of one ice cap in Greenland. Should the two make it to the South Pole, they plan to cross both the Arctic polar ice cap toward the North Pole and, finally, the Patagonia ice cap in South America in the years ahead.

The first stage of the Greenland expedition was completed late last year, taking the duo a total of 27 days trekking from east to west across the freezing plateau. According to the men, the temperature regularly dropped below -30 degrees celsius and periodic blizzard conditions buffeted them.

4Caps director Rob Hamill – who won the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race in 1997 with fellow rower and the late Phil Stubbs – knows what it’s like to commit to nature in a test of will. He says the twins had “everything thrown at them” in Greenland.

“Before the expedition, the two completed a training programme in Norway, just to cut their teeth on sub-zero temperature conditions.

“Greenland was the shortest of the four caps, so it was essentially a teeth-cutting expedition as well. But it was potentially one of the riskier missions of the four due to its changeable weather patterns,” he says.

On each expedition, the two New Zealanders will be walking entirely on their own, isolated from a team. Both will carry satellite phones and safety is a top priority. A logistics team will monitor their daily progress as the twins report back at pre-determined times during the day and night.

“If they miss a scheduled phone-in, and they haven’t heard from them over the next six or 12 hours, then the rescue will kick in,” Mr Hamill says.

Into the freezer
Mr Hamill says the impetus driving the twins to confidently step into their Gore-tex and wander into the cold rises from a shared dislike for what they see as a proliferation of “screen time” on electronic devices.

“It’s challenging to see kids sitting on phones for such long times. Unfortunately, some families allow this to happen.

After the four expeditions are complete, the two men wish to package their experiences and present them to schools across New Zealand. The idea is to stoke encouragement among both peers and kids growing up “behind screens.”

“These two 22-year-olds are aspirational figures to show kids that they don’t have to sit on their phones all day. There’s a life out there to live and to learn from. You don’t have to climb mountains, it’s all about discovering,” Mr Hamill says.

He says people are living in “boxes” away from nature. This might have serious implications for our society’s collective health and well-being. The two adventurers count Peter Hillary and Graeme Dingle as their own aspirational figures.

“Both Zac and Josh are smart guys. Zac is doing his master’s thesis at the moment on geology and the two built a suborbital balloon a few years ago, sending a payload of cameras into the sky. They took incredible photos of the North Island.

“To do something like this is very much in a business model. All the risks need to be weighed, they’re sending a balloon extremely high up and predicting where it will land. They calculated its touchdown point to within 200 metres,” he says.

“We hope to be able to gain some funding to resource this enterprise more effectively. The concept is exciting but it’s still early stages.

“The problem with screens is that they take away our creativity and the desire to be active. But if kids have something they want to try, these two show those dreams really are possible to fulfil,” Mr Hamill says.