The planet's southernmost landmass also contains 80% of the world's fresh water. There are places where the ice is over 10,000 feet thick, and the ice cap itself is more than 40 million years old.
The Antarctic is the coldest place in the world (lowest recorded temperature is -89.9 C). It is also the windiest place in the world (fastest recorded wind speed of 300km/h). And it is technically a desert: it has less than 5cm of precipitation in a year.

Andrew Moon and Andrew Regan will endeavour to cross the continent of Antarctica from the west coast to the South Pole...