Hello friends. Apologies if my post sounds super naive or if there are better places to ask, but hopefully you can at least then redirect me to those sources.
Anyway, I've recently gotten super into hiking and mountaineering. I've also liked the idea of exploration ever since I was a wee lad and now that I have a place of my own and a stable, steady and good pay, I can afford to fill out my dreams. I am very much in love with visiting super cold and super high places, so my "end goals" would be to climb Everest and to visit Antarctica, especially the latter. My naive question is this: are there any formal prerequisites one has to do before attempting such tasks? Are there ways via which one can apply to some places, agencies or whatever which serves as an indicator that you want to go there, what's the procedure like? Or is it, in the case of Everest, just a matter of going to the foot of the mountain, grabbing your equipment and simply hiking?
In the case of Antarctica (and the North Pole too), are there specific persons one needs to contact or are there some sort of short term jobs one can apply to? I am a theoretical physicist if it matters.
Thanks in advance.