Korean adventurer walks across North American desert

A Korean adventurer recently led a team successfully through North America’s western desert on foot.

The three-man expedition group capped by Nam Young-ho, a member of the Kolon Sports Challenge Team of Korean explorers in diverse fields, arrived at Reno, Nevada, around 2 p.m. on Oct. 6, local time, 25 days after departing from Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah on Sept. 12, Kolon Sports said.

They walked about 700 kilometers over the Great Basin Desert to complete the crossing.

The Great Basin Desert, also called Great Basin, has a distinctive natural feature of western North America which includes valleys, basins, lakes and mountain ranges. The desert is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and covers an arid expanse of about 492,000 square kilometers.

This expedition is part of a bigger goal where Nam plans walks in 10 of the world’s deserts, a feat that no one has ever accomplished.

The Great Basin is the fifth desert he has crossed on the way to the goal. Without resorting to any motorized vehicle, he crossed the Taklamakan Desert in 2009 for the first time in the world, the Gobi Desert in 2011, the Great Victoria Desert in 2012 and the Empty Qarter, Arabian Desert in May 2013.

According to Kolon Sports, the expedition team crossed an expanse which turned muddy due to a heavy downpour in the early stage of the journey, and sometimes did not sleep to climb rugged mountains.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)