[philman_36]

Yet nobody has gone across, just to the "geographic" South Pole and then back to their starting points.

Why not go to the opposite side from where you started and be "the first" to do so? The distance would roughly be the same, according to the picture, and the routes are already there.

[null and void]

I *think* maybe they cache supplies for the return trip on the outgoing leg.

That way they don’t have to schlep the last can of beans all the way across the continent.