CRICKHOWELL'S Michael Burke has beaten off competition from across the UK to make the shortlist of candidates preparing to make a gruelling and demanding 700 mile trek to the North Pole next year.

The North Pole 08 expedition will see the first Army team walk to the Geographical North Pole and will be led by Captain Andrew Cooney, who became the youngest person to walk to the South Pole in 2003 and is now aiming to be the youngest person to walk to both poles. Michael secured his place on the final selection team after beating off 159 entries from the Regular and Territorial Army. The final eight individuals will now be put through the most challenging and rigourous arctic training in the Alps this summer and in Norway later this year.

Captain Andrew Cooney who will lead the historic expedition and has been responsible for the final stage selection told the Chronicle, "When we announced the expedition in February we were inundated with requests to join the team from the regular and Territorial Army.

"The Arctic will be a challenging and unforgiving environment which will demand the highest levels of determination and physical fitness. The eight candidates who have made it to the Alpine selection stage have demonstrated the determination and attitude necessary to succeed in such inhospitable conditions.

"The next phase of selection will really push them to their limits and discover what they're made of. By the end of the selection process we will have identified the very best individuals to walk to the North Pole and claim their place in the record books."

If successful each candidate will have to walk up to 700 miles across the frozen Arctic Ocean in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius with six team members from the regular and Territorial Army. The expedition will set off in spring 2008 almost 100 years since Henson and Peary first reached the Pole in 1909.

Burke said, "The challenge of walking to the North Pole is like no other. I am so proud to have made it to the final selection stage and I'm both apprehensive and exhilarated about the arctic training ahead of me."

The expedition will be led by Captain Cooney who will be joined by WO2 Damon Blackband from the Army Air Corps. WO2 Blackband is one of the British Army's most experienced and talented mountaineering experts and will lead the Alps training this summer before taking the team to Norway for Arctic Training. WO2 Blackband said: "The successful candidates will have to demonstrate exceptional drive and enthusiasm to make the final selection. I will be putting each and every candidate through the most extreme training to prepare them for the expedition – If they want to make the final cut they'll have to impress me – there's no room for passengers."

Captain Cooney continued: "I thought I was prepared when I set off for the South Pole but nothing can fully prepare you for the long days, continual exhaustion and extreme temperatures.

The training in the Alps and Norway later in the year will equip the candidates with the skills necessary to succeed and will hopefully give them a taste of the conditions ahead of them if they are successful."

Expedition patron HRH Prince Edward said: "Reaching the North Pole remains to this day one of the most challenging goals on the planet. The Arctic Ocean has to be the most inhospitable environment and becoming increasingly dangerous."