Expeditions can set up supply depots along the route, to be used for the final push, so it's not quite a fair comparison. If you can carry enough food for X da

Expeditions can set up supply depots along the route, to be used for the final push, so it's not quite a fair comparison. If you can carry enough food for X days, you could travel out X/4 days, leave a cache with enough supplies for X/2 days, then travel back with the last X/4 days of supplies. During the actual push, take X/4 from the cache on your way out, and X/4 from the cache on your way back. By using the cache, your range has increased from 0.5X to 0.75X. (This is a simplified example that assumes only a single cache of supplies is being used, and that the same size party is used for both trips.) More extreme resource planning can also be used for expeditions, though can raise questions of ethics. The first successful expedition to the South Pole [0] set off with 52 sled-dogs, 45 of which survived the first month of the expedition. At that point, the supplies were light enough that they only required 18 dogs for the final push. The remainder were killed and butchered, both to reduce the number of mouths to feed and to provide food for the humans and remaining dogs. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedi...