In November 2024, Erica was up visiting a friend in St Andrews (where Ben is doing his PhD). She heard that her friend’s friend’s PhD student was a polar explorer. They were going to a ceilidh that evening, so she asked whether he could come along — she wanted to meet a real live polar explorer and talk about Antarctica.
That was Ben. He had already skied 1,200km alone to the South Pole, and had wanted to go back from almost the moment he left. Erica had wanted to go to Antarctica for years.
By the end of that first conversation Erica had worked out that the training was just a series of manageable steps — that if he could do it, she could too, and that if she could do it, she had to. So she asked whether, if he went back, she could come. He said yes. He was probably assuming she wasn’t serious.
And here we are.
While dogs no longer go on expeditions on the continent with its pristine environment, it often feels like being a dog, just hauling the sled full of food and equipment day after day after day, with that steady routine from the start. So here we are, the Polar Dogs!
Ben is from Orkney, in Scotland. He has skied solo to the South Pole, crossed Canada by bike and ski, and crossed Greenland on skis. [more details]
Erica is from England, and was a complete polar newbie when she signed up for this. Since then she has been out to Norway and the Arctic multiple times to train for Antarctica, and cannot wait. [more details]