The team will have to regain weight and muscle in 6 weeks time only, alternating complete wear out to the top physical capacity needed to ski to the North Pole. In addition, Antarctica's bacteria-free environment and the physical effort will suppress their immune system, making the team prone to illness between expeditions.

Last year, Tom and Tina got to taste some of the conditions:  

"To climb mountains is very dangerous. To cross an ocean  on a small team means serious lack of sleep.  But to ski the Arctic's is the most physically strenuous of adventures. 

The whole body aches into the bone, the weight of the sled cuts deep into the flesh. The wind is whipping your face, the cold penetrates every blood vessel. Your entire system begs for a rest, a shelter. But you know that you have another 8 hours to go. Time sixty days." 

The team will need to consume 5000 kcal each daily. The food is freeze-dried prepared meals from Bewell Corp in United Kingdom, normally used by the UK military. The variety is limited to three choices. The team will melt snow for water and nibble at fatty trail mix for snacks. 

In addition to the physical strains, there will be the psychological endeavor of extreme isolation:

 "Because we didn´t have a sat phone, we could only transmit, but not receive any information.  We were not prepared for the serious impact of loneliness that we encountered.

Due to the heavy going, we couldn´t talk to each other while skiing. We didn´t bring enough power for music. And there was so much work involved in the camp and tech routine that we ended up talking to each other only 20 minutes daily, spending the remaining endless hours in dead silence. (Well, says the cynics, isn´t that just your average marriage?) 

In the end, the Antarctica silence treatment proved the most interesting part of the journey:

"We would create those imaginary worlds. We had time schedules in our heads: 8am to 10am: Solve practical problems. 10am-12am: Focus on Antarctica and compose todays´dispatch. 12-2 pm: Listen to music. 2-4 pm: Happy hour (free thinking). 4-6 pm: The past and the future.

When our own imagination went dry , we would ski up to each other and "exchange subjects".  At times, we´d have topics for each other, like "think in the next 2 hours how Einstein would have viewed your life". Then, at the days end and in those precious half-hours of social activities in the tent, we would share today´s  thoughts with each other. Eventually, the monotony of the outer world gave way to the more interesting inner world, and our imaginary stories became the important ones."

This year, the team brings with them selected self motivating recordings on mini discs, to study how such influence on the brain will affect their thoughts, in this lack of outer interference on the mind.  

These studies are also of interest  to space travel agencies, who have long battled the effect of isolation on the human mind encountered on long space voyages.

"Either we´ll come back all fired up, or just plain mad. But it will be interesting."