20 YEARS OF POLAR EXPEDITIONS
I’ve led 12 major expeditions and have covered just over 4,500 miles (7,250km) on foot in the high Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica since 2001.
I’ve spent time working in Antarctica – I’ve travelled there seven times now – and the Arctic without my sledge in tow, and I’m one of a tiny handful of human beings to have spent so much time at the highest latitudes.
Here are a few memories and photographs from my journeys on foot in the polar regions:
March 2001, and my first polar expedition: an unsupported North Pole attempt from Cape Arkticheskiy on the northernmost tip of Siberia. Pen Hadow and I spent 59 days on the Arctic Ocean, and it was a heck of an apprenticeship. I was 23.
Heading solo for the North Pole from Russia in 2004, aged 26. I spent 72 days and nights alone, traversing more than 600 miles (966km) of the Arctic Ocean's floating pack ice.
A campsite on the floating pack ice in early March 2004. I'd look for thicker multi-year sea ice to pitch my tent, and put a 'polar bear alarm' trip wire around my tent at night.
The view from my Hilleberg tent's air vent. Part of the magic of that long solo journey was the knowledge that the scenery was unique to me; the pack ice was constantly shifting so no one had ever seen these views before, and no one could ever see them again.
April 2004 and the pack ice starts to melt. These cracks in the ice are called leads, and the water is up to 5.5km (3.4 miles) deep.
Even sketchier terrain in late April 2004.
A times I'd use floating blocks of ice to make my way across open leads.
A Twin Otter drop-off flight at Cape Discovery, Arctic Canada, for my second attempt at setting a speed record to the North Pole, March 2010.
Saying I 'skied' to the North Pole might be misleading. Making my way through some colossal pressure ridges on the Canadian side of the Arctic Ocean, March 2011.
More tough terrain on the Canadian side of the Arctic Ocean. My skis stayed strapped on top of the sledge when it was like this.
Training in Greenland, May 2012. One of my favourite expeditions, chiefly due to the friends I travelled with, and the stunning backdrop we shared during our few weeks there.
Greenland 2012. The rope that connects me to my sledge is called a trace, from the Latin tractus (dragged) and more commonly used when referring to carthorses.
Camping for the night in Greenland's 24-hour daylight. May 2012.
Fat, clean-shaven and nervous. With my teammate Tarka l'Herpiniere in Captain Scott's Terra Nova hut on Ross Island, Antarctica, about to attempt the longest ever polar journey on foot. We had a beard-growing competition in the 16 weeks that followed.
Early season hard yards on the Ross Ice Shelf – an Antarctic ice sheet the same size as France – dragging 200kg (440lbs) each during the early days of my Scott Expedition. October 2013.
Ascending the Beardmore Glacier, December 2013. Tarka and I are the only living people to have walked all the way up and all the way down the largest valley glacier on Earth (a journey both Scott and Shackleton made before us).
Kim Stanley Robinson said "First you fall in love with Antarctica, and then it breaks your heart" which suggests he didn't have a good enough teammate to travel with. Tarka was rock steady.
Turning around at the South Pole, Boxing Day 2013. 900 miles done, 900 miles left to go.
On the pain train, somewhere mid-Antarctic Plateau at nearly 3,000m (10,000ft) above sea level, January 2013. Ambient air temperatures were as low as -48°C. (-55°F.)
Back at Ross Island after 108 days, and the end of the biggest dream I'd ever had. Tarka and I still hold the record for the longest polar journey on foot: 2,898km/1,801 miles. As Børge Ousland put it: "Everything you long for is there, and at the same time, when you arrive there is nothing more to long for".
“The voice of success and profit
May stir the vault of heaven,
But not this place.
In the rounds of the day,
You wear threadbare clothing
And eat simple fare.
When the mountain snow deepens,
Your thoughts
Are far from those of people.
Occasionally,
Immortals pass your door
And knock.”