Longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey (male)

The longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey by a male is 1,459 kilometres (906.5 statute miles) covered by Henry Worsley (UK, 1960–2016) in Antarctica between 13 November 2015 and 22 January 2016. He started at the south end of Berkner Island (at 80˚40 S 052˚32 W) with the intention of reaching the Ross Ice Shelf on the opposite coast in about 80 days. However, exhaustion forced him to stop on day 70 when nearing the top of the Shackleton Glacier (at 86˚22 S 177˚44 W). Sadly, he had to be medevaced to a hospital in Punta Arenas in Chile and he passed away due to organ failure on 24 January 2016.

This was Worsley's third expedition to Antarctica, having previously travelled there in 2008, where he forged a new route through the Transantarctic Mountains, and again in 2011 (with a team of six) to retrace the route of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who 100 years earlier had led the first expedition to the South Pole in 1911–12, with the pole reached on 14 December 1911.

Worsley was approximately 202 km (126 mi) from his intended pick-up point on the Ross Ice Shelf at the base of the Shackleton Glacier, despite several reports suggesting he was significantly closer than that.

The first person to ski both the Amundsen and Shackleton/Scott routes to the South Pole, Worsley was posthumously awarded the Polar Medal in 2017.

The longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey overall is 1,484.53 km (922.44 mi) by Preet Chandi (UK), who travelled from the Hercules Inlet to the Reedy Glacier over 70 days 16 hours between 13 November 2022 and 23 January 2023. "Polar Preet" was seeking to become the first woman to ski across the Antarctic continent from coast to coast, but due to bad weather had to end the journey about 160 km (100 mi) inland.

Both Worsley and Chandi's expeditions differ slightly from that of Norway's Aleksander Gamme, who skied 2,260 km (1,404 mi) across Antarctica between 29 October 2011 and 26 January 2012 – the longest solo unsupported polar ski journey. Placing caches of food/equipment en route, he set off from Hercules Inlet, arriving at the South Pole on 24 December 2011 before returning on 23 January 2012 to a point 1 km (0.6 mi) from his original start point where he waited until 26 January to cross the finish line with two other skiers, Australians James Castrission and Justin Jones, who had travelled a similar route together. The key difference is that as Worsley and Chandi were attempting coast-to-coast crossings, they carried all of their belongings for the entirety of the journey, whereas because Gamme knew he would be heading back on the same route, he was able to strategically deposit food and equipment as he went, lightening his load, that he could then collect on the return leg.