How do you get from ordinary bloke to polar explorer?

Despite the fact that Outward Bound didn’t make any difference to my academic prowess, somehow, I managed to scrape enough A Levels to get a place at university, reading Commercial Horticulture. Plants and how they worked and fed us had been an absolute passion of mine since the age of 12 - I’ve no idea why - survival instinct? But it was a four year course and I really wanted to get on with life. So, liking sciences I wrote (yes, pen-on-paper) to 17 scientific establishments

After 36 years of polar exploration and 20 years of data-gathering for Ice Warrior’s scientific partners, the question I get asked the most is "how did you get into this?". So here goes. Like most teenagers at the age of sixteen I had teenage angst. Big time! I loved sport. I hated school. I really could not see why attempting to teach me about some weird ancient mythological creatures and their life and times had any relevance whatsoever to my life. Foolishly or otherwise my

We have a wide selection of waterproof trousers here in Ice Warrior Expedition Basecamp so I am going to focus on just three - the Odyssey pants from Mountain Equipment, the Foray pants from Outdoor Research and the Alpine Pro pants from Montane. My memories of wearing waterproof trousers were of baggy, shapeless trousers with elasticated waistbands that you put on only when completedly necessary as they were about as cool as clown shoes. Fortunately, things have moved on co

The Lhotse is one of Mountain Equipment's flagship products. Taking its name from the mountain within the Everest massif, the Lhotse is a multi-award winning GORE-TEX Pro jacket designed for mountaineers. The "alpine fit" makes it snug around the waist, but allowing free and easy upper body movement making it ideal for climbing. The material is highly breathable yet tough where it needs to be. Review of the Lhotse Jacket - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qshPkEEoZk4 Mount