South Pole Success

British girl becomes youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole

A British girl has become the youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole after finishing the route begun by Shackleton almost exactly one hundred years earlier. Katie Walter, who’s just seventeen, trained and fundraised for years for the expedition, which saw her and her companions complete the unfinished 112 miles to the South Pole from the point where Shackleton was forced to turn back in 1909.

At that time, latitude 88’23”S, the spot where Shackleton’s journey ended and Walter's began, was the furthest South anybody had managed to go and Shackleton’s expedition opened the way up for Scott and Amundsen to make it all the way to the pole two years later.

Walter’s ten day trek started on December 21st when the team, headed by polar leader Mike Thornewill, were dropped off at the exact coordinates after a five hour flight in a Twin Otter from their frozen base camp at Patriot Hills.

Despite temperatures as low as -35c and weakness caused by the altitude, the team made the South Pole on the last day of 2009. Walter managed to call home with a satellite phone as she covered the last few steps – her mum then tweeted the news to her online followers: ‘Katie and group arrived at South Pole New Years Eve at 10 pm (our time), very tired but happy - her very proud mum x’.