Two British explorers reached the North Pole Sunday to become the first all-woman team to trek to both Poles, their support team said.

　　　After braving snowstorms and frostbite, Caroline Hamilton and Ann Daniels raised the British Union Jack in bright sunshine at the globe's most northerly point.

　　　"We are ecstatic," Daniels, a former banker, said in a statement. "It has been worth everything we have endured along the way."

　　　Their 81-day journey across more than 400 miles of the world's harshest terrain has been fraught with danger since they set off from Resolute Bay in the Canadian Arctic on March 12. The women, who reached the South Pole in January 2000, each hauled their equipment on sledges weighing 250lb, twice their body weight.

　　　As they neared their goal, Hamilton, 35, a film financier from London, and Daniels, 37, from Devon, southwest England, had to swim through freezing water to cross melting ice packs.

　　　They faced temperatures of minus -67F which the bitter winds made feel even colder.

　　　They were whipped by three storms, one so bad they were unable to stand up and had to huddle together without food or shelter for three days.

　　　The pair said one of their first telephone calls after they reached the North Pole was to Britain''s Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, who supported their adventure.