To The South Pole From Down Under

Enduring the pain of frostbitten fingers and thighs, three Australians on Thursday finished a 60-day trek to the South Pole, arriving just in time for New Year’s Day celebrations.

When the adventurers reached the U.S. Antarctic base, the holiday “party was in full swing,” the expedition’s manager, John Leece, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Peter Treseder, 39; Ian Brown, 42; and Keith Williams, 40, hauled 330-pound sleds during the 870-mile journey. They started from the Antarctic coast on the South American side of the continent.

“It was so tough that about 10 days before Christmas we nearly abandoned the trip because the conditions were causing risk to their life,” Leece said.

The men had frostbitten fingers, and Brown suffered severe frostbite on his thighs that almost forced him to quit, Leece said. But otherwise the men were well, and Brown was recovering quickly.