Richard Dunwoody, a champion jockey became the first person to reach the South Pole via a previously unconquered route.
London, Jan 19 : Richard Dunwoody, a champion jockey became the first person to reach the South Pole via a previously unconquered route.
Dunwoody and the American explorer Doug Stoup claim that they are the first to reach the Geographic South Pole on the virgin route attempted by the explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1914.
The 44-year-old Dunwoody said that the 680-mile journey, which took 48 days to complete, was his greatest achievement.
The men carried their own equipment and supplies, lost more than two stone in body weight and had to endure temperatures of minus 45C, altitude sickness and snow blindness.
"This has been the hardest thing I have ever undertaken, both physically and mentally, with every day a 12-hour slog, often uphill, on skis and pulling cumbersome sleds that just seemed to get heavier as we got lighter. I am exhausted," TimesOnline quoted Dunwoody, as saying.
Dunwoody and Stoup will rest at the South Pole station for a few days before returning to the Russian Antarctic base at Novo, and then South Africa from where they will make their way back to England.
Dunwoody used the journey to raise money for three charities.
ANI