There were four other expeditions attempting to to reach the South Pole at the same time as our combined group.

Kites On Ice was a very ambitious and very succesful group comprised of two families; led by Matty McNair the team skiied unsupported to the Pole and kited back to Patriot Hills. Matty became the first American to reach the Pole unsupported and her daughter Sarah became the youngest skier.

The Invesco Perpetual Challenge expedition was also very ambituous and also extremely well funded. It was a partial traverse of the continent from the Axel Heibergs glacier via the Pole to Patriot Hills, aiming to use both landrovers and kites. Unfortunately the landrovers quickly became bogged in severe snow, but the rest of the expedition was successful.

The Ice Maidens were three Australian women who intended to ski unsupported from Patriot Hills to the Pole. Unfortunately they suffered severe difficulties of equipment supply even before reaching Antarctica. When they eventually set off they were late and had not had time to fully prepare on the ice - they suffered from severe cold and after six days had to abandon their journey. There is a very good description here of the difficulties they faced.

Ole Martin Martinsen attempted to travel solo and unsupported to the Pole at the age of 57. Unfortunately like me he suffered from severe tendonitis after two weeks and was picked up by the same plane that brought me back to Patriot Hills. His pulk was about 100 pounds heavier than mine so he really had something to pull!

Here is a full list of all the intended expeditions, although I'm not quite sure how accurate it actually was. There's also a more extensive list near the bottom of the page here, also not entirely accurate.

There is a map showing some of the planned expedition routes here and there is a detailed map of our expedition here.