In today’s satellite-driven world, the farthest-flung corners of the globe are only ever a click away, but the human desire to step foot where few have ever trodden thankfully remains as strong as ever. Some places will always carry their own totemic allure, and for lovers of Antarctica, the South Pole is one of them.
In November 2026, Max Worsley and Martin Nesse are setting out to ski to the South Pole unsupported and entirely self-sufficient. Dubbed the Onwards Expedition, their journey begins at Berkner Island in the Weddell Sea, on the true coastline of Antarctica, and stretches out nearly 1,350 km (839 miles) to the South Pole. On the eve of their departure, we spoke to Max about why they’re taking on this challenge, and what it involves.
There can be few endurance tests harder than walking unsupported to the South Pole. What drives you to take on such a challenge?
Antarctica has been a quiet constant in my life for as long as I can remember. My dad, Henry Worsley, collected Shackleton memorabilia and read me stories about the Endurance expedition. He served in the SAS, and was an artist, author and polar explorer. He skied to the South Pole three times. Shackleton was his hero. Sadly, he died on his last expedition, attempting to become the first person to cross the continent solo, unsupported and unassisted.
The tagline for the Onwards Expedition is “Honouring the past, protecting the future”. That means honouring my dad and the explorers of the Heroic Age, but we want the expedition to be forward-looking and have a positive impact – looking at how the principles we apply to protect Antarctica can also apply to natural spaces around the world.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit Antarctica several times, but most people will never get the chance. As a distant frozen wilderness, they might think what happens there isn’t important, but tiny changes in Antarctica have huge ripple effects across the globe.
Who is the Onwards Expedition fundraising for to support this goal?
We’re supporting British Exploring Society, which was founded in 1932 by George Murray Levick, who was on Captain Scott’s final expedition. They’re a youth development organisation that take young people on adventures around the world, many of them from less privileged or minority backgrounds. The impact can be transformational. Its motto is “Find Your Fire”, and the idea is that adventure helps young people build confidence and curiosity, which they can take into challenges at school and at home.
I worry a lot that younger generations are becoming disconnected from nature. Dad encouraged us to get outside, to build dens and be curious. We need to help young people connect with nature, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds or far from wild places. I’ve worked with BES for the last couple of years, and hope our fundraising will help more young people experience that.
Who else are you working with?
We’re also a partner for The Earthshot Prize, which champions and supports people working on major environmental challenges, helping scale their solutions through funding and leadership. Every year, they award £1 million to five winners whose innovations address big issues like restoring nature, cleaning our air and fixing our climate.
As part of this, we’re collaborating with NatureMetrics, who use environmental DNA sampling to look at ecosystem health, and are taking some of their sampling kits with us. (In 2025, Swoop worked with Nature Matrics when we funded the first ever eDNA sampling by citizen scientists on the Antarctic Peninsula.)
Talk us through the route that you’re taking to the South Pole
We’re starting on what’s called the outer coastal zone, at the true edge of Antarctica on Berkner Island. From there we’ll traverse the island and cross the Filchner Ice Shelf then travel up through the Pensacola Mountains over Wujek Ridge, and then continue across the Polar Plateau to the South Pole.
We start at sea level, but the South Pole is actually at an altitude of 2,835 m (9,301 feet). The initial gradient is steady, but the Wujek Ridge is the real crux: we’ll climb around 1,200 m (nearly 4000 feet) in one or two days, pulling our pulks, or short sleds.
Martin and I will each have a pulk weighing around 120 kg (265 pounds). Because we’re unsupported, we need to carry everything we need for around 65 days, which includes our contingency. On a supported expedition, food and fuel depots are laid along the route, significantly reducing the sled’s weight, but we’re not doing that!
We’ll be alone, although we will call our support team every evening. We’re working with Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions – they’ll transport us to our start point and act as our emergency support. It’s sensible to have a safety net.
Pulling your sleds is going to be tough work. How many calories will you have to consume each day?
We’ll take in about 6,500 calories a day, but we’ll burn around 9,000–10,000. My nutritionist estimates I’ll lose 20–25 kilos over the 60 days (45–55 pounds), so I’ve been putting on lots of weight in preparation for the expedition. Getting your nutrition right, putting on weight and having a good percentage of body fat are all important, along with teaching your body to prioritise burning fat in the same way it does carbsby training on an empty stomach.
Apart from eating lots of carbs, what other physical preparation have you had to do to get ready for the expedition?
You can’t just ski to the South Pole – there are dangers and risks. You have to complete a polar training course. We did ours in Finse in Norway, on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. There’s a great sense of history there, as it’s where Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen all trained.
You really need to do as much cross-country skiing as possible. It’s very different from alpine skiing, but there’s no dark art to putting one ski in front of the other for 60 days: it all comes down to efficiency. Each day involves eight to 12 marches,with breaks. At the end of the day, you put up the tent, melt snow for water, eat a hot dinner and go to sleep, then get up the next day and do it again. And again. Every small efficiency you can make—like putting up the tent or stowing your gear more quickly, or improving your skiing technique—saves you energy and leaves you more time to rest or fix gear.
What are you most excited about for the expedition?
I’m excited simply to get started and away from everything – I love that pure connection with your environment that comes from being outdoors. There are no distractions or noise; it’s just you and your surroundings.
Antarctica is beautiful, but I’m under no illusion that this will be a holiday. It’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m sure a lot of it will be painful. But it will probably also include some of my best moments.
On the personal side, I’m excited to see what happens with my relationship with Dad. I hope it will help me feel closer to him and understand what he loved so much about Antarctica.
And finally, is there anything you’re worried about for the expedition?
Getting to the Pole will be amazing, but it’s also one of the things I’m most worried about! Reaching it has been my dream since I was a teenager, and it’s given me so much purpose, so I don’t know what it will feel like to finally get there, or what comes next.
Being picked up at the South Pole will be surreal. It’s home to a large international science station run by the USA. We’ll then fly back over the entire route we’ve just skied, in about four hours. It will be very strange to look down and think that it took us two months to cover that distance!
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Follow Max and Martin’s progress at the Onwards Expedition website.
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