make history today as the first person to ski alone and unaided to the South Pole.

As of yesterday, Mr. Erling Kagge had only 56 kilometres remaining of his 1,300-kilometre solo journey across the tundra.

Mr. Hans Christian Erlandsen, Mr. Kagge's spokesman, said he could reach the pole today.

Mr. Warren Brown, Sr. of Smith's, is among those Bermudians with their fingers crossed.

Mr. Kagge was a crew member aboard Mr. Brown's 61-foot sloop War Baby when she sailed to the South Pole and back again in 1986. The voyage lasted nearly one year.

"He's very, very strong, very fit, and very determined,'' Mr. Brown said yesterday. "And he's got a zest for adventure.

"He doesn't mind taking risks.'' Mr. Kagge, a 29-year-old lawyer in Norway, set out from Berkner Island on November 17 and has skied an average of 27 kilometres a day.

He already made history at the opposite end of the globe in 1990, when he and partner Mr. Borge Ousland beat expeditions from Canada, Britain, South Korea, and the Soviet Union in a race to be the first to reach the North Pole unaided.

Mr. Kagge trained for two years for the marathon treks by pulling automobile tires over the mountains of Norway, Mr. Brown said.

The solo trip which could come to a successful end today is his riskiest venture yet, he said. "It's not something that I would recommend,'' said Mr.

Brown, an adventurous boat racer himself.

"It's very, very dangerous. If you go down a crevice, there is no one to get you out.'' The skier carries a transmitter that relays his position and brief messages -- such as "All OK'' on Tuesday, and his Yuletide "Merry Christmas'' -- via satellite to Oslo. He has slept in a tent at temperatures that dip to minus 40 Fahrenheit. During the day, he pulls a sled loaded with food and fuel which weighed 264 pounds when he set out, but is now down to about 100 pounds.

An airplane is expected to be waiting for Mr. Kagge at the South Pole. Mr.

Kagge befriended Mr. Brown's son Warren, Jr. when he sailed to Bermuda with two other Norwegians in the mid-1980s on their way to the West Indies.

Mr. Erling Kagge.