Meet three special women in Melbourne. They all appear quite ordinary, but they're preparing for the trip of a lifetime.


KERRI RITCHIE: These three women, all mothers aged in their 40s, lead ordinary lives. Sandra Floate does the bookkeeping for the family cabinet-making business. Noelene Weightmen is a midwife at the Royal Women's Hospital. Michelle Bloomcamp teaches Grade 5 and 6 at Melbourne's Spotswood Primary School. Now these three women are about to do something extraordinary.

MICHELLE BLOOMCAMP: My kids were old enough to be a bit civilised and I was starting to think I'd like a bit of adventure or to do something interesting, I wasn't sure what. And in came Sandra with a friend of ours and said, "We're going for a walk, do you want to come?" And they spread out this map of Antarctica and I just couldn't think of a good reason to say no.

KERRI RITCHIE: Michelle Bloomcamp has been organising this Antarctic adventure for two and a half years. The women, who call themselves the 'Ice Maidens', have just been to New Zealand with a guide to hone their skills on a glacier - part of the preparation for their attempt to ski unassisted to the South Pole.

MICHELLE BLOOMCAMP: Learning how to navigate, learning how to look after cold injuries, just how to camp in the snow is something you don't normally do and there are things to think about when you've got to watch where everything goes so it doesn't get wet and frozen. A lot of running around in circles looking for sponsors - that's the big one - it is writing the letters and contacting people trying to find money.

NOELENE WEIGHTMAN: Most people think "Have you done this before?" or "Are you going with a guide?" or "Is there a coffee shop, along the way?" But no, they just think it's incredible and I think once we have achieved it, it will be, people won't believe, they are just amazed that three ordinary women are going to do this extraordinary thing.

KERRI RITCHIE: The Ice Maidens will traverse Antarctica without a guide, checking their position via GPS and only making brief radio contact with the outside world.

They're confident two years of physical training and planning will minimise the risks they will face.

MICHELLE BLOOMCAMP: 60 to 70 days in a tent with three women means a lot of giggling, a lot of chocolate and a lot of good stories, I guess. But to be serious about it, though, we have worked very hard on team work, we had psychological profiles done very early in the piece and the more we go to places like what we're doing in NZ and seeing how each other operates when we are uncomfortable or when we are scared, the more we know each other and the closer we become as a group.

KERRI RITCHIE: The good friends are planning to cover about 20km a day.

They'll have to contend with fatigue, crevasses, blizzards and freezing conditions.

But Sandra Floate says it's spending two months away from home which will pose the biggest challenge.

SANDRA FLOATE: The cold isn't the fear. I think it's leaving families behind and not being in control of what is going on here for maybe three months. Family and friends and partners have got to deal with everything, so...they are all in good hands but it is quite a long time to leave kids behind.

NOELENE WEIGHTMAN: A lot of people think, "Oh, yeah, I'd love to do something like that" but they don't go the next step for whatever reason. But we are. We are determined to go to the next step.