Shackleton descendants in polar bid

A century after Sir Ernest Shackleton abandoned an attempt on the South Pole tantalisingly close to his goal, descendants of the explorer and his team are hoping to achieve what he could not.

The six modern adventurers, who will set out exactly 100 years after the original expedition, include Shackleton's great-grandson.

Three of them will tackle the same full 900-mile, 80-day route as Shackleton's crew.

They will meet the other three 97 miles from the Pole, where their predecessors were forced to turn back on January 9 1909 in the face of howling icy blizzards and dwindling rations.

Shackleton set out on his 1908-09 Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic hoping to become the first person to reach the South Pole.

Although he failed, he travelled further south than anyone else had before, and was hailed a hero and knighted when he returned to the UK.

The 21st-century explorers are being led by Army Lt Col Henry Worsley, 46, from Hereford, a descendant of Frank Worsley, Shackleton's skipper on the Endurance, the ship used in a following Polar expedition in 1914.

Mr Worsley, who describes himself as a "Shackleton obsessive", once slept beside the explorer's grave on the inhospitable island of South Georgia.

He said he was looking forward to travelling over the terrain described in Shackleton's evocative diary entries, adding: "Walking in his footsteps will be extraordinary."

The team members will endure -35C temperatures and 50mph headwinds as they haul 300lb sledges on skis for up to 10 hours a day. While they will have the benefits of modern equipment and navigational aids, they will not have the ponies and dogs that helped their forebears. But unlike Shackleton and his men, they will fly out from the South Pole.

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