"The conditions have been pretty horrible and have brought the mission to the edge, but Tim and Barry are very determined."
The team is aiming to recreate one of the greatest ever survival tales and has already completed Shackleton's crossing of the Southern Ocean in a lifeboat from Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula to rugged South Georgia.
The final leg is a two-day climb to 2,950 feet over the mountainous and crevassed interior of South Georgia to reach the whaling station where Shackleton and his men, with little more than the clothes on their backs, raised the alarm about the sinking of their ship, the Endurance.
"They are both experienced mountaineers and they've said they will continue with the expedition unsupported when there is a break in the weather," crew member Paul Larsen said.
Along with Norway's Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, Australian explorer Douglas Mawson and Briton Robert Falcon Scott, Shackleton was among the great Antarctic explorers.
When he set off on his third trip to the region in 1914 with the ship Endurance, he planned to cross Antarctica via the South Pole.
But the vessel became trapped in 1915, and sank 10 months later as it was crushed by the advancing ice. Shackleton and his crew lived on the floating ice until April 1916, when they set off in three small boats for Elephant Island.
From there, Shackleton and five crew made the treacherous voyage to South Georgia, reaching their destination 16 days later to face the mountainous trek.
All members of the Endurance mission were eventually rescued with no fatalities.
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