In 2004 Ben Saunders became the third person in history to reach the North Pole solo and on foot, a 640-mile challenge Reinhold Messner called “ten times as dangerous as Everest”. At 26 he was the youngest to do so by more than ten years, and no one has been able to repeat the journey since.

Starting late 2009, Ben sets out on three pioneering expeditions: solo speed record attempts on both Poles and the 2011-12 Scott Antarctic Expedition – the first return journey to the South Pole on foot and, at 1,800 miles and nearly four months, the longest unsupported polar expedition in history.