Frostbite ends historic expedition

Ranulph Fiennes on Antarctic adventureThe other five members of the expedition will continue the journey without Fiennes as their leader, Medniuk said.

Read: Veteran explorer sets off on "The Coldest Journey."

They plan to travel almost 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) through icy wilderness mostly in complete darkness and in temperatures as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius. The journey is expected to take six months.

A Norwegian team recently completed a winter crossing of the Arctic but this is the first attempt to traverse the Antarctic.

Fiennes has previously been the first person to reach both the North and South Poles by land and the first to cross Antarctica on foot.

The team set sail from London in December and were building a base camp and supply depot inland from Crown Bay when Fiennes developed the case of frostbite. They are due to begin the polar crossing as scheduled on March 21.

Before his latest adventure, 68-year-old Fiennes described polar exploration as a drug or addiction.

"Once you get bitten by polar records, you keep going for it," he told CNN.

First woman to cross Antarctic solo: I've never felt so alone

Fiennes, who lost five fingers to frostbite on a previous expedition and also suffered heart problems during an attempt to climb Mt Everest, was sanguine about the risks of this adventure.

"I don't think about not coming back, because I mean, more people get killed on the roads here

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