“I made a vow to myself that some day I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns.” – Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. As a result of his relentless pursuit of his of his vision, Shackleton was the first person to see and travel on the South Polar Plateau. Shackleton’s self-sacrificing leadership and determination to reach his destination against all odds made him one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.