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I essentially drag sledges for a living,

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so it doesn't take an awful lot to flummox me intellectually,

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but I'm going to read this question

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from an interview earlier this year:

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"Philosophically, does the constant supply of information

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steal our ability to imagine

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or replace our dreams of achieving?

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After all, if it is being done somewhere by someone,

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and we can participate virtually,

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then why bother leaving the house?"

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I'm usually introduced as a polar explorer.

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I'm not sure that's the most progressive or 21st-century

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of job titles, but I've spent more than two percent now

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of my entire life living in a tent inside the Arctic Circle,

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so I get out of the house a fair bit.

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And in my nature, I guess, I am a doer of things

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more than I am a spectator or a contemplator of things,

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and it's that dichotomy, the gulf between ideas and action

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that I'm going to try and explore briefly.

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The pithiest answer to the question "why?"

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that's been dogging me for the last 12 years

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was credited certainly to this chap, the rakish-looking gentleman

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standing at the back, second from the left,

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George Lee Mallory. Many of you will know his name.

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In 1924 he was last seen disappearing into the clouds

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near the summit of Mt. Everest.

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He may or may not have been the first person to climb Everest,

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more than 30 years before Edmund Hillary.

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No one knows if he got to the top. It's still a mystery.

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But he was credited with coining the phrase, "Because it's there."

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Now I'm not actually sure that he did say that.

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There's very little evidence to suggest it, but what he did say

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is actually far nicer,

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and again, I've printed this. I'm going to read it out.

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"The first question which you will ask

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and which I must try to answer is this:

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What is the use of climbing Mt. Everest?

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And my answer must at once be, it is no use.

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There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.

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Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior

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of the human body at high altitudes,

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and possibly medical men may turn our observation

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to some account for the purposes of aviation,

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but otherwise nothing will come of it.

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We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver,

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and not a gem, nor any coal or iron.

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We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted

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with crops to raise food. So it is no use.

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If you cannot understand that there is something in man

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which responds to the challenge of this mountain

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and goes out to meet it, that the struggle

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is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward,

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then you won't see why we go.

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What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy,

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and joy, after all, is the end of life.

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We don't live to eat and make money.

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We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life.

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That is what life means, and that is what life is for."

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Mallory's argument that leaving the house,

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embarking on these grand adventures is joyful and fun,

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however, doesn't tally that neatly with my own experience.

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The furthest I've ever got away from my front door

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was in the spring of 2004. I still don't know exactly

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what came over me, but my plan was to make

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a solo and unsupported crossing of the Arctic Ocean.

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I planned essentially to walk from the north coast of Russia

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to the North Pole, and then to carry on to the north coast of Canada.

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No one had ever done this. I was 26 at the time.

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A lot of experts were saying it was impossible,

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and my mum certainly wasn't very keen on the idea.

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(Laughter)

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The journey from a small weather station on the north coast

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of Siberia up to my final starting point,

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the edge of the pack ice, the coast of the Arctic Ocean,

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took about five hours, and if anyone watched fearless

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Felix Baumgartner going up, rather than just coming down,

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you'll appreciate the sense of apprehension,

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as I sat in a helicopter thundering north,

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and the sense, I think if anything, of impending doom.

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I sat there wondering what on Earth I had gotten myself into.

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There was a bit of fun, a bit of joy.

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I was 26. I remember sitting there

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looking down at my sledge. I had my skis ready to go,

84
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I had a satellite phone, a pump-action shotgun

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in case I was attacked by a polar bear.

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I remember looking out of the window and seeing the second helicopter.

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We were both thundering through this incredible Siberian dawn,

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and part of me felt a bit like a cross between Jason Bourne

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and Wilfred Thesiger. Part of me

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felt quite proud of myself, but mostly I was just utterly terrified.

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And that journey lasted 10 weeks, 72 days.

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I didn't see anyone else. We took this photo next to the helicopter.

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Beyond that, I didn't see anyone for 10 weeks.

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The North Pole is slap bang in the middle of the sea,

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so I'm traveling over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean.

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NASA described conditions that year as the worst since records began.

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I was dragging 180 kilos of food and fuel and supplies,

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about 400 pounds. The average temperature for the 10 weeks

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was minus 35. Minus 50 was the coldest.

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So again, there wasn't an awful lot of joy or fun to be had.

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One of the magical things about this journey, however,

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is that because I'm walking over the sea,

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over this floating, drifting, shifting crust of ice

104
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that's floating on top of the Arctic Ocean is

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it's an environment that's in a constant state of flux.

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The ice is always moving, breaking up, drifting around,

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refreezing, so the scenery that I saw for nearly 3 months

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was unique to me. No one else will ever, could ever,

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possibly see the views, the vistas, that I saw for 10 weeks.

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And that, I guess, is probably the finest argument for leaving the house.

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I can try to tell you what it was like,

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but you'll never know what it was like,

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and the more I try to explain that I felt lonely,

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I was the only human being in 5.4 million square-miles,

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it was cold, nearly minus 75 with windchill on a bad day,

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the more words fall short, and I'm unable to do it justice.

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And it seems to me, therefore, that the doing,

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you know, to try to experience, to engage, to endeavor,

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rather than to watch and to wonder, that's where

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the real meat of life is to be found,

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the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days.

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And I would add a cautionary note here, however.

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In my experience, there is something addictive

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about tasting life at the very edge of what's humanly possible.

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Now I don't just mean in the field of

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daft macho Edwardian style derring-do,

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but also in the fields of pancreatic cancer,

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there is something addictive about this, and in my case,

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I think polar expeditions are perhaps not that far removed

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from having a crack habit.

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I can't explain quite how good it is until you've tried it,

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but it has the capacity to burn up all the money I can get my hands on,

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to ruin every relationship I've ever had,

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so be careful what you wish for.

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Mallory postulated that there is something in man

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that responds to the challenge of the mountain,

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and I wonder if that's the case whether there's something

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in the challenge itself, in the endeavor, and particularly

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in the big, unfinished, chunky challenges that face humanity

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that call out to us, and in my experience that's certainly the case.

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There is one unfinished challenge

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that's been calling out to me for most of my adult life.

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Many of you will know the story.

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This is a photo of Captain Scott and his team.

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Scott set out just over a hundred years ago to try

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to become the first person to reach the South Pole.

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No one knew what was there. It was utterly unmapped

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at the time. We knew more about the surface of the moon

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than we did about the heart of Antarctica.

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Scott, as many of you will know, was beaten to it

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by Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team,

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who used dogs and dogsleds. Scott's team were on foot,

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all five of them wearing harnesses and dragging around sledges,

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and they arrived at the pole to find the Norwegian flag already there,

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I'd imagine pretty bitter and demoralized.

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All five of them turned and started walking back to the coast

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and all five died on that return journey.

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There is a sort of misconception nowadays that

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it's all been done in the fields of exploration and adventure.

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When I talk about Antarctica, people often say,

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"Hasn't, you know, that's interesting,

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hasn't that Blue Peter presenter just done it on a bike?"

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Or, "That's nice. You know, my grandmother's going

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on a cruise to Antarctica next year. You know.

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Is there a chance you'll see her there?"

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(Laughter)

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But Scott's journey remains unfinished.

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No one has ever walked from the very coast of Antarctica

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to the South Pole and back again.

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It is, arguably, the most audacious endeavor

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of that Edwardian golden age of exploration,

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and it seemed to me high time, given everything

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we have figured out in the century since

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from scurvy to solar panels, that it was high time

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someone had a go at finishing the job.

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So that's precisely what I'm setting out to do.

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This time next year, in October, I'm leading a team of three.

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It will take us about four months to make this return journey.

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That's the scale. The red line is obviously halfway to the pole.

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We have to turn around and come back again.

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I'm well aware of the irony of telling you that we will be

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blogging and tweeting. You'll be able to live

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vicariously and virtually through this journey

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in a way that no one has ever before.

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And it'll also be a four-month chance for me to finally

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come up with a pithy answer to the question, "Why?"

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And our lives today are safer and more comfortable

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than they have ever been. There certainly isn't much call

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for explorers nowadays. My career advisor at school

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never mentioned it as an option.

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If I wanted to know, for example,

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how many stars were in the Milky Way,

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how old those giant heads on Easter Island were,

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most of you could find that out right now

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without even standing up.

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And yet, if I've learned anything in nearly 12 years now

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of dragging heavy things around cold places,

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it is that true, real inspiration and growth

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only comes from adversity and from challenge,

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from stepping away from what's comfortable and familiar

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and stepping out into the unknown.

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In life, we all have tempests to ride and poles to walk to,

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and I think metaphorically speaking, at least,

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we could all benefit from getting outside the house

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a little more often, if only we could summon up the courage.

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I certainly would implore you to open the door just a little bit

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and take a look at what's outside.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)