Pen Hadow – polar explorer

Pen Hadow – polar explorer

The explorer is risking his life in the Arctic again, this time for all of us. Cole Moretonin reports.

In 2004, Pen Hadow became the first person to trek to the North Pole alone, without being resupplied on the way. That meant swimming through unimaginably cold waters, fighting frostbite and risking encounters with polar bears. Just eight months later, he made a similar trip to the South Pole. Now he is back in the Arctic again, preparing for an expedition he says is even more ambitious. Explorers are confident, driven individuals. They have to be. This time, however, there is far more at stake. Pen and two colleagues will set out on a three-month, 1,000-kilometre trek to the North Pole, taking detailed measurements of the thickness and density of the ice. Nobody has ever done this before, and he knows the results will be of vital importance to the scientific community. This will be the truest picture yet of what global warming is doing to the ice that covers the polar region.

Pen is married to Mary, a horsewoman, who says he has a ‘spine of steel’ and who shares his love of the outdoors. She helps to run his polar guide business and claims to be more worried about him when he’s at home: ‘He’s in more danger driving along the motorway because I know that in his head he’s somewhere in the Arctic.’ For fun, she once competed against him in a famous mountain event in which riders on horseback race against people on foot. Mary and her horse finished an hour ahead of Pen.

Pen and Mary live in the country with their two children. ‘It’s much harder to be away from them this time,’ he admits. ‘They were one and five when I last went, and I made a mistake in the way I said goodbye. I thought it would be a good idea to say to my son, “You’re the man of the house now, look after your mum and your sister.” He absolutely took it to heart (line 40), asking his mum how she was all the time, but the strain eventually became too much. While it was well intentioned, it was an unfair thing to do.’ For similar reasons he is planning to have very little contact with them while in the Arctic. ‘If you call them, you remind them how far away you are.’

He is spending these last days before departure preparing his kit, obsessively. ‘Out on the ice, one is virtually incapable of mending things or doing anything that isn’t absolutely straightforward,’ he says. With him will be Ann Daniels, one of the world’s leading polar explorers, and the expedition photographer, Martin Hartley. They will be supported by a crew of six, flying in supplies. Being part of a team is actually more stressful to someone with his mentality, says Pen, and something else is on his mind too. ‘I’m going to be 47 on Thursday. I’ve done far less training than I’m comfortable with.’ Why? ‘Organisational things always seem more urgent. So I’m almost fearful of what I’m going to ask of myself.’

Pen believes his mission reconnects exploration with the search for knowledge that drove previous generations into the unknown. ‘Making it to the North Pole was ultimately a personal ambition,’ he admits, ‘and of limited value to anyone beyond the polar adventuring community. This time, scientists will profit from the data, and we’re creating a platform in which to engage as many people as possible in what’s happening in the Arctic Ocean. This is important work, and nobody can do it but us,’ he says. ‘Our skills, which are otherwise bizarre and socially redundant, have become hyper-relevant. Suddenly, we’re socially useful again.’