Harry Lands For Trek To 'Rock-Bottom Morale'

Prince Harry has arrived in Antarctica joking that the extreme cold has made everyone's morale drop to "rock bottom".

Having been delayed for 48 hours in sunny Cape Town, the three Walking With The Wounded teams touched down at the Novolazarevskaya Station in temperatures of -10C.

"It's amazing how, in just six hours, your morale can go from pretty high, almost pouring over the edge, to rock bottom," the fourth in line to the throne told Sky News.

"The weather forecast was supposed to be alright, but it seems to be getting worse," added the Apache helicopter pilot.

The three teams representing Great Britain, the USA and the Commonwealth and made up of largely wounded ex-servicemen and women, will race over a 200-mile course to the South Pole.

But before they reach the start line on Monday on a plateau more than 3,000 metres above sea level, the teams will spend three days acclimatising to the hostile conditions.

Adventurer Inge Solheim, who is helping the US team, said: "The air gets thinner when you get up to the start and so we'll need a few days there to get used to conditions to make sure everyone's coping."

As the 29-year-old Prince stepped off the plane in his Antarctic clothing, he remarked that the wind and cold had brought back "a lot of bad memories" from his last experience in the North Pole in 2011.

One of the British team members, Kate Philp, who suffered injuries while on operational duties with the Army, said: "You just start to see little details of the landscape as you come in to land.

"How they managed to identify where the runway was ... you just can't believe how the pilot managed to make such a controlled landing."

On Friday night the teams met together for their first dinner in Antarctica ahead of a full day skiing on Saturday in preparation for the challenge ahead.