First Asian female to complete a solo ski expedition to the South Pole

The first Asian female to complete a solo ski expedition to the South Pole is Preet Chandi (UK), who set out on 21 November 2021 from Hercules Inlet on the edge of the Antarctic continent and arrived at the pole on 3 January 2022.

Preet Chandi spent 40 days 7 hours 3 minutes skiing solo and unsupported across Antarctica from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole. Over the course of the journey, she covered around 1,100 km (700 mi) and had to endure temperatures as low as -50°C (-58°F).

This makes Preet the third-fastest woman overall to ski solo to the South Pole. The record remains with Johanna Davidsson (Sweden) who skied from the Hercules Inlet to the geographic South Pole in 38 days 23 hours 5 minutes between 15 November and 24 December 2016, without using kites and without resupplies. In second place is British polar explorer Hannah McKeand, who logged a time of 39 days 9 hours 33 minutes in 2006.

A physiotherapist in the British Army, Preet said after completing the journey: "This expedition was always about so much more than me, I want to encourage people to push their boundaries and to believe in themselves, and I want you to be able to do it without being labelled a rebel. I don't want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces."

The following year, Kim Young-mi became the first South Korean woman to achieve this feat on 17 January 2023, having departed the Hercules Inlet on 27 November 2022 and covered 1,186.5 km (737 mi) over 51 days.