This was towards the end of my series of expeditions and I was now pretty confident in my ability to deal with extreme environments. The was connected to my ascent of Vinson meaning that I was going to be on Antarctica for pretty much a whole month! The most interesting part was to see how this compared to the North Pole and whether this would be setting my up for a much bigger challenge in the future.
The South Pole
The South Pole is ice and snow over rock. The centre of the continent is a bit under 3,000 mtrs so there is a bit of acclimatisation required along the way. The ice, being a glacier, is continually moving but pretty slowly - the only real impact of this is that the South Pole has a static ceremonial pole marker and an actual one that is moved a few metres each year.
Decisions
None really unless you are going for a much bigger expedition in which case there are plenty and there is plenty of discussion elsewhere on the internet. Most expeditions are run through / supported by ALE.
Route
You start out at Union Glacier which is one of the best camp sites in the world and then fly out to your start point. The ground raises from sea level at the coast to just under 3,000 mtrs on the polar plateau in the centre.
Accounts and photos of completing the Explorers Grand Slam - 2 Poles and 7 Summits. By Sebastian Merriman. Aconcagua, Ama Dablam, Carstenz Pyramid, Denali, McKinley, Elbrus, Everest, Kosciusko, Kilimanjaro, North Pole, Arctic, South Pole, Antarctic, Antarctica, Vinson, vertigo, climbing, mountaineering, skiing to the pole, skiing to the poles, seb2poles7summits, seb27, Seb Merriman, seb2poles, mountains, poles