Photo: Thinkstock

When I heard about Felicity Aston's amazing accomplishment as the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica, I pictured her midway through her 59-day journey: cold, stoic, silent and enduring--like a part of the chilly landscape. Then I read Aston's Twitter feed, and discovered a lively, chatty adventurer who would never be mistaken for an ice goddess, and even made conversation with the sun. Aston tweeted about the challenges of lost gloves, ferocious winds, fatigue, loneliness, frost-bitten buns, chapped lips and sastrugi, or frozen ground waves that can be exhausting and dangerous for skiers. But she also frequently waxed poetic about her surroundings. Here are two posts from Christmas Eve: "Struggling this morning." Later: "When the sun reappears it feels like a miracle and nothing seems quite as bad as it did before." Here's one from Dec 6: "It was like skiing over cloud tops today. Everything was fuzzy around the edges. Good traveling weather thank God!" December 30: "Sastrugi were tough going but spectacular today. Like skiing through a surreal sculpture park." And January 19, towards the end of her journey: "I can see mountains and they look beautiful. It's like first sight of a finish line. I stopped in my tracks and cried."

Aston told USA Today that she hopes to share what she learned with others about perseverance. "Keeping going is the important thing, persevering, no matter how messy that gets," she said. That's what we'd expect to hear from a record-breaking athlete (especially one who competes in frigid, punishing conditions), and honestly, we already know that when things get tough, we need to put our head down and charge against the wind. The more surprising and meaningful message that I'm going to take from Aston's Twitter reports is that when we slog through the messiness, we also need to remember to pick up our heads, to look for the sun, and to let ourselves gasp at beauty even as we're panting from exhaustion. (And also maybe to sum up the experience in 140 characters and snap a stunning photo to inspire others).