In summary—for my Transcontinental journey I propose to follow in Filchner’s tracks from the Weddell Sea to the Pole. He failed to make the crossing himself, but he found the southern limit of the Weddell Sea. Between the Filchner ice shelf and the Prince Regent Luitpold Land (which Filchner named), he has discovered a possible landing place, Vahsel Bay (named after the captain of the (Filchner’s) Deutschland, who died of a heart complaint on that voyage).

That’s as far as the Pole.

From the Pole to McMurdo Sound on the Ross Sea, I will retrace my own steps down the Beardmore Glacier from 1909.

I propose 100 days. That is 15 miles a day, every day, with no allowance for delays.

“Even Amundsen, by now demonstrably the finest polar traveller of his generation, had only managed just over sixteen miles a day [on ski] on his great southern journey.” — Huntford, Shackleton

[image from Images for All, Royal Scottish Geographical Society]