I'm 26 years old, from Kent, and in the second year of a PhD at Cambridge on literature and Scott's Last Expedition. My first contact with Antarctica was at primary school, when I was cast as a penguin in a school play, but it was only when I read The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard that polar exploration became a fascination for me. I'm intrigued by the encounter between man and the Antarctic, and how the ice challenges explorers mentally as well as physically. To have a chance to follow in the tracks of Captain Scott is a wonderful opportunity, and a great privilege.

April 2011: 'It's difficult to know where to start in writing about the ISCE event at HMS Raleigh. The three days we spent there were so full and intense that now it all seems like a dream - I still can't quite believe how much we did in so little time. The keen-eyed would have been able to spot signs of what we did together: the bruises on our legs tell of the toughness of the challenges we faced, and the muddy hand-marks on the backs of our overalls show how the ten of us bonded to overcome them as a team.'

Philip Sidney from ISCE 2012 on Vimeo.

Dartmoor Training Weekend (July, 2011)

Dartmoor? It’s a fair question (and one that perhaps crossed a few minds as we toted our Bergens from tor to tor), but not simple to answer. It was our first Proper Expedition together, a chance to see how we would cope with long days and tired legs, but with elements of a nature-trail (we spotted some cows which looked alarmingly, if appropriately, like penguins) or, as the sun set on our bubbling mess-tins, a camping trip with friends. The going wasn’t always easy – Dartmoor’s tussocks seemed very unkeen to stay still under our boots, while its bogs seized every opportunity of rushing uninvited into them – but with the help of songs, jokes, the army’s ‘Fruity Oatie Biscuits’ and above all each other, we slogged merrily through to Plymouth, pizza, and the end of a tough but rewarding weekend.