Pen Hadow

Bio

Pen rose to international fame when, after 15 years of unrelenting effort, he finally achieved his extraordinary goal to become the first person to trek solo, without resupply, from Canada to the North Geographic Pole – a feat which has not been repeated and thought comparable by some to making the first ascent of Everest, solo and without oxygen. Within months he went on to become the only Briton to have trekked, without resupply both the North and South Poles.

Pen is now dedicated to improving scientific and public understanding of the natural world. In 2009, he founded Geo Mission, a pioneering environmental sponsorship organisation, which engages global businesses with the high profile work of scientists addressing the major environmental issues of our time. For example, Catlin Arctic Survey 2010, undertook vital research into how greenhouse gases could affect the marine life of the Arctic Ocean. This built on the work of Catlin Arctic Survey 2009, which investigated the timeframe for total seasonal sea ice loss on the Arctic Ocean.

THE EARLY YEARS

The tale began in the early 1960′s with a bizarre ‘polar conditioning programme’ overseen by Enid Wigley, who decades earlier had been  nanny to Scott of the Antarctic’s son, Peter (later Sir Peter Scott who founded the Worldwide Fund for Nature, aka the WWF).

Years later, with his father’s encouragement, the same conditioning programme was applied to Pen at his home in the Scottish Highlands. Nanny Wigley remained a family retainer, and continued to fill Pen’s head with tales of Scott and the other great explorers – ‘the Antarctic Boys’ as Pen came to know them.

His father also told many stories of the sporting prowess and great deeds of Pen’s illustrious ancestors, as far back as Tudor times. Among them was Douglas Hadow, a member of the seven-strong party led by Edward Whymper that made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 – and one of the four who fell to their deaths on the descent.

Evidence of Pen’s unusual mindset and innate interest in exploring his limits abounds, but an example was when, aged 7, he decided to find out how long he could hang upside-down by his legs in an apple tree. Four hours later, his head swollen, he was discovered and forcibly removed by his shocked mother.

He discovered early the benefits that come with a high degree of compliance to sports training programmes, and applied these to his own extra-curricular endeavours.

Aged 15 he devised a punishing training schedule to enable him to attempt a traditional school marathon, which in 1977 was long before marathons had become a public participation sport.

He completed the route in three hours and later learned it had not been done since 1927, fifty years earlier. It’s now become a major feature in Harrow School’s sporting calendar.

LEADER OF MEN AND WOMEN

In the 1980′s Pen became the youngest-ever executive at Mark McCormack’s Sports Organisation, the renowned International Management Group (aka IMG), where he promoted the talents of international sports stars and sports events.

A decade later, in 1995, following a series of successful polar expeditions, he set up the world’s first specialist polar guide service, opening up the Arctic and Antarctic to ‘regular people with his pioneering travel business, The Polar Travel Company. His vision was to empower people from all walks of life to fulfil their polar ambitions.

In 1997 he devised and organised the first all-women’s expedition [completed in a relay format) to the North Geographic Pole. Twenty women, with no previous polar experience, and from all backgrounds and age groups, were led in the field by professional women guides to realise their dreams and walk into The Guinness Book of Records. In so doing, he changed the perception of what many thought was impossible in the polar regions. www.stuff.co.uk/media/polar-relay/index.html