Expedition

The expedition begins in early November with a cargo flight from southern Chile to Hercules Inlet, a tented camp in Antarctica.

A further flight takes the team to the Antarctic coast and their route then follows a broadly straight line south to the South Pole, deviating for known crevasse fields and steep terrain. The straight line distance to the Pole and back is 1382 miles, or 2217 km.

In order to maximise travelling time John and Justin will be working and living to a 28-hour day. 14 hours a day, punctuated by brief food and water stops every 2 hours or so, will be spent on foot. With 8 hours sleep, this allows 3 hours at the beginning and end of each day for making and breaking camp, cooking, eating, melting water, repairs, communications, etc.

With 24 hour daylight, their body-clocks should quickly adjust to the longer day.

On the outward journey, the team will depot food and fuel every 90 miles, to be collected on the return. Exact navigation is clearly vital to find the depots again, which are likely to have been covered by snow meanwhile.

The early part of the journey is likely to have good ice conditions. The central part of the route to the Pole is dominated by rough ice, or sastrugi, where one tries to navigate around the larger obstacles, although this is impossible when white-out conditions prevail. Higher up on the polar plateau where the snow takes on a sand-like consistency, pulling becomes harder and temperatures fall further.

Crevasses are an ever-present risk, especially when visibility is poor. Whilst the team will carry some self-rescue equipment a fall is most likely to result in disaster.

Expeditions to the South Pole commonly travel for 9 hours a day, and eat around 5,000 calories per person per day to refuel the body. Despite this, expeditioners expect to lose up to 20 kg of weight in the one-way journey. Usually this is compensated for by putting on extra body-fat prior to departure.

John and Justin take a different approach. Being relatively light, putting on several stone in advance is merely a recipe for ill-health and torpor, and a brake upon their ability to maximise their fitness beforehand.

They will each eat at least 8,000 calories a day, and will start at their "fighting weight" with little extra fat reserves. Whilst this should be sufficient energy, they will struggle not only to pull this weight in their sleds but to actually eat the required volume of food each day.

On reaching the Pole, John will stop long enough for a few photos and turn back towards the coast. He will need to be careful not to accept any food, drink or equipment from any one at the base which may jeopardise the unsupported nature of the expedition.

The team will be in daily contact with the logistics base at Patriot Hills, from where any rescue, if needed or indeed possible, would be launched. Whilst air cover is theoretically available, much of the route lies over 100 miles from any realistic landing place. If they have not reached the coast by the time of the last flight before winter, they will be airlifted out.

Temperatures will vary between -10 C and -40 C. However, how cold this actually feels depends upon the wind. Indeed, -40 C in the sun with no wind can be relatively comfortable, but -10 C in a strong wind can be debilitating and quickly lead to frostbite for the unwary.

For information on the distances, times, targets, weights, etc. that the team will be working to click here to view the "77 days" page.