What is Ice Warrior?
Develop, Discover, Deliver and Engage others in caring for this wonderful world.
At the tender age of 16 I had, honestly, never read a book from cover to cover. Thrust on to a make-a-man-out-of-you Outward Bound Course by my school to "try and sort me out" in the depths of a fierce Lake District winter, I found a source of real inspiration. A comprehensive library of derring-do and epic adventures from the "heroic era" of exploration, at the turn of the last century. I started reading whole books from cover to cover and, to this day, I haven't stopped.
Jump to 2001 and although I was working for two fire brigades at the time and feeling that my presence on Earth had some purpose (see - https://www.ice-warrior.com/post/how-i-got-into-this-1), I wanted more and I wanted to include as much of my exploring as possible. So, the thought occurred to me, wouldn't it be a great thing to emulate this "heroic era" that so profoundly inspired me, when I was younger.
In those days, they called for volunteers from all walks of life and echelons of society to enrol on expeditions, often not knowing where they were going, what they would face and for how long.
We do the same, today, with complete novices, except these days, we pretty much know what we’re facing and it would be wholly foolhardy not to train them thoroughly and properly in preparation for their worthwhile adventures.
Just as during the golden era, our resulting expeditions are all about real exploration and discovery and in many ways, especially with the rapidly changing world we live on, you could argue that they are more important, now, than ever before.
We don’t pretend to be scientists but are directed to gather what they term “vital data” by some of the best scientists all over the world and I don’t say things like that lightly.
So far we have trained over 400 people to be truly polar competent, conducted 7 major polar expeditions, and amassed data that has really made a difference and a contribution to our knowledge of this wonderful Earth. We are developing ordinary people to discover change in every way we come across it (species, pollution, climate, topography, etc.) and deliver this to not only to the scientific community but also the everyday ordinary person in a way we can all understand. These are ordinary people achieving extraordinary things for the betterment of everybody.
My enduring wish is that by doing this we, as humankind, might stand a chance of surviving on this world, a little longer.
Look out for Jim’s public talks - contact sam@ice-warrior.com
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