[deepGem]

That's way too harsh to describe a man's personal quest for adventure. It's not just vanity. You have no idea how many young minds have been influenced by this adventure. How many potential new startups will come about because someone somewhere out there thinks 'well this guy just gave up his life trying to cross the Antartic, what stops me from doing something perhaps tiny in comparison, but monumental in value, or something that I can undertake'. This is true of all adventurers who seek to accomplish something beyond perceived abilities - free diving, climbing k2 or summitting Mt.Meru on the shark fin route.

The indirect benefits of such expeditions have not been measured. If someone did, I'm quite certain, a ton of benefits will crop up.

[jpatokal]

I'd agree but if you were talking about going to Mars or something, but for this particular quest, that seems a bit much. Just look at this list of "first person ever to do X from Y to Z" since 2000:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Antarctic_expeditions#...

I'd liken this more to climbing Mt. Everest: challenging and personally rewarding, sure, but of ever-diminishing inspirational value to the rest of the world.

[watwut]

I understand the appeal of such adventures and excitement that goes with it, but lets not pretend they are doing something useful. There is no real value in people free diving, climbing k2 etc. People do it for themselves and that is fine as far as it goes and interesting.

It can inspire people to train a bit or visit nature or something of the sort. If watching expedition makes you start startup, then it is odd as caring about business makes physical training harder.