BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Reaching the end of the Earth has become almost routine these days: One hundred years after Norway’s Roald Amundsen beat Britain’s R.F. Scott to the South Pole, more than 30 teams are trying for it this year.

Additional Photos

British adventurer Felicity Aston shows a map in Punta Arenas, Chile, early this month. Aston, who plans to ski by herself across Antarctica, would set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days. The Associated Press

Some will kite-sail over the vast Antarctic ice and snow. Others will drive in from the coast. A wealthy handful will be dropped off one degree north of the South Pole, for relatively leisurely guided treks of about 70 miles to the pole.

But Felicity Aston has been there, done that. Weather and her own considerable stamina permitting, the 33-year-old British adventurer will pause at the pole only long enough to pick up more food and fuel. Her plan is to keep on skiing, by herself, all the way to the other side of the frozen continent — and become the first person using only muscle power to cross Antarctica alone.

If she manages to complete this journey of more than 1,000 miles in late January, she also would set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days.

“This is my first solo expedition, the first time I will have spent this length of time without company,” she said. “It’s part of the challenge of the expedition, to see how I’ll cope with it.”

Aston spoke from Punta Arenas, Chile, where she was boarding a charter flight Friday after losing a precious week waiting for weather to break. From a base in Antarctica, she’ll then take a second plane to her starting point at the foot of the Leverett Glacier, where the Ross Ice Shelf meets the rocky coast.

Already, she was “channeling down,” getting her mind set on what would be a grueling routine.

“Your life reduces to eating, sleeping and skiing. It’s a form of meditation. You get into a rhythm, and all you can hear is your own breathing, your own heartbeat, the sound of your clothes and your skis. It’s kind of an altered state,” she said. “A trip like this is all about keeping going — the stamina, endurance, keeping going day after day after day.”

Aston, whose trek is sponsored by the Russian software company Kaspersky Lab and makers of the equipment she is using, has plenty of experience in long-endurance expeditions. She spent nearly three years as a meteorologist with the British Antarctic Survey, and in 2009 led an all-woman group from the coast to the South Pole. Her long list of travel adventures includes skiing across the Canadian Arctic, crossing the Greenland ice sheet and trekking over Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal. She’s also run across Morocco’s Sahara Desert and tracked jaguars in Paraguay.

Antarctic Treaty rules require private support teams to be able to pull people out in a pinch, and Aston is carrying two Iridium satellite phones and a GPS beacon to keep in touch with hers.

Related Stories