UK schoolboy becomes world's youngest to trek South Pole

A 16-year-old British schoolboy has set a world record for the youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole, completing the gruelling 1,129km journey in just 48 days.

Lewis Clarke from Bristol spent 48 days at spine chilling temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius, braving icy winds of up to 193 kph.

Clarke reached the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station after completing the 1,129 kilometre journey from the Antarctic coast, 'BBC News' reported.

"I'm really happy but mostly relieved that for the first time in 48 days I don't have to get up tomorrow and drag my sled for nine hours in the snow and icy wind," Clarke said on his momentous arrival.

"Today was really hard, the closer I got to the Pole the slower I went, my legs had had enough. But now I'm here and I've had some spaghetti bolognaise and I am sitting in a heated tent," he said.

Clarke, a student at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital School (QEH) Bristol is hoping to have broken the record for the same coast-to-pole route taken by Sarah McNair Landry from Canada.

McNair Landry set the record in 2005, when she was aged 18.

Clarke's challenge began on December 2, two weeks after his 16th birthday.

It brings an end to an expedition which has seen Clarke ski for an average of eight hours a day, covering approximately 29km, while pulling his supplies behind him on a sledge.

Problems encountered by Clarke along the way included blisters, coughs caused by being at high altitudes and a broken ski.

Clarke's father said he was "incredibly proud", while his mother "had been holding her breath for the past few months".

His claim to a world record is yet to be officially verified by Guinness.