Over 20 Years of Polar Exploration
Directly contributing to our knowledge and understanding of Earth
Ocean
Meet The Staff
Jim McNeill
Explorer and Founder. I have a passion for getting the very best from people - realising their potential - and believe that most people never get that far. That combined with my love for Mother Nature, makes me the animal I am. If I had my way I'd introduce everyone to the extremes.
Sam McNeill
Operations Director, I love inspiring people to achieve things they never thought possible! After 35 years operating in a mountain, expedition and rescue environment in the UK and Europe and training young people in expedition skills. I now enjoy enabling other people to reach their potential doing something purposeful and worthwhile in extreme environments.
Michael Petit
Polar Instructor. I started with IW in 2010 on a Warrior selection weekend, and am now one of our instructors. I have since been living and working in the high Arctic as a guide and on documentaries, as well as having been on several expeditions. Best advice I have is to give your dreams a go - with the right training you might just make it.
Alan Thompson
Polar Instructor/ Medical Officer. I am a retired British Army Commando trained in Arctic Warfare with numerous deployments to Arctic regions. Because of this my love affair for all things Arctic grew and I met Jim at Ice Warrior’s HQ, BASECAMP. Some years later I now instruct in the Polar Arctic and prepare people for Arctic Expeditions and adventures. My forte is remote medical matters.
Ian Bishop
UK Instructor. After leaving the Armed Forces in 2020 after 25 years of service I realised I had a ton of experience going to waste. After returning to Dartmoor where I spent much of my youth I qualified as a Moorland Leader and Navigation Instructor. That’s when I met Jim and realised, we had a shared passion for helping people grow – not just in the Arctic but in life – Dartmoor and the Arctic provide the proving ground that can push you (and me!) to be better.
Curtis Knapton
UK Instructor. There are so many skills, lessons and sayings I have adopted from Ice Warrior. One I use most of all is the "walk tall syndrome". I literally walk through life with no worries knowing in any situations critical or not I can deal with it. IW is more than a shop, expeditions or training it's a state of mind.
Zak Walters
UK Instructor. I worked as a kayak guide for a year and then got myself a guiding job on the Franz Josef Glacier where I spent the next 4 years gaining a tonne of knowledge and experience, whilst exploring the Southern Alps on my weekends. I found myself back in the land of the pasty, and that’s when I came across Jim. Since starting the Ice Warrior program I have realised that polar exploration is what I need to do.
Steve Sharrock
Aspirant Instructor
Peter Penny
Aide de Camp My life is somewhat like Netflix. Series One: Good life, marriage, family and career as a documentary film maker. Series Two: Tragically lost my wife to brain tumour. I committed to summit a mountain a month for a charity in salute to my wife. Series Three: I met Jim 5 years ago, trained to be an Ice Warrior and uncovered a sense of real purpose. I now work to support the participants through all aspects of their incredible training journey.
Composer-In-Residence
Helen Habershon
"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music."
Jimi Hendrix
Part of Jim’s dream and Ice Warrior’s raison d'être is to convey the polar regions and their importance in every way, shape and form. Music evokes memories, emotions, feelings and conveys atmosphere and situation. Great music has the magical ability to paint pictures and tell stories.
As a composer and clarinettist with a highly distinguished performance history, Helen has this wonderful talent, in spades. She is deeply influenced by nature and describes her composing as receiving “downloads” from her inspirations. She has composed a piece called “Farewell Ice” specifically for the project which appears on her third album, “Found in Winter”.
“It is such a fabulously rich, moody, sad, haunting and poignant piece which, to me, epitomises the demise of the sea ice on the Arctic Ocean. I’m so chuffed she is part of Ice Warrior”. Jim
Her music is frequently broadcast around the world and can be purchased from her website HERE
Artist-In-Residence
Nick Bennett
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
John F. Kennedy
Nick has been a ceramic artist for 15 years and now produces works from his studio in Princetown, Dartmoor. When he first started, he quickly realised a talent for sculpting in a unique style and found an outlet for expression in endangered animals.
Now he covers a broad set of influences including human form, head-collectables, Dartmoor animals and myths and, of course, still his original muses in endangered species.
“I’ve chosen Nick to join us for his raw and honest approach to endangered species. Sometimes there is no hiding the truth and I wholeheartedly believe in the power of art to evoke action, something our expansion into Global Warrior will result in. I can’t wait to see more…”