There is a Danish word, polarhullar, meaning 'a yearning for the polar regions' that grips the soul of a traveller so that nowhere else will ever again satisfy his appetite for the essence of 'over there and beyond'. A victim of polarhullar will forever be drawn back to the very extremities of Earth. Antarctica is expensive and difficult to reach, which is why, blocked by the roughest seas in the world, nobody penetrated its fastness until, only 90 years ago, Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton struggled over the Ross Ice Shelf and on to the vast inland plateau; while the Arctic Ocean, peopled by Eskimos, who, for centuries, have survived along its coastlines, is infinitely more accessible to travellers. Sledgers who cross Greenland, the Canadian north and Svalbard often describe themselves as polar travellers, using the Arctic Circle as their yardstick. Thus there are a great many more veterans of the Arctic than of Antarctica.

Travel in the remote polar reaches of the Arctic Ocean itself and the high plateaux of Antarctica demands careful preparation and constant wariness due to unpredictable weather and local hazards, which can rapidly prove lethal. On the other hand, during the summer season, polar travel can be easy and almost temperate on windless days and away from problem areas. I have travelled to both poles without suffering unduly from the cold, yet I lost part of a toe from frostbite during a weekend army exercise in Norfolk. A need for wariness is not a uniquely polar prerogative.

A brief history of previous polar travellers in Antarctica would have to start in 650AD when, according to the legends of Polynesian Rarotonga, their chief Uite headed south in a war canoe until the ocean was covered with 'white powder and great white rocks rose into the sky'.

Soon after the discovery of America by Columbus and Cape Horn by Drake, Britain annexed Australia (1616). Then, in 1700, the astronomer Halley reached South Georgia, and by 1774 Captain Cook had sailed south of the Antarctic circle. He then circumnavigated Antarctica without ever sighting land. Nobody over-wintered on the continent until the British-Norwegian Southern Cross expedition of 1900, which preceded the 'heroic age' of the pole racers, made famous by the deaths of all Scott's team soon after Amundsen reached the south pole in 1911. In 1914 Shackleton attempted to traverse Antarctica. He failed, but in 1958 the crossing was successfully achieved by the team led by Dr Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary.

A full resumé of Arctic travel that stretched over three centuries would fill many pages. Ships' captains from America and Britain vied with each other throughout the nineteenth century to find a 'north-west passage'. Entire expeditions disappeared in a mist of rumoured mutiny, murder and cannibalism.

The urge to be the first to the north pole ended early this century with mutually disputed claims by two Americans, Peary and Cook. Both were later accused of fudging their records and the first proven journey to the north pole was that of Ralph Plaisted, an American preacher, in 1968, a year before Britain's Wally Herbert completed the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean via the pole.

The achievement of linking up expeditions north and south into a circumpolar journey encircling the earth was proposed by Charles de Brosses, an eighteenth-century French geographer, and finally executed by the Transglobe Expedition (1979-1982). This expedition's ice group, myself and Charles Burton, travelled from Greenwich across Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean, then back to Greenwich. We became the first people to reach both poles by surface travel and to circumnavigate Earth on its polar axis.

In 1993, with Mike Stroud, I crossed the Antarctic continent on the longest unsupported polar journey in history. This took nearly 100 days but, a year later, various types of wind-powered kites and parawings emerged that enabled Antarctica to be crossed with far less effort in a mere 50 days. Now it is possible to traverse both Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean with no 'outside' support, by harnessing the wind with lightweight sails.

A sledger, using modern kites, can pick up and harness winds from over 180 degrees. Until 1994, the great journeys of Shackleton and his successors utilised crude sails, which could only run before a directly following wind. Should Mike and I have described our 1993 expedition, or Shackleton's, as 'unsupported' when we harnessed the wind, albeit in a minimal way? Should I, in 1996, have used a vastly improved modern kite gadget and still have called my journey 'unsupported'? It is a question of definition, for there is, after all, no polar version of the International Olympic Committee.

In 1993 Mike Stroud and I suffered considerable physical damage crossing the Antarctic continent by manhaul and minimal use of sails that could only use following winds. Our sledge loads, each in excess of 215 kg, required brute force to shift and 16 km a day was a fair average manhaul stint, costing a daily deficit of 8,000 calories and leading to slow starvation.

In 1996, again towing a load of nigh on 225 kg, I deployed a 4.5 kg kite and managed up to 190 km a day with minimal physical effort and correspondingly less calorific expenditure. My sledge load could be halved in terms of fuel and food. What had previously proved remarkably difficult was now comparatively simple.

Polar travel has been truly revolutionised by such wind devices. It is now possible to cross Antarctica in under two months. Of course the element of luck can still play tricks. Broken equipment, unusually bad weather, sudden illness and well-hidden crevasses can still prevent a successful outcome, but at least the reality of polar travel is now within the grasp of the many, not just the few.

My instructions for this section of the Handbook are to provide practical information, and this would be difficult without lists. These are the result of a dozen polar journeys in many regions and with differing purposes. I have spent more days and nights out on the Arctic pack and Antarctic plateau than anyone alive, but my kit lists and general tips are by no means infallible. They will not prevent you falling into the sea or an ice crack. You may still become hypothermic, snow blind or lost or eaten by a polar bear, but I hope they will at least help you get started as a polar traveller of reasonable competence.

First of all, read as much available literature by previous travellers in the area of your chosen trip. Study the annexes at the rear of expedition books. Lists of sponsors and manufacturers are often quoted and can save you time.

Then apply, perhaps through the Royal Geographical Society's expedition advisory office, for information on expeditions currently planning to go into your area of interest. It will help if you have a skill to offer (cook, communications, photographer, mechanic, etc.).

Go on other people's trips to Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland, Norway, anywhere with snow and ice, to gain experience before progressing to the deep south or north and to leading your own projects, eventually to and across the poles if that strikes your fancy.

Here are some guidelines. Feel free to ignore or alter them wherever you can garner more appropriate advice elsewhere.

Equipment

Clothing:

General items:

Medical kit:

This should include all that polar travellers advise, and may well include:

Other considerations

Remember that insurance, fully comprehensive and including possible search and rescue costs, is often mandatory and always sensible.

In Antarctica the best air charter company, Adventure Network International, will give you all the necessary advice on every side of your expedition. In the Canadian Arctic, First Air is the best (based at Resolute Bay, NWT). Remember that your cargo will cost a great deal at both ends. (In Antarctica, count on US70 per kg above your basic allowance to get you there from Chile.)

Final advice

Don't go to the Arctic or Antarctica to do difficult journeys with folk you don't know about. They should be reliable, easy-going and experienced. You can get to both poles by paying expert guides to help you there. Some are to be avoided. Others, such as Pen Hadow, are excellent. All are expensive. Pay more and an aircraft will take you all the way to either pole and allow you an hour or two there, before whisking you back to warmer climes.

Never leave litter nor harm life in any form while you are there. The Everest climbers have polluted their grail. Keep our poles clean.

Plan with great care and never rely on gizmos working, PLBs and GPSs for instance, or count on immediate rescue, since storms can keep search planes away for days, even weeks, so play safe.

If you aim to join the weirdos' section by bicycling across Ellesmereland or 'collecting' different poles (geomagnetic, magnospheric, lesser accessibility, etc.) then plan accordingly. For example, if you intend doing the south pole on a pogo-stick, don't forget lots of low-temperature grease and your haemorrhoid cream. Have fun and stay cool.