Youngest person to ski to the South Pole unsupported (male)

The youngest person to ski unsupported to the South Pole is Pierre Hedan (France, b. 24 October 1997), who was aged 26 years 75 days old on reaching the pole on 7 January 2024. He had set out from the Hercules Inlet on 20 November 2023, covering approximately 1,130 km (700 miles) and arriving at the geographic South Pole 48 days later. Even more impressively, Hedan completed this expedition solo.

The journey was dubbed the "Polheim Expedition". "Polheim" ("pole house" in Norwegian) was the name of the camp set up by explorer Roald Amundsen and his team on their record-breaking pioneering journey to the South Pole, which they reached on 14 December 1911.

This surpassed the record of fellow Frenchman Matthieu Tordeur (b. 4 December 1991), who was 27 years 40 days old when he completed the feat on 13 January 2019.

Hedan wasn’t the only person in the Antarctic gunning for this record in the 2023/24 summer season: 25-year-old Jacob Myers (USA) also embarked on a solo ski bid to the South Pole, but had to end his journey 13 days in owing to an arm injury.

Hedan’s feat also made him the youngest male to ski solo to the South Pole overall.