Ex-soldier aims to reach both poles and seven summits

Ian Hughes (pictured here in Norway) says a two-month solo challenge to the South Pole will be "mentally tough"

A 57-year-old man hopes to become the oldest person to complete a challenge known as the Explorers Grand Slam, which involves reaching both the North and South pole and climbing seven of the world's highest peaks.

This winter, Ian Hughes, from Liverpool, will ski 730 miles (1175km), solo and unsupported, across Antarctica to the South Pole, raising funds for a veterans' mental health charity.

The ex-soldier has already climbed five of the Seven Summits, including Mount Everest, and plans to follow his trek with the Antarctica summit - with a North Pole trek planned for 2027.

Mr Hughes says he expects to be spending Christmas "in a tent in the middle of nowhere" and cooking a freeze-dried meal.

Ian Hughes has already climbed five of the seven summits which form part of the Explorers Grand Slam, including Mt Everest in the Himalayas (above)

It will all be a far cry from his day job for the energy firm OEG but Ian says he "enjoys that isolation and the nature of another world and nothing else".

Temperatures are expected to drop to about -50C over the course of his South Pole expedition in November and December, added to which, he will be pulling a 115kg sled.

The former deep-sea diver has been training by dragging tyres on the walk to work along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

He says young people often get their phones out to photograph him when they see "this sort of strange man walking past with a couple of tyres being dragged behind him".

He says he wants to prove that "normal people - if they put their minds to it - can do extraordinary things".

Mr Hughes hopes to raise £100,000 for the mental health support charity Always a Rifleman, which tackles stress, homelessness and suicide prevention among military veterans.

"My long-suffering wife just lets me get on with whatever I want to do," said the married father-of-two.

"It makes life easier, I suppose, rather than having somebody like me frustrated, twiddling my thumbs at home.

"I'm no spring chicken, and I'm sort of really looking forward to the actual challenge of it all; to physically getting stuck in and putting my mind towards the one goal of reaching the South Pole."

In doing so, he hopes to move a step closer to joining an elite group of about 75 people worldwide who have completed the Explorers Grand Slam - an ambitious challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole and the Seven Summits (the highest mountain peaks of each of the seven continents).