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| Captain Scott and members of his 1912 Antarctic expedition team. | THE great-great nephew of an explorer who died with Captain Scott is embarking on a trip into the Arctic Circle.
Alastair Wilson, of Tegryn, is to join a sponsored dog sledge team in Norway and raise money for the Scott Polar Research Institute.
Twenty-four-year-old Alistair’s great-great-uncle was the artist Edward Wilson who died with Scott’s ill-fated 1912 expedition to the South Pole.
Alastair, who works for the Countryside Council for Wales, is already in training for the 250km trip and hopes to raise £3,000 for the research centre.
"With my great-great uncle having gone down to the Antarctic with Captain Scott there was a strong family tie," he said.
"The SPRI is a charity that does lots of research into climate change, polar biology and also runs a museum dedicated to Captain Scott and his expeditions."
"Obviously it's going to be a lot of hard work, it's going to be cold and we'll have to get used to working with the dogs.
"I am training - I'm doing a lot of walking to build up my stamina.
"I'm looking forward to it and the sponsorship will go to something that's close to my heart."
Robert Falcon Scott and his team reached the South Pole on January 24th, 1912, only to discover that a separate expedition, headed by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, had reached the destination four weeks earlier.
Dejected, Scott and his men headed for home only to be hit by bad weather.
Petty Officer Edgar Evans died on February 17th in his sleep, possibly after having injured himself in an earlier fall.
On March 17th, Captain Titus Oates, unable to continue, famously walked out into a blizzard with the words, “I am just going outside and may be some time”. He was never seen again.
On March 29th, Scott, Wilson and Lieutenant Henry Bowers died in their tent just 11 miles from a refueling depot.
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