A British team is to head to Antarctica to try to complete Captain Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition.
Polar explorers Ben Saunders, 35, and Tarka L’Herpiniere, 31, hope to successfully complete Captain Scott’s ill-fated 1910/12 expedition, taking them on an unsupported 1,800-mile return journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole.
If successful, they will be the first people to complete the return journey that Captain Scott died attempting more than 100 years ago.
No one has walked further unsupported than the 1,600 miles that Captain Scott and his team managed, before perishing 150 miles from their final destination.
The epic trip, set to begin in October, has the blessing of Captain Scott’s grandson, Falcon Scott.
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Devon-raised Saunders said that because Captain Scott is a childhood hero trying, to complete his expedition is “a life-long dream”.
Saunders, who in 2004 became just one of three people and the youngest to have skied solo to the North Pole, believes the Scott Expedition will be “both the greatest and most meaningful challenge I’ve ever taken on”.
“Physically it sits on the very limits of human potential and will require every inch of resilience and determination we can summon to complete it,” he said.
“Equally, it is an opportunity to recognise the remarkable work of Captain Scott and his men and use the benefits of modern technology to celebrate his story worldwide.”
Captain Robert Falcon Scott died along with the last of his South Pole team, Dr Edward Wilson and Lieutenant Henry “Birdie” Bowers, in Antarctica on 29 March 1912. The famous commander of the RSS Discovery Expedition had sailed to the South Pole on on the Dundee-built Terra Nova, but never made it home.
Falcon Scott, who has taken up the role of expedition patron, said: “The Scott Expedition will be a truly exceptional and meaningful way to recognise and commemorate my grandfather’s expedition to the South Pole.
“It is extraordinary to think that nobody has since successfully replicated his expedition and I fully support Ben and Tarka in this bold venture.”
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