Pen Hadow runs the Dartmoor-based Polar Travel Company

The 41-year-old explorer, who lives in Hexworthy on Dartmoor, became the first person to reach the geographic North Pole unsupported from Canada in May.

Accompanying him on his latest adventure to the geographic South Pole will be 63-year-old Hong Kong-based author and entrepreneur Simon Murray.

Mr Murray, a former Foreign Legionnaire, will be the oldest person ever to tackle the trek.

The pair are raising money for a £7.2m Royal Geographical Society (RGS) projects appeal.

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The 731-mile (1,170 kilometre) journey from Hercules Inlet, on the edge of the Antarctic continent, to the South Geographic Pole will take 65 days.

Mr Murray and Mr Hadow, an RGS fellow who runs the Dartmoor-based Polar Travel Company, will be pulling 275lb of food and supplies on sledges.