Antarctica

All of the options had pros and cons, all were going to be very risky and all were going to be horrendously expensive.

After much consideration, and running of numbers, we reached the conclusion that the swiftest and safest route would involve utilizing a Twin Otter plane stationed at the Wolf's Fang base. This choice was motivated by the fact that the Twin Otter was among the few aircraft capable of landing at the altitude of 3700 meters without the need for a prepared landing strip. Our plan involved a refuelling stop at 78° South on the plateau to assess performance at altitude, followed by another refuelling at 83° (Dixie Camp) before making the final push to the PIA.

The next decision was which 'version' of the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility should we target?  There were three possibilities:

• The 'traditional' PIA, where the Russians set up a base in 1958. This is known as the 'Historic Pole of Inaccessibility' and sits at Latitude: 82°06'S, Longitude: 54°58'E where they left a bust of Lenin to mark the spot.
• The coordinates calculated by the British Antarctic Survey in 2005 based on refined mapping of continental Antarctica ignoring ice shelves at Latitude: 82°53'14″S, Longitude: 55°04'30″E
• Similar coordinates that take the ice shelf into consideration (in 2005) at Latitude: 83°50'37″S, Longitude: 65°43'30″E.

I decided that option 1 would be the best even if the coordinates would not be so accurate. The decision was made because the old Russian base is what most people know or think-of as the Antarctic PIA. Also, the Guinness Book of records acknowledges expeditions passing via that point. And, lastly, there would be more to see there (i.e. the Lenin bust and an abandoned comms mast).
Naturally we also wanted to get to the 'proper' PIA, which would be option 2, but that was set as a secondary target.

It's pretty obvious that The Cold is a major issue in Antarctica, even though our expedition would be scheduled for the Antarctic 'summer' in January.  The average temperature at the PIA is a chilling -58.2°C.

With no relief above the ice shelf on the plateau, the winds can reach high levels fairly regularly.

The PIA is just short of 900km from the South Pole (nearest scientific base), meaning there is no reliable weather forecast for the region.  We would have to rely on satellite images and expert local knowledge to interpret the charts.

Obviously, no landing strip exists at the PIA, which we've already noted is at an altitude of 3,700m. So, the TO was going to have to make its own landing strip by first 'touching' the surface with the skids to determine the friction, then making another two passes to 'flatten' the ice and to make a firm landing zone.

Apart from making the air rarefied and thus needing a longer distance to take off, the altitude posed a problem to us, the passengers, with the TO not being pressurised, so we were going to need to take our own oxygen bottles along to stave off Hypoxia.

Weight is a major consideration. The TO needed enough fuel to get to and from the PIA, but needed to keep the weight down in order to be able to take off at the high altitude.

Finally, we had to consider what would happen in the event of a crash.  Given we'd be in the only aircraft capable of getting to the PIA, we would be relying on a surface vehicle rescue setting out from the South Pole. Since that would take around eight days, it would probably be 'Game Over'.

Luke, the operations manager at White Desert, had pinpointed two potential weather windows for a possible landing. Both windows were just two hours wide on Wednesday, the 11th, and Friday, the 13th. Considering the prevalent Western superstition associated with Friday the 13th, we collectively agreed to prioritize the first window on the 11th and designate the Friday as a contingency plan.

A few hours after take-off from WF we came in to land at the 'new' fuel dump created just for this trip at 78° South.

The Traverse team who put the fuel in place had thoughtfully worked up and down a few times to make a rudimentary landing strip. Even so, the Twin Otter was thrown all over the place.  To call it a bumpy landing was a gross understatement.

Next up was Dixie Camp at 83° South where we overnighted in hostile temperatures.  The landing there was thrown into jeopardy at the last moment when the visibility dropped close to the minima for the craft.  Would we be able to take off the next day? What would it mean for the landing at the pole?
In the morning, if you can call it that since there was no darkness at that latitude in January, we awoke to bright, sunny skies with little wind.  Our attempt at the Pole was ON!

A few hours later we arrived at in the vicinity of the pole and the weather was holding.  Oxygen was free flowing for all on board; the pilots needed to be on top form and we'd just come up from sea level.

Pete and Cody took us down for the first touches of the ice; what was the friction going to be like? Certainly, the blaring alarms and rattling teeth made me, with no flying experience, think it might be touch and go.

The second pass went much the same as the first. Vision was blurred with the bumps and alarms were buzzing in our ears. Then the engine noise abruptly changed. The pilots had decided they could handle the situation and just slammed the bird down.  We had landed about 7km from the base coordinates.