14 DAY TRIAL // With the power of will everything is possible, even becoming the youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole at the age of sixteen. Lewis Clark is the ambitious teen that embarked on a difficult journey almost 46 days ago and battled incredibly low temperatures to set a new world record.
The British teenager began his trip on December 2, just two weeks after his birthday, and is now expected to finish his journey and set the official record of the youngest person to ski from the Antarctic coast to the Pole using a 700-mile (1,126 km) Hercules Inlet route.
He is expected to finish his journey today, arriving at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, around 3 pm and beat the current record by being two years younger than the previous holder, who completed the trek in 2005, Canadian Sarah McNair-Landry.
Lewis is accompanied on his trip by polar guide Carl Alvey and they managed to sky for an average of eight hours and 18 miles (almost 30 kilometers) a day, notes ITV. Before this adventure, the youngster never had any real polar environment experience and never cross-country skied, but managed to prepare himself by attending an intense polar training course in Norway in 2013.
The money raised through his adventure will be donated to The Prince's Trust, a charitable foundation that gives young men and women the opportunity to gain confidence, new skills and prepare to enter the working class.
Even if Lewis admits to being a winter fan, “wearing shorts in the middle of winter” and better enduring the cold than the heat, he wrote on his blog that the trip was harder than he expected. “My body has had enough. I am forcing it to go on.”
The teenager had his ups and downs during the trip, suffering from blisters, high-altitude cough, frost nip, and even had the bad luck to break a ski that allegedly was unbreakable. No wonder just 300 people managed to take on this kind of challenge in almost 100 years; it is quite a difficult adventure to embark in.