This adventure was successfully completed on 12/16/21, after 15 days of riding.
Although it's obvious that the bikes are riding in ruts of other vehicles, RE photos seem to have been quite careful to exclusively show the bikes alone in the landscape. With some poking, I was able to find this image attached to an article on the subject, which may, or may not be one of the support vehicles contracted from Arctic Trucks.
https://www.motownindia.com/images/Features-and-Travel/90-South--Royal-Enfields-Quest-for-Pole-position-Motown-India-Bureau-2-517.jpg Two of these wide track, fat tire vehicles could account for the four ruts seen in most of the pictures.
I also found this statement in the comments on one of the articles:
They left from the Ross ice shelf and took the track of the south pole traverse vehicles from McMurdo Station. The traverse vehicles are tracked tractors that are dragging sleds of fuel bladders for the pole station. It is an annual event from McMurdo to the pole. Saves having to fly fuel to the pole. (Yes, I am currently at McMurdo Station.)This suggests that even the support vehicles were not trail blazing.
I still find it impressive that, with no more than very modest modifications, a Himalayan is capable of managing in this environment:
For greater torque at the rear wheel, the main drive sprocket has been changed from a 15-teeth, to a 13-teeth unit. There is a tubeless wheel setup with studded tyres that allows the tyres to run at very low pressures, and to increase floatation on soft snow, while also providing adequate traction on hard ice. The team has introduced a stronger alternator using rare earth magnets, so as to enable the motorcycle to produce more current and enable the team to run heated gear off the battery.Special front wheel skis were also made for the bikes, which can be seen in this video:
https://youtu.be/I96q3TSl0tQ?t=77 , but I don't know if these were used during the trek.
It seems that folks desiring to ride in Antarctica are not as uncommon as we might think.
https://www.madornomad.com/motorcycle-to-antarctica/ https://www.adventurebikerider.com/article/destination-antarctica/ Shinji Kazama rode to the south pole on a Yamaha DR200, back in 1992
https://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/90s/kazama.htmlI wouldn't be surprised to see guided moto tours to the south pole. They will already take you as far as Anarctica:
https://www.ayresadventures.com/ushuaia-and-antarctica/