Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Goethe
Antarctica - a land mass the size of India and China combined - is the coldest, highest, windiest, and driest continent on Earth.
In November 2024, I will set out to complete a solo and unsupported ski expedition to the South Pole. Embarking from Berkner Island on the outer coast of Antarctica, a location seldom used due to its remoteness, I plan to be the first successful solo Briton to start from this point and the world’s second youngest.
A journey of great historical significance.
A coveted position for over a century, Berkner Island lies on the edge of the Weddell Sea - a treacherous body of water and ice that encased the Endurance in 1914, with Shackleton’s intended starting point just a stone’s throw away. Part of the 1400-kilometre route will also retrace the tracks left by the late British explorer Henry Worsley, who attempted an Antarctic traverse in 2015.
This is the culmination of several years of preparation, as well as countless hours buried between the pages of polar exploration’s heroic-era that ignited the first flame.
At a distance equivalent to walking from London to Rome, while dragging a sled weighing a touch over a 130kg (c. 290 lbs), the journey is expected to take 65 days.
Setting out from Gould Bay - an exposed outcrop of ice on the Weddell Sea home to a large Emperor penguin colony - the route traverses south across Berkner Island.
After crossing the Filchner Ice Shelf and setting foot on the Antarctic land mass, a steep ascent through the Pensacola Mountains allows a passage onto the Antarctic plateau at around 3000m above sea level.
Several hundred kilometers of sastrugi - parallel, wave-like ridges in the snow scarred by the wind - interrupt the final steps before reaching the pole nine hundred miles later.