AN ARMY officer from Winkleigh will be calling on all his survival and mountaineering experience during an expedition to the remotest parts of the Antarctic which set sail last week.

Major James Harris is one of the 16 members of the British Army Antarctic Expedition who will be attempting to climb peaks never climbed before in the harshest terrain in the world.

The party is believed to be the first since Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1909 to travel self sufficiently by yacht to the remote peninsula known as the Danco Coast.

With no support vessels and all supplies aboard the yacht, the ski-mountaineering team will have to haul weeks' worth of rations with them on sledges.

Mayor Harris, 38, who will be leading the team when they reach the coast, has travelled on a number of expeditions with the British Army including one to South Georgia ten years ago.

An officer with the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, Major Harris set sail with his team on the ten week Antarctic expedition from the Falklands on Friday.

Project officer Captain Duncan Rasor said there were three aims to the trip — to present a challenge where crew members would push themselves to the limit, explore an area little known about and undertake some scientific research into rocks and sea birds.

'The climate and physical terrain will present a huge challenge,' he said. 'There are no certainties down there — this is uncharted territory.'

An update on the team's adventures can be found by logging on to the website [email protected]&quot">[email protected]">[email protected]">[email protected]">[email protected]&quot">[email protected]">[email protected]">[email protected].