My South Pole adventure

The heroic but tragic tale of Captain Scott and his doomed expedition had haunted Tom Avery since he was a boy.

Stories of towering ice-capped mountains captured the youngster's imagination and it was not long before he was embarking on adventures of his own, climbing Snowdonia with his school and dreaming of organising his own expedition.

On Saturday December 28, Tom, 27, from Ticehurst, near Robertsbridge, became the youngest person to reach the South Pole.

His success was short-lived because soon afterwards a 23-year-old scout leader scooped the record but Tom and his team of three still have much to celebrate.

Their trip was made to mark the centenary of Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic in 1902, ten years before he died on another expedition.

Tom said: "After the first two days we were all scratching our heads, wondering if we were going to make it. We were gradually climbing 9.500ft above sea level but it was never as hard as it was in the first two days.

"To do it in such a quick time was unbelievable. Most expeditions take at least 60 days and we did it in 45."

For Tom, a director of Swiss company Ski Verbier in London, the success was a culmination of the hard work he put into organising the trip for himself and three friends.

His natural talent for climbing and trekking had always been at the fore of his life and meeting like-minded friends at the University of Bristol gave him the chance to organise his first major expedition.

He said: "I organised a trip to the South American Himalayas. We climbed the highest mountains in Ecuador and Peru. There were five of us and we climbed up to 25,000ft. It was just a fantastic adventure and it took two years to organise. It was my first proper expedition."

Studying geology and geography at Bristol re-awakened Tom's interest in the Antarctic but it was as a pupil at Vinehall School, Robertsbridge, that he first developed his passion.

Vinehall deputy head Ellen Hill remembered Tom as an all-rounder, ready to join in anything.

She said: "He was an inspirational reader and a model pupil. He was ready to do any activity and academic as well as sporty.

"We are all very proud of his achievements."

After university, a brief spell working in the City soon gave way to his love of skiing and he took a job as a ski guide in Switzerland.

Tom said all the while a plan was forming to organise another expedition, bigger and more adventurous than the first.

A trip to Kyrgyzstan, north of Afghanistan, followed in 2000 with Tom and friends scaling mountains never climbed before.

The virgin peaks were named after friends and family members along the way.

The trip reminded Tom of his childhood heroes Captain James Cook and Sir Ernest Shackleton and the wheels were put in motion for the trip of a lifetime.

Rounding up a few friends from university and inviting one other along, Tom sought sponsorship for his plan to trek to the South Pole and received financial backing from insurance company Hastings Direct.

The company also paid for a three-week training trip to New Zealand.

David Gundlach, chairman and chief executive of Hastings Direct, said: "To complete an expedition of this magnitude Tom has demonstrated that he has ambition, commitment and has also put in immense physical effort.

"I agreed to sponsor Tom on the condition that he would share his experience with my staff and with students of various schools around the country. We are looking forward to hearing the details of his journey."

Tom said the trip was a commemoration of Scott and Shackleton's attempt 100 years earlier.

He said: "It was the first time anyone had gone into the interior of the Antarctic and proved it was a continent. Unfortunately, they had to turn back relatively early on in the trip."

The group, made up of Tom, Patrick Woodward, 27, Andrew Gerber, 28 and Paul Landry, 45, set off from the Hercules Inlet in the Chilean Antarctic on November 13 for the 702-mile journey.

The first two days were tough and dangerous and the group found it hard going pulling sledges weighing about 75kg.

Tom said: "Patrick and I both fell into crevices while we were climbing. We could see ice bridges across them but sometimes they just collapsed and I fell up to my waist."

Determined to continue, the group carried on battling frostbite and wind-chill temperatures registering minus 51C (minus 60F).

Gruelling trekking was broken up with moments of pure exhilaration when the team managed to hoist kites and allow the wind to pull them across the ice on their skis.

Tom said: "For three days we kited which blew us along the ice and helped us cover up to 30 miles a day when we would normally cover 15 to 17 miles a day walking.

"The kiting was what made the trip because it was a really good break from trudging on foot but also being out in this huge expanse of nothing was incredible."

Day-to-day achievements did not pass without celebration and the crossing of another degree south was marked with a toast of whisky and Tom's regular snow bath.

One such event was the youngest team member's birthday on December 17.

Freeze-dried turkey was rehydrated for a double Christmas and birthday party spent inside a tent.

Food came in dehydrated packs and the daily menu would usually include chocolate and tea for breakfast, salami, cheese and freeze-dried meat products for lunch, soup and another dry meal for dinner.

Tom described reaching the pole as an incredible moment and one he would never forget.

Another highlight of the trip was chatting to the Prince of Wales by satellite phone and wishing him a merry Christmas.

Money raised from lectures and talks on the trip will go to the Prince's Trust charity.

Tom was greeted by his relieved parents Quenelda and Julian at Heathrow on his arrival back home on Tuesday.

Although rest and recuperation are the explorer's immediate plans, at the back of his mind a fresh challenge waits to emerge.

Tom said: "I would love to sail round the world one day and visiting the North Pole is a dream as well. But at the moment I'm just catching up with things and resting."