Sir Ranulph Fiennes to attempt first Antarctic winter crossing So we aren't any more expert than anybody else at winter travel. There is no past history of winter travel in Antarctica apart from the 60-mile journey. So we are into the unknown. The Antarctic has the Earth's lowest recorded temperature of nearly minus 90 degrees Celsius (-130 degree Fahrenheit), and levels of around minus 70 are expected during the six-month crossing, which will be mostly in darkness. The expedition will sail from Cape Town on Monday and dock in the Antarctic later this month, where a six-member team will prepare to leave in March with no option of rescue once on the ice, unlike in other expeditions. "This is the first time once we've gone out, all the aeroplanes, all the ships from Antarctica disappear for eight months, and we're on our own and then you're in a situation where you would die," he said. That is why we have to try and take with us a whole year of supplies and a doctor and everything else like that, which makes it the biggest, heaviest expedition that we've ever been involved with rather than just man against the elements. The group will be led by two skiers carrying crevasse-detecting ground-penetrating radars and followed by two tractors pulling sledge-mounted, converted containers with the rest of the team, equipment, fuel and food. "Anybody who leaves the vehicle and it goes out on skis has to accept the fact that if things go wrong, they will die like people did 100 years ago," Sir Ranulph said on the eve of departure. The team, which will be carrying out scientific research and wants to raise $10 million (£6.15m) for the Seeing Is Believing blindness charity, have tested their clothing and equipment to minus 58 Celsius (minus 72 Fahrenheit) in Britain and minus 45 in Sweden. The group will set out from Crown Bay south of South Africa, crossing the polar plateau at an average height of 10,000 feet above sea level, aiming to cover 22 miles a day to reach McMurdo Sound, south of New Zealand.