First all-female polar expedition

The first all-female team to complete a polar expedition were the nine members of Metelitsa ("Blizzard", USSR), led by Valentina Kuznetsova. The group of women skied some 1,420 kilometres (880 miles) in 57 days in Antarctica between December 1988 and February 1989 from the Mirny research station in Queen Mary Land to the inland Vostok research station in Princess Elizabeth Land.

In addition to the team leader, Kuznetsova, the other eight members of Metelitsa were: her daughter, Irina, Natalia Bakhareva, Irina Gurieva, Svetlana Gurieva, Elena Khovantseva, Lyudmila Kosareva, Irina Romanchenko and Svetlana Zubkova (all USSR).

In preparation for the Antarctic journey, the Metelitsa explorers completed numerous trips in the Russian Arctic, including five journeys to the archipelago of Franz Josef Land between 1977 and 1987.

According to notes written by Kuznetsova, the temperature dropped to as low as -55°C (-67°F) at night during their Antarctic expedition and they had to climb up to 3,800 m (12,467 ft) above sea level over the course of the journey.

Five members of the Metelitsa team returned to Antarctica in November 1995 to ski to the South Pole (from the 87th degree), reaching the pole on 11 January 1996.