‘More people have walked on the moon than done this trek’

Team faces toughest Antartica challenge

For three months Alex Brazier will endure the most inhospitable conditions on Earth, a place where temperatures remain an unrelenting minus 50 degrees celsius.

The 26-year-old doctor, son of Canterbury MP Julian Brazier, is one of a team of six military Reservists who will trek unsupported more than 1,100 miles across Antarctica.

If successful, they will double the number of people who have completed this feat, as well as raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund.

The team is doing the trek in memory of Henry Worsley, who last year set out to become the first person to complete the feat solo and unsupported.

He died in January, just 120 miles from the end after suffering severe exhaustion and dehydration.

Alex, a former pupil of Junior King’s School, said: “I’ll be honest, I’m pretty apprehensive about it, but we have been training for two years. I’ll be the youngest person to do it if we are successful.

“It’s being done in Henry’s memory – especially as he was the best mate of our leader, Lou Rudd.

“It’s unsupported so there are no dogs or kites and each of us will be pulling a sled with food and fuel, although we will pick up supplies when we reach the pole before carrying on for the rest of it.”

They have been preparing for the trek in Norway and will fly to Chile today (Thursday) from where they will depart for Antarctica on Thursday, November 3.

They will ski across the continent, which is technically a polar desert, pulling a 300lb-sled containing fuel and freeze-dried food of which they will eat 6,500 calories a day.

The temperatures will be minus 50 degrees celsius almost all the time and the team will erect tents at the end of each day’s trekking. Because of Antarctica’s position, team members will see 24-hour daylight for the whole of their trip.

“We are confident we can do it – even though more people have walked on the moon than completed this trek,” said Alex, who has been working at a hospital in Tunbridge Wells.

“If we pull it off, it will be a big stamp for British expeditions and it will double the number of people to have done it.”

Alex and the team hope to be able to raise £100,000 for the Army Benevolent Fund and are due to complete the expedition on January 31.

The trek is officially titled South Pole Expedition Army Reservists 2017, or Spear17.

Log on to www.spear17.org for more information or to donate to the fund.

Alex Brazier will be one of six military Reservists attempting to trek unsupported across Antartica