Solo to the North Pole: Pen Hadow

Pen Hadow appears by arrangement with DBA Speakers www.dbaspeakers.comIn 2003, Pen Hadow became the first person to trek solo and without resupply from Canada to the North Geographic Pole - 770 kilometres across shifting sea ice, open water, and temperatures of minus 40. It is a feat that has never been repeated, and almost certainly never will be.But this is not the story of a single expedition. It is the story of a promise made to a dying father and fifteen years of refusing to give up. Pen joins Hugh to tell the full story: from a childhood toughened by the nanny who once looked after Captain Scott's son, to the moment he fell through the ice without his immersion suit just days from the Pole. He describes the paralysing effect of cold on decision-making, the protocols for surviving a polar bear encounter while swimming between ice floes, and why the hardest challenge of all was not physical - but managing the wild swings of emotion that come with being completely alone.He also explains what his years on the Arctic ice revealed about the disappearing sea ice, a discovery that has defined the second half of his life, and one he now shares with audiences around the world.Pen Hadow's book Solo is out now.