International explorer skis 5100km across Antarctic

South African-born Mike Horn and the 32m-long yacht Pangaea. Photo / Gerard O'Brien

International explorer and adventurer Mike Horn was fulfilling a lifelong dream when he recently completed a 5100km, 57-day traverse of the Antarctic, including the South Pole, by kite ski.

This is understood to be the longest kite ski journey undertaken across the Antarctic.

South African-born Horn (50), who now lives in Switzerland, had dreamed as a boy of reaching the South Pole and crossing the Antarctic.

His ice-strengthened, multimillion-dollar aluminium yacht Pangaea has been moored at Birch St Wharf, in Dunedin, since late last month, and he plans to spend about another two weeks moored there before moving on.

He has visited Dunedin several times previously, and the city has a special significance for him because his late wife, the former Cathy Gilman, who died of breast cancer in 2015, had earlier lived in the city.

His Antarctic crossing completed the first part of his latest expedition, titled Pole2Pole, which will include a circumnavigation of the globe and a later North Pole expedition.

Over the past 25 years, he has undertaken many other challenging expeditions, including the first to the North Pole in the complete darkness of winter, as well as travelling 7000km down the Amazon River, and climbing two 8000m-high peaks in the Himalayas.

But he had an early reminder of the dangers of making a solo crossing of the Antarctic when he fell into a deep crevasse 10 days into his trip, and was saved only by the 250kg weight of the sled he had been pulling behind him.

He remained attached to the sled, which also remained on the ice, enabling him to climb out of the crevasse himself.

''Sometimes you're a little bit fortunate to make it. Unfortunately Antarctica swallows and kills a lot of people.''

There were some particularly chilly moments on the traverse, with temperatures at times dropping to minus 40, with severe wind chill.

''The Antarctic crossing was one of the hardest things I've ever done.''

But travelling across the Southern Ocean by yacht to get to the continent, as explorers like Shackleton and Amundsen did, was also a ''massive undertaking'' by itself.

In high winds, he could ski across the frozen continent by his snow kites at high speeds, at times up to 70kmh, but he preferred to travel about 35kmh-40kmh, to maintain more control.

Time was against him during the crossing, and it was ''a matter of survival'' to move quickly to ensure he arrived before summer vanished and worse weather set in.

For that reason he often opted to take 15 minute power naps, curling up with all his clothes on, with his back to the wind, and relatively warm and protective snow building up against him.

This was much quicker than having to set up his tent and take it down again each day, which could take several hours - time he felt he did not have.

The long traverse became ''a very big mental thing'', as he constantly had to remain alert to avoid making mistakes that could result in disaster.

But when he completed the traverse he felt ''afraid for it to end'', and for the intense challenge to be over.

''You're so driven to get on, that you never want it to end.''

He ended his expedition about six weeks ago, in the eastern Antarctic, at Dumont d'Urville, a French scientific station on Petrel Island, in the Geology Archipelago, and travelled on his yacht to Australia before reaching Dunedin.

Horn plans to stay in the city for about another fortnight before moving on with the next phase of his international expedition.