His name is Will Cross, fittingly optimistic for his marathon mission through the world's deep freezer.
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| Will Cross reviews research amid a stack of some of the rations that he will take along with him to Antarctica. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette) |
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Cross, a 35-year-old diabetic, will set out this month on a 730-mile trek across Antarctica to the South Pole. He will go against the grain in more ways than one, fueling his body with a radical diet of chocolate and fats.
The daily temperature on his three-month expedition will be 30 degrees below zero. To add to the agony, unforgiving winds of 30 to 40 mph will oppose Cross and travel partner Jerry Petersen as they pull 150-pound sleds loaded with supplies.
They will begin their journey Oct. 26 at Hercules Bay and hope to reach the South Pole by Jan. 20.
"I wanted to do an expedition that would be overwhelming, both physically and mentally," said Cross, who lives in Morningside and runs Pine-Richland's school for students with behavior problems.
He says his students consider the mission "a silly thing to do," but two factors motivate him: He wants to use the trip to raise a $1 million for diabetes research, and he is eager to test his system against the disease he has lived with since he was 9 years old.
"We know embarrassingly little about what diabetes does to the body while it's under stress," Cross said.
He is one of more than 1 million Americans who have type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. This disease strikes children suddenly. It prevents the pancreas from producing insulin, a hormone essential to life.
Petersen, of Jefferson Hills, is joining in the Ultimate Walk to Cure Diabetes for equally personal reasons. His father died of complications from the disease.
Cross and Petersen walked to the North Pole last year, a 100-mile excursion that served as a warm-up for this trip.
They will be joined on the last 2 1/2 weeks of the South Pole journey by Cross' father, Mike Cross, and Bret Goodpastor, a University of Pittsburgh exercise physiologist.
Mike Cross, 60, also is diabetic. Trip organizers say he would be the oldest man to walk to the South Pole. The Crosses would be the first father-son combination to make the trek together.
Will Cross stands 5 feet, 10 inches and feels best at 180 pounds. Operating outside doctor's orders, he has bulked up to 200 pounds for the expedition by eating chips, ice cream and other junk food.
"I've got a belly on me, and I don't like it," Cross said.
Packing on pounds is especially risky for a diabetic because it increases the risk of developing of high blood pressure.
Cross added the weight because he expects to lose 30 pounds while trudging across Antarctica, even while eating 6,000 calories a day. That is three times the amount most of us consume.
He plans to burn off all the calories and his reserve of fat as his body works to stay warm and exerts itself by pulling the sled 10 to 12 hours a day.
Fat will make up 50 percent of his diet on the trip. Chocolate -- off limits to Cross most his life because it's loaded with sugar, a hazard for diabetics -- will be a routine part of his meals.
So will soups, stews, nuts, puddings and energy and hydration drinks. He will drop a stick of butter into his liter of morning coffee, a mixture designed to fortify him against snow, ice, wind and fatigue.
Cross has not tasted the coffee-butter combination yet, saying the thought leaves him squeamish.
Not much else about the trip daunts him.
"I'm as confident as you can be without being arrogant," he said.
His decision to load up on sugar and fat has not been sanctioned. "Doctors have been hesitant to participate in this," he admits.
He sees himself as a guinea pig for diabetics when it comes to understanding how wild food combinations and extreme weather conditions will affect him.
While adding fat to his frame, Cross also trained hard by biking and working out on rowing and stair-climber machines. He likes to get his heart rate to 140 beats a minute and keep it there for close to an hour.
This regimen was designed to build endurance. He need not be flashy, only slow and steady to stay on pace in Antarctica. He and Petersen must average about 8 miles a day to finish the trip in three months.
Cross uses a pump for his daily intake of insulin. He wears the device on his belt, and it feeds the life-sustaining hormone through an injection hole in his stomach.
He will continue that routine on his way to the South Pole. Insulin is useless if it freezes, so a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh designed a lightweight container to keep Cross' supply at a safe temperature. Called an "insulinator," it has proved effective in tests at Antarctic-like temperatures.
Gear for the excursion will include tents and small stoves. With the heat inside their makeshift dwellings, Cross and Petersen expect to sleep at a temperature of zero degrees.
It may sound awful, but Cross said the upside is that the tents will be at least 30 degrees warmer than anything else they experience on the expedition.
E-mail and satellite telephone technology will allow them to stay in touch with the rest of the world. Daily updates on their trip will be posted on a Web site, www.curewalk.com.
Logistics of the expedition have been coordinated by Cross' wife, Amy. While he's away, she will manage their household and care for their four children, who range in age from 6 to 11.
The Pine-Richland School District has been equally understanding, granting him a leave of absence.
Cross said the inconvenience and suffering will be worthwhile if the trek raises money for a diabetes cure.
In his own way, Will Cross is working for a world where nobody has to worry about insulin injections. He sees his trip across Antarctica as one small step in that direction.
Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1956.
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Stephen Manley, who's also insulin dependent, decided he wasn't going to