THE two Poles of the earth have intrigued and fascinated explorers for centuries, although the very existence of Antarctica was only confirmed in the mid-19th century.

The American explorer Robert Peary is usually credited with having been the first to reach the North Pole in 1909, although modern research has cast some doubt over the accuracy of Peary’s claim.

If Peary’s claims are rejected, then the first men to set sight on the Pole were aviators in the 1920s, and the first to step on the ice at the pole were a Russian party flown in by air in 1948.

It was not until the 1960s that an undisputed surface journey to the North Pole was made, firstly by Snowmobile by the Americans in 1968, and then on foot by the Briton Wally Herbert the following year.

The Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to arrive at the South Pole in 1911, followed days later by Captain Robert Scott, who died along with all his party on the return journey.

Amundsen later flew over the North Pole in 1926 by airship, making him the first man to visit both Poles.

Climate conditions at the South Pole, several hundred miles from open sea and 9,000 feet up, are more severe than at the North, with average highs of -25C in the summer plunging to -55C in winter, when the Pole is without any direct sunshine for six months at a time.