We’ll each burn up to 8,000 calories a day (Ben probably closer to 8,000, Erica closer to 7,000) — and can only carry and realistically eat 5,000–6,000. That leaves a daily deficit of around 2,000 calories each. Rations are planned with guidance from ALE and record-holding polar explorer Hannah McKeand and tested on every training expedition.

We are each expected to lose 16–32 kg during our expedition, so we’ve spent the last year bulking up, to afford the loss without sacrificing too much strength.

Most of our food will be dehydrated expedition meals. To cook the meals and to get drinking water, we have to melt and then boil snow. This takes about an hour each morning and evening to have enough for both of us.

For breakfast we’ll have a dehydrated expedition breakfast and will melt and boil the water we need to drink in the day. We’ll also prepare our dehydrated expedition lunches and keep those in thermoses to eat during our breaks.

During the day, we will ski for 120 minutes, then have 10-minute breaks, with ‘marches’ and breaks timed strictly to ensure we don’t overtire and that we eat and drink enough so that we don’t get weak or cold. During these stops we will also eat from trail mix packs we’ll pre-prepare on land for each day, comprising of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate, and high-calorie energy bars.

Dinner will be another dehydrated expedition meal, and maybe a treat of hot chocolate prepared with dehydrated oat milk!

The numbers

• 5,000–6,000 calories eaten per day each — a ~2,000 calorie daily deficit
• 2 food and fuel drops — before and at the South Pole — keep sleds to ~80 kg max, not ~200 kg
• 16–32 kg expected weight loss each
• ≈£15K food budget for the team