Our Team

Eric Philips

www.icetrek.com

Icetrek Expeditions offers you an unparalleled opportunity to take your adventurous spirit to the edge. Specializing in the polar regions, they offer expeditions, services and products relating to high latitude adventure and logistics.

Ben Fogle

www.benfogle.com
Ben Fogle is a Presenter, Writer and Adventurer. His achievements include racing 160 miles across the Sahara desert in the notorious Marathon Des Sables. He has rowed the Atlantic Ocean in 49 days and crossed Antarctica in a foot race to the South Pole. He has presented numerous programme’s including BBC’s Animal Park, Wild In Africa, Countryfile, Crufts, One Man and His Dog and Extreme Dreams. He writes regularly for the Sunday Telegraph and the Independent and has written four bestselling books. He is an ambassador for WWF, Medcins Sans Frontier and Tusk, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the President of the Campaign for National Park’s.

James Cracknell

www.jamescracknell.com
James Cracknell is one of Britain’s most successful athletes of all time, with two Olympic Golds and six World Championship titles. His Olympic rowing finals – in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 – were epic battles, won by inches, that have gone down in history as two of the most watched sporting contests.

Tom Smitheringdale

www.onemanepic.com
On the 26th of February 2010, Australian Tom Smitheringale set out from McClintock Inlet at the northernmost edge of Canada with the aim of reaching the geographic North Pole solo and unsupported. A feat described by the world’s greatest climber Reinhold Messner as ’10 times more difficult than climbing Mt Everest’ and one that has only been achieved by 2 people in the history of polar exploration. An epic battle by one man against blizzards, bears and broken ice, covering 800km in under 60 days on the ice. By every measure that defines an outdoor challenge as epic – scenery, physical demand, and sense of accomplishment – this solo expedition to the North Pole qualifies.

Johnny Davidson

www.johnnysbigclimb.wordpress.com
This is the blog by Johnny Davison, where has been posting regular updates, tales and pictures of his journey guiding 19 people from Nepal to the summit of Mt Everest. His brother Ben will be following the expeditions progress online while recovering from cancer in New Zealand.

Kevin Biggar

www.kevinbiggar.co.nz
Kevin Biggar delivers dynamic and engaging speeches that will motivate, inspire and entertain any audience.

Kevin’s ‘boy’s own’ adventures, rowing the Atlantic and walking to the South Pole, have a universal appeal to people of all ages and walks of life while his background as a strategy consultant enables him to communicate particularly well with business audiences.

Glen Singleman

www.baseclimb.com
BASEClimbing is a combination of BASEjumping and climbing, especially mountaineering.

The BASEClimb dream began in 1991 when Glenn Singleman and Nic Feteris teamed up to do what most people said was impossible, to climb a Himalayan mountain and BASEjump from near the top.

Wade “Captain” Tink- Logistics Manager

The Captain is heading up the Operations HQ while we’re on the Ice. He’ll be the primary contact for logistics, actions-on, expedition spokesman and expedition strategy consultation. He’s a former Australian Army Officer who’s served overseas and has been good mates with us for over 10 years.

Sarah, Eric & Matty- Polar Guru

http://www.northwinds-arctic.com/
We headed up to Iqaluit (Baffin Island Canada) in Feb 2011, to spend a month training with this incredible Polar family. Matty is internationally recognized as the top woman polar guide in the world- she’s journeyed to both Poles setting several very impressive world records. Sarah has skiied to the North and South Pole 4 times and Eric has kite skied on expeditions over 11000km! Apart from training us up, they are also offering valuable advice on all facets of the expedition.

Christian Eide- Polar Guru

www.latitude.no
In 2010, Norwegian Christian Eide reached the South Pole after just 24 days skiing solo, beating the previous record by more than two weeks. Christian is offering valuable advice on all facets of the expedition.

Hannah McKeand- Polar Guru

www.hannahmckeand.com
In 2006 Hannah McKeand set a new world record for skiing from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole a 690 mile journey she completed in just 39 days, 9 hours and 33 minutes. She is now planning to become the first ever woman to ski solo to the North Pole. Hannah is offering valuable mentoring & advice on all facets of the expedition.

Mia Ballenden- Dietican

bodyfusion.com.au
Based on valuable lessons on prior expeditions, combined with Mia’s study and experience in sports dietetics, she has designed one of the most scientifically advanced polar diets to date. Each day’s calories have been carefully planned out to ensure the optimal level of protein/ fat/ carbohydrates are consumed to ensure weight is kept to an absolute minimum.

Jen Hamilton- Exercise Physiologist

Prior injuries and training 30hrs a week (to prepare ourselves for the rigours of polar travel) has resulted in a number of muscle imbalances in our body. Fortunately we’ve been working with Jen over a number of months to rectify these issues and stabilise our core muscles needed for Crossing the Ice

Lil Shatrov- Physiotherapist

Training 30hrs a week to prepare ourselves for the rigours of polar travel has resulted in a few injuries. If left untreated, these could have blown up into major issues. Having Lil on the Crossing the Ice team has been huge in ensuring we minimise damage and get back training as soon as possible!

Dr Ken Crichton – Sports Physician

www.nsosmc.com.au/
Dr Crichton is overseeing our muscular skeletal conditioning and will be on call should any injuries crop up whilst Crossing the Ice. He has been a full time Sports Physician since 1982 and was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for services to Australian sport having completed the role as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Head of Athlete care for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He was awarded Australian Dance Community Honours in 1993 and a Citation for Distinguished Service to The Australian College of Sports Physicians in 2