Mr Hibbert is back with his family after spending 113 days struggling across Greenland and back in a marathon expedition which has made him and his friend George Bullard record-breakers.

The duo set a new world best for successfully completing the longest unsupported polar expedition. Their feat of covering 1,374 miles on skis with no outside help beats the previous record of 1,305 miles.

The trek involved both young explorers dragging sleds weighing up to 31 stones through snow and ice, up to heights of 8,600ft, in temperatures as low as -40C (-40F).

The mission was so tough that Alex lost three stones in weight.

Now back at home in Penny Street, Old Portsmouth, Alex said: 'I'm definitely a bit skinnier than when I left.

'Unsupported journeys means we have to have everything we need with us and can't be given anything once we've started so we had to keep going on the food we had, which was very difficult.'

The pair had left rations of food along the route for them to pick up in a bid to lighten their load. But on the way back, covering 20 miles a day, they missed two of the packages which meant an agonising six days surviving on two-and-a-half flapjacks each a day.

'Not being able to find the food was one of the hardest things to cope with, said Alex.

While away on the challenge Alex, who starts training with the Royal Marines in September, had his 22nd birthday. 'We had a tin of peaches on my birthday which George had brought along without me knowing,' he said.

'We were eating freeze-dried food all the time so tasting something like that was amazing. We couldn't heat the tent at night because we had only enough fuel to heat food, so we spent quite a few nights shivering as the temperatures dropped to -40C,' he added.

'There were also two days when we just had to stay sitting in the tent because the wind speed was 54mph. The rule is you don't take the tent down if you can't put it back up.

'Luckily we didn't see any polar bears but about four days before we finished the Inuits at the village we finished in shot one because it was coming near to habited areas. That was a bit close for comfort.

'My legs are still aching a bit but it feels great to have done it and broken the record.

'I'm already thinking about future expeditions but securing funding is the difficult thing to do.'

This expedition cost £25,000 but has raised about £15,000 for the charity Breast Cancer Haven.