A FORMER Royal Marine from Buckland Monachorum has completed a solo trek to the South Pole — in the first part of a huge physical challenge.

Baz Gray had to consume 10,000 calories a day to finish the 745-mile trek through extreme temperatures and a hostile environment, covering an average of 19 miles a day while dragging his 187lb sled behind him entirely unassisted, through temperatures reaching -20C.

Baz arrived at the South Pole at 7pm on Sunday after 39 days, having set off on November 30 from Hercules Inlet. Upon arriving at the South Pole, Baz called his wife Claire from his SATcase to confirm the news that he had hit his target of reaching the Pole within 40 days.

Extreme climactic conditions — namely, soft snow, zero visibility, strong winds and sastrugi (sharp irregular grooves or ridges formed on a snow surface) — made the trek even more arduous than expected for Baz, who described one section as ‘the toughest period of my life’.

After finishing the trek, he was flown out of the South Pole to a base camp, ahead of his planned return to Britain via Chile.

Baz’s Herculean effort was just a ‘warm up’ for Baz as phase two of Challenge Antarctica will see him attempt to cross the entire Antarctic continent from coast to coast, unsupported and unassisted.

For 25 years Baz has been living, learning, teaching and surviving in some of the most remote places on the planet as part of his service as a Royal Marine and is putting everything he knows into this thrilling challenge. Baz spent a year in Antarctica as the cold weather expert to the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance, responsible for training and equipping the 120-strong crew. He was also a pivotal member of the 2013 Shackleton Epic expedition, authentically recreating the 800-mile ocean crossing of Ernest Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia and scaling the mountains to reach the safety of Stromness Harbour.

Challenge Antarctica is part of satellite communications project SATcase’s R3 challenge initiative centred around professional explorers achieving their goals in a remote areas without reliable phone coverage.

Part of Baz’s motivation for Challenge Antarctica is to fundraise and raise awareness of The Royal Marines Charity.

Baz’s exploits come less than a fortnight after Captain Lou Rudd became the first Briton and only the second man to trek across Antarctica unaided. Picture by Jason Howard Photography.