In Shackleton's footsteps

An explorer and his team of Sir Ernest Shackleton descendents have set off in their attempt to complete the famous explorer's failed Antarctic expedition.

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley, 46, from Hereford, Will Gow, 35, from Kent, and Henry Adams, 33, from Suffolk, started the 900- mile, 80-day trek on Thursday.

The group, which found room for whisky and cigars to celebrate Christmas Day if it reaches reach the South Pole, set off from the hut built by Shackleton's men at Cape Royds on the remote Ross Island.

Three others will join them 97 miles from the Pole.

From there they will brave temperatures as low as -35ºC and headwinds as strong as 50mph while hauling 300lb sledges laden with their supplies, ranging from food to ice axes, for up to 10 hours a day.

And the team hopes, with modern navigational aids and other new developments, to successfully cover those final 97 miles, the point where Shackleton and his men were forced by howling blizzards and dwindling rations to turn back 100 years ago.

The team, led by Lieutenant Colonel Worsley, includes Mr Gow, who is related to Shackleton by marriage and Mr Adams, a great-grandson of Jameson Boyd- Adams, Shackleton's number two on the unsuccessful expedition.

Lieutenant Colonel Worsley's ancestor, Frank Worsley, was not on the attempt on the South Pole in 1908 but went on to become Shackleton's skipper on the Endurance, which became icebound in the second polar expedition of 1914.

He and Shackleton made a perilous journey to seek help by negotiating Drakes Passage in a the James Caird lifeboat, a feat that has not been repeated.

In a message from Ross Island, Lieutenant Colonel Worsley said: "It is hard to describe the feeling of finally getting here."

The team will take the same route as the 1908-09 Nimrod expedition.

Bad weather stopped his team starting the trek exactly 100 years after it predecessor, on October 29.

Shackleton was forced to turn back on January 9, 1909 in the face of howling icy blizzards and dwindling rations.

Before starting the trip Lieutenant Colonel Worsley said: "I have been an obsessive student of Shackleton since I was a child and I am particularly admiring of leadership skills and his triumph over adversity.

"The decision to turn around only 97 miles away was astounding. To be part of this same journey will be a great thrill."

Andrew Ledger, 23, from Derbyshire, Tim Fright, 24, from West Sussex and David Cornell, 38, from Hampshire, will join the trio 97 miles from the Pole.

The expedition is being used to launch a £10 million Shackleton Foundation, to fund projects that embody the adventurer's spirit and hunger for calculated risk.

Earlier this month a team of West explorers returned from its successful mission to recreate Shackleton's remarkable rescue mission in the Antarctic.

Stephen Venables, from Bath, Stephen Tetlow from Bristol and Simon Kewley from West Dorset travelled to South Georgia to follow the 30-mile route which explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton took in 1914 to lead 28 men to safety.

The two-week Beyond Endurance expedition, raised money for charity and awareness of Antarctic wildlife, such as the albatross.