In April 2009 five teams will compete in the Polar Race 2009 to be first to reach the North Pole. Each team consists of three people who have gone through gruelling and rigorous training in order to be selected and to be fit enough to complete the 350+ mile challenge.

Iain Whiteley, David Stanton and John MacPherson hope to complete the race and between them raise thousands of pounds for charity. They expect to complete the route in about one month. The team name, as a trio of golfers, is ‘Pole in One’ and it is the intention to have a ‘Nearest The Pole’ competition on arrival!

The gruelling race starts from Resolute Bay in the former North West Territories of Canada. It takes the contestants some 350 miles, by ski or foot, across some of the most desolate terrain in the world to the 1996 certified position of the Magnetic North Pole.

The Polar Race was inspired and organised by a team led by two of the best known British adventurers: Jock Wishart and David Hempleman-Adams. In 1996 they successfully took ten novices selected from 500 applicants on the first ever televised trek to the Magnetic North Pole - "The Ultimate Challenge". In 2003 the two men joined forces again to recreate their historic trek, but this time as the first ever race in these extreme conditions. It was a huge success with the winning team being the first to get their names on the unique "Blue Ice Trophy" specially commissioned by Wedgwood for the Polar Race.