Your questions, answered

The detail

Every confirmed figure for the expedition, in one place.

The expedition

What is the Polar Dogs Expedition?

In November 2027, Ben Weber and Erica Stanford will attempt a 2,000km crossing of Antarctica on skis — starting from the northern coast of Berkner Island, climbing to the South Pole, and down the Leverett Glacier to finish at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf on the far side of the continent. The journey will take up to four months, in temperatures that can drop below -50°C, with each of us hauling a sledge (pulk) of around 80kg — kept (just about) manageable by two food-and-fuel resupplies along the way. See the route.

When does the expedition start?

Early November 2027, at the start of the Antarctic summer — the only season when a crossing is possible. We’ll leave the UK in October 2027 and first fly to Punta Arenas in Chile, where we’ll pack all our kit into our pulks, then wait for a weather window to fly to ALE’s Union Glacier camp in Antarctica, where we’ll pick up our fuel — and then wait for another weather window to fly to our start point at Berkner Island. Even in summer, conditions stay far below freezing, but we’ll have 24/7 daylight. The sun won’t set once for the entire journey.

What route are you taking — and why start at Berkner Island?

The route runs around 2,000km from Berkner Island’s northern coast across the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, up the Support Force Glacier to the polar plateau at 2,800m, through the South Pole, over Titan Dome (3,100m), and down the Leverett Glacier to the Ross Ice Shelf.

Why start at Berkner Island? Because Ben wanted to! He’d already gone solo to the South Pole from Hercules Inlet and wanted to do this route.

Why our exact chosen route? We had initially planned to go up the Support Force Glacier to the Pole and down the Reedy Glacier to the Ross Ice Shelf — but after going through the route with ALE’s crevasse expert Simon Abrahams, we changed it. Our original route went over a lot of crevasses. Our new route avoids the vast majority of them, which massively reduces the risk. Starting from Berkner’s seaward coast and ending north of where land meets ice is what makes it a genuine crossing of the continent. More on the route page and in Why Berkner?!

How long will it take?

Around four months, as a maximum. It could be quicker if we’re fast and efficient and the weather behaves — but a lot is out of our control. Worse sastrugi than expected, exceptionally strong winds, or whiteouts (especially in crevassed or steep areas) can make it dangerous to keep going, and sometimes the only sensible option is to sit in the tent and wait it out. Whatever happens, we have to be picked up by the end of February at the latest — after that the weather turns towards winter, it starts to get dark, and it’s no longer safe for us to be out there or for a plane to collect us. While we’re there, we’ll be skiing for up to 12 hours a day and camping on the ice every night.

How far is 2,000km, really?

It’s over 47 back-to-back marathons — on skis, at altitude, into headwinds, hauling everything we need. It’s also further than most point-to-point journeys ever attempted on the continent: the majority of Antarctic ski expeditions cover roughly half this distance, going to the Pole one-way. How far we travel each day will vary with the weather and the terrain.

Is the crossing supported or unsupported?

Ours is a supported crossing. We’ll take on two resupplies of food and fuel along the way — one on the route up to the South Pole, and one at the Pole. The resupplies bring our loads down from nearer 200kg — a weight that has broken expeditions before — to around 80kg, which is far more manageable to pull for 2,000km. Other than those drops, we’ll be doing everything ourselves, on skis (with the occasional stretch where it’s safer to walk in crampons) — no kites, no vehicles.

It’s the food and fuel drops that officially make ours a “supported” crossing. Like every expedition, we’ll also be looked after by ALE throughout: a daily check-in call to confirm everything is OK, access to an expedition medic who can advise us on treatment if we need it, and the option of early evacuation if it ever came to that.

What qualifies as an Antarctica crossing?

A crossing runs from the continent’s outer coastal margin to the far coast. Because the aircraft drops us around 10km inland, we first ski north to the ice edge and log our GPS start before turning south. We then cross the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, the continent and the South Pole, finishing on the Ross Ice Shelf approximately 2,000km later.

How will it be tracked and verified?

Our route will appear on a public live tracker. We will retain the complete GPS track, log our true coastal start and finish positions, complete daily ALE check-ins, and provide timestamped photographs and video from the route.

Why does it cost so much more to be picked up from the far side of Antarctica?

During the Antarctic summer season there are regular flights to the South Pole for researchers and expeditions, so flight and fuel costs get shared. We will likely be the only two people on or near the Ross Ice Shelf when we need extraction, so there is nobody to share with. Fuel has to be specially flown into Antarctica and repositioned there, which makes it a multiple of what it costs elsewhere. The Ross Ice Shelf is also a long way from Union Glacier and the South Pole, where ALE’s planes more regularly fly from.

What happens if you don’t succeed?

Antarctica carries unavoidable risks, and no expedition can guarantee completion. Sponsorship funds are committed in advance to ALE flights and logistical support, training, food, equipment, communications and insurance. Once committed, they cannot be refunded if weather, injury, illness or other circumstances beyond our control prevent or shorten the crossing.

If the expedition has to finish early, we will still deliver everything reasonably possible, including photography, video, written content, partner reporting, events and post-expedition activity. The precise deliverables, payment schedule, usage rights and treatment of cancellation or curtailment are set out in each partnership agreement.

Who are Erica and Ben?

Ben Weber, originally from Orkney, has skied 1,200km solo to the South Pole and has years of experience in the polar regions. He’s also skied across Greenland, and cycle-skied across Canada — riding as far north as the roads went, then swapping the bike for skis.

Unlike Ben, Erica Stanford has never been to Antarctica! Her background is endurance challenges — cycling Land’s End to John O’Groats and Scotland’s North Coast 500, and walking the 780km Camino de Santiago in 20 days. Since 2025 she’s been deep in polar training: cross-country ski touring in Arctic Finland to learn how to ski, polar survival training in Norway, ski training in Norway, crevasse rescue training in Chamonix with Ben, and training expeditions in Norway.

What happens between now and the start?

The immediate priorities are to keep training, become a lot stronger, spend much more time dragging tyres and raise the funding we need to reach the start line.

In January 2027, I’m going to Svalbard for a ten-day Wilderness First Responder medical training in a polar environment. In March, Ben and I also need to go on a three- to four-week unguided expedition in a polar environment to meet ALE training requirements.

We hope to cross Greenland in May, subject to funding and timing. In September, we will return to the Chamonix area for our final crevasse-rescue training and refresher.

In October 2027, we will travel to Punta Arenas in Chile with all our food, equipment and sleds. We will complete the packing and checks there and wait for a weather window to fly to ALE’s base at Union Glacier in Antarctica. At Union Glacier, we’ll have final checks and collect our fuel and then wait for another weather window to be able to be flown to our start at Berkner Island.

The name

Why are you called the Polar Dogs? Will there be actual dogs?

No dogs. Dogs have been banned from Antarctica since April 1994 under the Antarctic Treaty’s environmental protocol, because of the risk of transmitting canine distemper to seals and disturbing native wildlife. There is a long history of polar dogs in Antarctic exploration, though.

When we were applying to ALE for our expedition, we suddenly had to come up with an expedition name pretty quickly. We knew the history of the polar dogs. We had also spoken to Boston Dynamics about whether robot dogs might be able to help carry some of our load, or run ahead to test for crevasses. They were very nice, but robot dogs can’t handle that level of cold. And we both just like dogs. So Polar Dogs stuck.

Now we’re often asked: what about the dogs? On this expedition, we’re the dogs.

Daily life on the ice

How cold will it get?

Temperatures on the Antarctic plateau can fall below -50°C even in summer, and windchill can bring the feels-like temperature down to around -70°C or lower. It won’t always be that cold, though. Nearer the coast, especially at the start of our trip, it may be closer to -20 or -30°C — and because it’s always light, when the sun is out it can feel surprisingly warm (inside the tent, apparently, it can get genuinely warm). The main challenge will be the katabatic wind: cold, dense air that pours downhill off the plateau for days at a time, straight into our faces for much of the route — and it can be really strong.

Where do you sleep?

In a tent, which we put up each night — specifically a four-person Hilleberg Keron expedition tent, spacious enough to fit us more or less comfortably with all our kit and big sleeping bags, and quick to pitch. We’ve borrowed tents for our training expeditions so far (thanks, Hannah McKeand!) but will have a custom tent made with valances — extra skirts of fabric around the sides that we pile snow onto, so the tent stays put even in strong winds.

We have a routine. The moment we stop, the tent comes out of the sled and gets tied to it, so it can’t blow away. We pitch as fast as we can (usually easy; strong wind makes it a wrestle). Then Ben goes inside and digs out a footwell — a deep pit in the snow in the tent’s porch, deep enough to stand in, so we can also sit on the tent floor with our feet dangling while we cook — and flattens the snow ready for dinner. Meanwhile Erica goes round the outside piling heavy snow onto every valance to make extra sure the tent is anchored, then hands Ben our polar bed kits: inflatable sleeping mats, sleeping bags and food bags. The two jobs take about the same amount of digging and shovelling. As soon as we’re both inside, the stoves go on to melt and boil the water for dinner.

What will you eat?

Ben will eat around 6,000–7,000 calories a day and Erica around 5,000–6,000 (we’ll work out the exact numbers on our next training expedition in early 2027) — and we’re still each expected to lose 16–32kg, based on a calorie deficit of around 2,000 a day. In polar environments you lose 1–2kg every week: it just isn’t possible to eat as much as you burn, especially when you have to carry it all and melt snow to cook it. The cold and the long hours of skiing mean we’ll be burning around 8,000 calories a day (Ben) and closer to 7,000 (Erica).

We’ll eat dehydrated expedition meals (800–1,000 calories each) for breakfast, an on-the-go lunch, and dinner, plus daily snack bags of nuts, trail mix, energy bars and dark chocolate. After dinner: hot chocolate or tea, as a treat. Erica is vegan, so her food is all plant-based. We’ll also have to make sure we drink enough, which is hard in the cold — every drop we drink is snow we’ve melted, which takes about two hours a day: an hour in the morning for breakfast and the day’s water, an hour in the evening for dinner and the night’s. More in What do polar explorers eat?!

How do you navigate in a whiteout?

It’s really hard! And really disorientating. Normally we use our satellite GPS devices to check where we need to aim, then pick something on the horizon and ski at it. That works when you can see — less so when you can’t see anything at all. On training trips we’ve had whiteouts where you can barely see the ends of your skis, or even each other. So in whiteouts we navigate by compass, mounted on chest mounts so we can always see them without straining, and we rope together so we can’t lose each other if it gets bad. We’ve written a two-part series on whiteouts: part one and part two.

How dangerous is it?

Not too dangerous, compared with some of the world’s highest mountains. The main risk is crevasses. We’ve changed our route to avoid the vast majority of them, and in the crevassed sections that remain we’ll travel roped together, carrying full rescue kit. The other risks: cold injuries in temperatures below -50°C, storm-bound days eating into the food supply, and the simple remoteness — the nearest help can be days away. We manage those with years of training, redundant navigation and communications equipment, medical training, and the safety net of our logistics operator, Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE) — the organisation behind virtually every private expedition on the continent.

Can you talk to the outside world?

Yes! We’ll each have satellite phones and GPS communicators, and we’ll use those to speak to ALE every evening. We’ll also take a Starlink Mini, so once we’re in the tent in the evening we can get online briefly and send our updates. Everything runs on power banks kept in actively heated cases from Tundra Electronics, which keep our tech working even when it’s stored outside down to -40°C — though neither the power banks nor Tundra’s heating tech have been tested below -40°C yet, so we’ll be doing that! We’ll share regular updates to the blog and/or LinkedIn while we’re there, subject to internet capacity and/or having someone at home to post them for us.

Following and supporting

How can I follow the expedition?

Here on the blog, and on LinkedIn — The Polar Dogs Expedition (please follow!), Erica Stanford and Ben Weber. Instagram and YouTube are coming soon. During the crossing we will share our live position by satellite tracker, and we’ll be sending content back in the evenings.

How can my company sponsor or partner with the expedition?

We offer partnership packages covering naming rights, branding on sledges and equipment, exclusive content, ESG and employee-engagement programmes, and post-expedition keynotes — full details are on our sponsorship page. Get in touch and we’ll send the partnership deck.

Do you give talks or visits?

Yes — we can give talks before we go, or after we’re back. Get in touch.

I’m not a company — how else can I support you?

Follow along and share the story — audience numbers genuinely help us win sponsorship. And if you know a brand that belongs on a sledge crossing Antarctica — or one that would want its products tested in an extreme environment — please introduce us!

What is 72 Holes South?

That’s Ben’s idea! He’s a keen golfer. We’re taking two golf balls across the continent and playing 72 holes along the way — putting only, on a patch of snow we stamp out beside the tent on evenings when the weather allows, to a hole with a flag in it. We carry two golf balls for the whole crossing and bring the same two home again. Nothing gets left behind. More to come.