PolarExplorers

08/02/2024

DROPPING SOON! Dates for March 2025 Svalbard Ski Pulk adventure.

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago that’s deep inside the Arctic Circle.

Despite its location, Svalbard is easily accessible via the international airport in Longyearbyen (LYR), the northernmost continuously occupied town in the world.

And while the Arctic, mountain strewn backcountry is thrilling and challenging to explore by ski, Longyearbyen offers first class comfort and convenience in lodging, dining, and shopping.

It’s the best of both worlds. A North Pole adjacent ski journey and a lovely stay in modern Arctic comfort.

Message us today to claim your spot on the presale team roster!

07/09/2024

What’s the longest you’ve gone without setting foot on land?

It had been 28 days for us when these photos were taken during the final stretch of our Greenland Crossing.

It’s hard to overstate just how overjoyed we were to set foot on (and hug!) a rock 😆

We had just wrapped up a difficult day of skiing at 2am, and were riding waves of concurrent excitement and fatigue as we pitched our camp along a beautiful finger-like moraine.

After 28 days of trekking over a mountain of snow and ice, the aroma of dirt and rocks was curiously strong 🤔

It was just about as bizarre to us as getting to take our first shower in a month (two days from then).

These were very special moments for us. Some real trail magic.

06/06/2024

Our teams are back home after successfully traversing the Greenland ice cap! They had some thrilling highs and many challenging lows. Their journey was nothing short of epic.

You can read what a day in their life looked like here: https://www.polarexplorers.com/dispatches-and-blogs

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05/01/2024

Both of our Greenland icecap crossing teams have officially started their journey!

Check out our blog to follow along with their progress over the next few weeks. https://www.polarexplorers.com/dispatches-and-blogs 🇬🇱

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04/25/2024

South Pole & Vinson: Only 2 spaces left!

Don’t miss out on your chance to join the ultimate Antarctic expedition combo. Ski to the South Pole on a Last Degree Expedition and scale Antarctica’s tallest peak, Mt. Vinson, all in the same month!

Link in bio.

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02/15/2024

During expeditions people usually think about food, and also the people they love. Happy Valentines Day!

02/09/2024

‼️ Calling all Polar Explorers ‼️ We have 2 spots left on our Greenland Icecap Crossing this spring. Contact us for more details or visit the link in our bio.

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01/14/2024

Our team has reached the South Pole! Check out our blog for the full report.

After skiing 9.5 nautical miles today we are very excited to share that Arne, Claus and Tay reached the South Pole at around 4:30 PM. Wohoo!! Way to go Arne and Claus! It was an overcast day, with light winds and temperatures around -20C. Without blowing snow it is possible to see the station from a...

01/11/2024

Arne, Clause and Tay have passed S 89.30 as they ski to the South Pole. Pulling a sled across Antarctica's polar plateau is always incredible but on this expedition Arne, who is blind, is inspiring a world of adventurers. Read daily dispatches from Arne, Claus and Tay here: https://www.polarexplorers.com/dispatches-and-blogs

and read more about Arne here: https://blindpioner.dk/wp/

Get helpful tips and advice; take an armchair adventure; keep tabs on our current expeditions. Get all that and more from this blogs and dispatches page.

11/17/2023

Our Shackleton Crossing team completed their mountaineering traverse of South Georgia yesterday while being tormented by incredibly challenging conditions! Catch up on our blog posts to relive their amazing journey across "the Galapagos of the South Seas".

Our hardy team seized an opportunity to pay homage to Sir Ernest Shackleton at South Georgia Island's most hallowed grounds, the retired whaling settlement of Grytviken. In 1916, Grytviken served as the nerve center for Shackleton's painstaking and ultimately successful efforts to organize the rescu...

11/09/2023

New Blog Series! Our South Georgia Island Shackleton Crossing team has just embarked on day one of the expedition. Follow along for daily updates on their adventure in "The Galapagos of the Southern Ocean."

Welcome to the PolarExplorers Shackleton Crossing Dispatches! Follow along for daily updates on our team as they embark on an amazing voyage to and mountaineering traverse of South Georgia Island. Today was big. The team officially set sail for South Georgia Island, and they hope to arrive by Monday...

10/25/2023

It’s that time of the year… We are proud and excited to announce the application period for the 2023-2024 Matthew Henson Scholarship is LIVE!

The PolarExplorers' Matthew Henson Scholarship honors the legacy of polar explorer Matthew Henson (1866-1955) by inspiring people of color - particularly emerging outdoor guides or people with current positions or future goals of leadership in the outdoor industry - to embrace cold weather adventures, and to build the necessary skill set to thrive (and not just survive) during cold weather expedition travel.

This two-year scholarship, awarded annually, provides two consecutive years of fully subsidized participation on PolarExplorer's Polar Shakedown Training. The first year focuses on skill development and an overview of cold weather expedition travel. The second year dives into leadership development and hands-on experience guiding in the extreme cold.

This scholarship is open to all people of color who are passionate about wilderness travel and outdoor leadership, who aspire to have a career in the outdoor industry, and who are looking to increase their skill set to include cold weather camping and leadership. Qualified applicants should have previous experience with backcountry camping, the desire to inspire others, a strong commitment to developing positive relationships, an appetite for a steep learning curve, and a level of fitness that can accommodate long days of hard work.

Applications are due by December 1, 2023. The scholarship recipient will be notified by December 15, 2023. The dates for the training are February 1-6, 2024.

For more information visit https://www.polarexplorers.com/matthew-henson-scholarship or contact Annie: [email protected] ~ +1-847-256-4409

10/19/2023

The South Pole: a Wonder of the World?

Stonehenge; the Roman Colosseum; Petra in Jordan. For many travelers, sites like these "wonders of the world" are a must-see and we get it! They have a combination of culture and history that make them fascinating and they are relatively easy to access. Antarctica on the other hand is not easy to access. It defines the word remote. It's separated from the rest of the world by a massive and remarkable ocean. Its environment is so extreme that there is no indigenous human population. And yet, if you're like us at PE, the pull to go there is impossible to ignore.

We're passionate about the polar regions and we'd love to help you experience them. Give us a call and share your Antarctic dreams with us. We'd love to help you turn that dream into reality. Or if you're thinking about any other polar expedition whether it's Greenland, the North Pole, in the tracks of Shackleton on South Georgia Island, or across Europe's largest glacier in Iceland, we want to hear from you!

Our South Pole Last Degree Expedition runs January 1-16, 2024.

06/19/2023

We love Antarctica. Whether we are guiding our South Pole Last Degree Ski Expedition, climbing Mt. Vinson or skiing all the way from the coast to the Pole we are continually learning new things about the “White Continent”.

Here are a few of our favorite little known facts:

•Antarctica has no official time zone. Each basecamp (there are over 70) uses the time zone of the country that operates the basecamp’s logistics.

•Antarctica is home to the saltiest body of water on Earth. The Don Juan Pond located at the base of the Trans Antarctic Mountain Range is 40% salt!

•The Polar Plateau air is cold enough to make an instant cloud from boiling water. (See pic #3!)

•Antarctica’s most common land animal is the worm. In particular the Nematode worm, which lives in the “dry valleys” of Antarctica, which are considered the most extreme desert ecosystems on the planet.

Our South Pole Last Degree Expedition runs January 1-January 16, 2024 with the option of climbing Mt. Vinson afterwards. There are also a few remaining spaces on our South Pole Flights.

Message us or visit polarexplorers.com/south-pole-last-degree for more info.

05/26/2023

Our guide has just returned home from a custom 10-day culturally immersive dogsledding expedition in Greenland. The group of 4 spent their days exploring the traditional lifestyle of the northern Greenlandic Inuit.

“The Qaanaaq region at this time of the year was ice as far as the eye can see, punctuated only by immeasurably large icebergs, having lived on the inland ice field for only just less than an eternity, defenestrated into the ocean and held-fast by the sea ice, soon to be set free by the coming of summertime. We traveled by dog team on handmade sleds across the sea ice, hunting seal, ptarmigan and polar bear, moving slowly and taking time to stop and talk about love and loss, hardship and freedom, the foundational importance of the sea ice… The nutritional value of seal liver… The evolutionary importance of a narwhals tusk… We were 4 people from very different walks of life, connecting and taking care of one another, learning from one another’s differences, and drinking some damn fine single malt along the way.” -

04/14/2023

That’s a wrap on our Svalbard ski & dogsled expedition!

This trip was one for the books, without a doubt. Our team was out for 6 days and covered a challenging 52 miles.
 
The group certainly had a well-rounded expedition with a wide range of weather conditions and terrain that characterize Svalbard. They had fresh snow, steep climbs, white-outs, sunshine and everything in between, including hours in a dripping tent that is sure to be a fond memory. 
 
Thanks to everyone for their adventurous spirit!

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04/06/2023

After a quick turnaround, our team is packing again for their next expedition in Svalbard. Tomorrow morning they will embark on a 6-day dog sled supported ski trip. We have two teams of dogs and a group of 8.

Looking forward to another great expedition!

📸: & .izabeth

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04/03/2023

We have just returned from our Polar Shakedown! We had an awesome 3 days just outside of Longyearbyen, where we got to test out our new skills in variable weather with heavy snow and high winds.

Many reindeer were spotted and luckily no polar bears. We even got the chance to celebrate a birthday!

Thanks to everyone for a successful Shakedown.

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02/10/2023

That’s a wrap on our Polar Shakedown. Our group experienced 50 degree temperature swings and saw a low of -40 degrees on their coldest night.

Many participants got on skis for the very first time and we were very excited to see the steady progression of cold weather camping skills.

The team learned how to thrive, and not just survive in Arctic temperatures. Thanks to everyone who joined!

02/02/2023

Our Polar Shakedown training is off to a great start. With day one of skiing under our belt, we are learning a lot about extreme cold weather expeditions and getting more comfortable in subzero temperatures.

01/30/2023

Huge congratulations to our South Pole Last Degree & Vinson team!

Our group successfully reached the South Pole on January 12th after enjoying some beautiful Antarctic weather along the way.

After a few days at Union Glacier, our Vinson team headed out for their next great undertaking. There were moments when a summit looked unachievable due to weather, but the team prevailed and was able to reach the summit on January 22nd.

Safe to say it’s been a successful month in Antarctica!

01/05/2023

Our South Pole Last Degree/ Vinson Combo team is currently at Union Glacier awaiting their flight to 89°S! Keep an eye on our Dispatches to stay up-to-date on their progress.

(January 4th, 2023) Due to adverse weather conditions near the South Pole preventing a flight to the Last Degree, the team enjoyed a beautiful day at Union Glacier Camp. It began with watching 26 skydivers jump over the camp. Truly an unusual sight. In the afternoon, the team packed their sleds and....

12/26/2022

The Joy Trip Project is excited to announce the 2nd recipient of the Matthew Henson Memorial Polar Explorer Scholarship. In partnership with Polar Explorers, an Illinois-based guiding company, we a…

11/30/2022

We’re a month away from kicking off our South Pole Last Degree expedition and we couldn’t be more ready to take on the Antarctic plateau and Vinson Massif.

We begin our journey at 89°S; 60 nautical miles, or 111km, from the South Pole. Over the following 8-10 days, we will pull our sleds across the polar landscape. After completing the last degree, we will head to Vinson, Antarctica’s highest peak.

Stay updated on the expedition by keeping an eye on our page!

11/11/2022

Pulling tires is a great way to train for a polar expedition. Check out our new tire pulling tutorial for tips on how to make the most out of your tire-pulling sessions.

Check out this tutorial for tips on how to incorporate tire pulling into your expedition training.Links referenced in this video:How To Make A Tire Rig - htt...

09/13/2022

The recent deaths of Queen Elizabeth ll and Mikhail Gorbachev, two heads of state who touched the world of polar exploration in their own ways, reminds me of the importance of recognition in adventure; and not in the way you might think. Read more at the link below...

The recent deaths of Queen Elizabeth ll and Mikhail Gorbachev, two heads of state who touched the world of polar exploration in their own ways, reminds me of the importance of recognition in adventure; and not in the way you might think. Queen Elizabeth ll was the patron of at least two polar expedi...

08/22/2022

Do you use a bivy sack as a part of your sleeping kit? Some of our guides do and some prefer not. This and lots of other sleeping considerations with our guide CP.

PolarExplorers' Guide Chris Paustian shares his sleeping system and tips for sleeping comfortably in the extreme cold: an important skill for a polar expedit...

08/12/2022

You may have heard the news today about the disheartening evidence that the is warming faster than previously thought…

If you listened to NPR or BBC news on August 12, 2022, or any other major news source, you likely heard the disheartening evidence that the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet. That's scary data for people like me who love the Arctic. Previous thinking was that it was war...

07/12/2022

Whether you are an experienced adventurer or a novice, our Vatnajökull Ski Traverse will surprise you with its beauty and the thrill it provides when you are pushed out of your comfort zone.

Our next trip will be headed out in May 2023, DM if you are interested in hearing more!

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06/09/2022

No better way to cap off a ski traverse across Europe’s largest glacier than a dip in the magnificent Sky Lagoon.

An incredible Icelandic experience just a short distance from the heart of Reykjavik.
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