Longest sit-ski journey in Antarctica

The greatest distance covered in Antarctica by sit-ski is 309.71 km (192.4 mi) by Karen Darke (UK) between 22 December 2022 and 5 January 2023. Accompanied by Mike Webster and Mike Christie (both UK) on skis, the team departed from Union Glacier Camp and travelled to 79/79 degrees latitude and longitude – a previously uncharted point on the Ronne Ice Shelf which they have dubbed the "Pole of Possibility" – reaching their destination on 28 December 2022 before retracing their route back to Union Glacier.

As the atomic number of gold, 79 is a very symbolic number to Darke, who is a proponent of the message "find your inner gold" to encourage everyone to unlock their full potential and not let barriers get in the way of your goals. When she won gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympics as a handcyclist, it was also the 79th medal won by Great Britain at that event.

Darke was paralysed from the chest down after a rock-climbing accident when she was 21. Since then, as well as her Paralympic career, she has gone on to undertake a number of boundary-pushing adventures including sea-kayaking from Canada to Alaska (in 2003), traversing the Greenland Ice Cap by sit-ski (in 2006) and becoming the first paraplegic female to scale El Capitan (in 2007). Darke had been attempting to raise funding for an Antarctic expedition for about a decade before making the trip. The team was due to be joined by another Scottish adventurer Iona Somerville, but she had to pull out; the original plan was for Darke to use a specially adapted snow trike, but after testing at the Union Glacier prior to setting out, it was decided that the conditions would not allow for that and that Darke would use a sit-ski instead.

The first adaptive adventurer to sit-ski in Antarctica was Grant Korgan (USA), who became the first person to sit-ski the last degree to the South Pole, covering c. 120 km (75 mi) in sub-zero temperatures over 11 days between 7 and 17 January 2012. Korgan was accompanied on the expedition by Doug Stoup (lead guide), Tal Fletcher (guest guide) and a three-person film crew.

Following that, in 2016 Aron Anderson (Sweden), also accompanied by guide Doug Stoup, sought to become the first person to sit-ski from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole. After starting out from the Leverett Glacier on the Ross Ice Shelf on 30 November 2016, about two weeks in, they were forced to break off their journey and be driven to the last degree, from which they then continued on to the South Pole. The two stages covered a distance of approximately 307 km (166 nautical miles).