Ann's partner says she would never compromise over safety

Ann Daniels, from Whimple, was airlifted off the ice 20 days and 121 nautical miles after setting out.

The 40-year-old was picked up at 0800 BST on Thursday by a supply helicopter.

Her partner says because of a local dispute, no search-and-rescue services were going to be available and her safety would have been compromised.

Polar bears

Tom O'Connor said: "To be honest, she's devastated. A lot of effort and a lot of time has been spend to get the expedition together with sponsors and that kind of thing."

Mr O'Connor said, despite her bitter disappointment, she knew there was really no choice to make.

"It was a safety issue," he said. "She would never, ever compromise that. The fact that there wasn't going to be a search-and-rescue facility out there meant the decision was made for her and it was out of her hands."

Ann Daniels will be reunited with her family next week

During nearly three weeks on the ice, Ms Daniels had already had two encounters with polar bears and on one occasion had to fire her .44 Magnum handgun to scare one of them off.

She had also sustained a couple of minor injuries and the decision was taken that she could not risk more serious trouble without a guaranteed rescue helicopter.

Mr O'Connor said: "People would say it was slow, but she was on target because she would increase speed as things got warmer."

A veteran of a number of Polar expeditions, Ms Daniels was, along with London-based film financier Caroline Hamilton, the first woman to reach both North and South Poles.

However for this adventure, the end came for Ms Daniels with 399 nautical miles still to go to reach the Geographical North Pole.