The team's ideal marching time at the moment is 8 hours per day, allowing themselves a 5 minute break each hour. They also have one 15 minute break at the halfway stage each day in order for each of them to have a hot drink. However, as their recent progress shows, they are already picking up speed and they are building up to a 9 hour day with a 5 minute break every 1 hour and 10 minutes. Ultimately, they aim for an optimum 10 hours each day with a break every 1 hour and 15 minutes, although whether or not they will be able to maintain this pace does depend on weather and surface conditions.

Although they are all fit, strong and in excellent spririts, they must be very careful to guard against burning out. It is not just a matter of walking for 8 to 10 hours a day, but also of pulling with them pulks (sledges) weighing around 150 lbs. As well as pacing themselves carefully, each of the women has to be careful to rehydrate herself as often as necessary and to consume rations of high energy food, including chocolate, nuts and shortbread.

While they are on the move, the women tend to march in single file. This is primarily for safety reasons, although even if that weren't the case there would be little point in their walking side by side. Between the vicious headwinds and the face masks that guard them from the harmful effects of UV rays chatting is rendered somewhat difficult - small talk is very definitely not the order of the day!

Responsibility for leading and navigation is shared with the team rotating these positions throughout the day. At the moment they are not taking a direct bearing on the South Pole, which is 138 degrees on the compass, but are following a course at 145 degrees. This is to avoid a crevasse field (going on feedback from a Japanese Polar Expedition a few years ago).

To date, the team already have successfully passed the edge of a crevasse field en route to Patriot Hills and, more recently, another following a tip from fellow British pre-eminent Antarctic veteran Geoff Somers (MBE). It is typical of the spirit of explorers that the team has received this sort of guidance to help them on their way and they themselves are determined to gather as much information as possible to help future expeditions in the same way.

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