Adventurer’s Polar ski solo ambition

EXPEDITION: Mollie Hughes became the youngest person to successfully climb both the north and south sides of the world’s tallest summit.

And now the adventurer has announced a bid to become the youngest woman ever to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole, in which she will travel across 702 miles of Antarctica.

MOLLIE HUGHES became the youngest person to successfully climb both the north and south sides of the world’s tallest summit.

And now the adventurer has announced a bid to become the youngest woman ever to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole. The challenge will see Ms Hughes travel across 702 miles of Antarctica, aiming to reach the South Pole by New Year’s Day.

The Devon-born mountaineer, who lives in Edinburgh, became the youngest person to have successfully climbed both the north and south sides of Mount Everest in 2017, aged 26.

Her next adventure will begin in mid-November, when she leaves from Hercules Inlet in Western Antarctica. If successful, she will be the youngest woman by four years to achieve the feat.

The current record is held by Johanna Davidson from Sweden, who was 33 when she completed the same route solo and unsupported.

Temperatures will be around minus 50C, and she faces hauling her 165lbs sled across crevasse fields while also negotiating 6ft “waves” of snow.

Ms Hughes, who is seeking to raise £100,000 for the expedition, aims to increase awareness of The Polar Academy, a youth mental health charity for which she was recently appointed a guide.

“To date, records show that only six women and 17 men have ever completed the Hercules Inlet route on skis, alone and without resupply,” she said. “Aside from the unrelenting cold, I envisage my constant battle with facing all the challenges on my own will be the toughest challenge down there.”

As part of her preparations, Hughes will undertake a twoweek expedition in Arctic Norway in March followed by 15 days on the ice of Eastern Greenland.

She is being advised by The Polar Academy founder Craig Mathieson, who led Scotland’s first dedicated expedition to the South Pole in 2004.

LONG HAUL: Mollie Hughes trains for the Antarctic journey.

PICTURES: PA WIRE. EXPEDITION: Mollie Hughes in training as she has announced her bid to become the youngest woman ever to ski solo to the South Pole and, inset left, on the summit of Everest.