WEBVTT

00:00:00.605 --> 00:00:02.359
I essentially drag sledges for a living,

00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:05.543
so it doesn't take an awful lot to flummox me intellectually,

00:00:05.543 --> 00:00:07.085
but I'm going to read this question

00:00:07.085 --> 00:00:09.552
from an interview earlier this year:

00:00:09.552 --> 00:00:12.944
"Philosophically, does the constant supply of information

00:00:12.944 --> 00:00:15.679
steal our ability to imagine

00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.495
or replace our dreams of achieving?

00:00:18.495 --> 00:00:21.281
After all, if it is being done somewhere by someone,

00:00:21.281 --> 00:00:23.584
and we can participate virtually,

00:00:23.584 --> 00:00:27.085
then why bother leaving the house?"

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:27.085 --> 00:00:29.734
I'm usually introduced as a polar explorer.

00:00:29.734 --> 00:00:32.035
I'm not sure that's the most progressive or 21st-century

00:00:32.035 --> 00:00:36.801
of job titles, but I've spent more than two percent now

00:00:36.801 --> 00:00:40.529
of my entire life living in a tent inside the Arctic Circle,

00:00:40.529 --> 00:00:44.056
so I get out of the house a fair bit.

00:00:44.056 --> 00:00:47.603
And in my nature, I guess, I am a doer of things

00:00:47.603 --> 00:00:52.095
more than I am a spectator or a contemplator of things,

00:00:52.095 --> 00:00:56.319
and it's that dichotomy, the gulf between ideas and action

00:00:56.319 --> 00:00:59.185
that I'm going to try and explore briefly.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:59.185 --> 00:01:02.518
The pithiest answer to the question "why?"

00:01:02.518 --> 00:01:04.886
that's been dogging me for the last 12 years

00:01:04.886 --> 00:01:07.670
was credited certainly to this chap, the rakish-looking gentleman

00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:09.926
standing at the back, second from the left,

00:01:09.926 --> 00:01:12.564
George Lee Mallory. Many of you will know his name.

00:01:12.564 --> 00:01:16.553
In 1924 he was last seen disappearing into the clouds

00:01:16.553 --> 00:01:18.227
near the summit of Mt. Everest.

00:01:18.227 --> 00:01:21.482
He may or may not have been the first person to climb Everest,

00:01:21.482 --> 00:01:23.458
more than 30 years before Edmund Hillary.

00:01:23.458 --> 00:01:26.154
No one knows if he got to the top. It's still a mystery.

00:01:26.154 --> 00:01:29.223
But he was credited with coining the phrase, "Because it's there."

00:01:29.223 --> 00:01:31.913
Now I'm not actually sure that he did say that.

00:01:31.913 --> 00:01:34.239
There's very little evidence to suggest it, but what he did say

00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.719
is actually far nicer,

00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.773
and again, I've printed this. I'm going to read it out.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:39.773 --> 00:01:41.727
"The first question which you will ask

00:01:41.727 --> 00:01:44.224
and which I must try to answer is this:

00:01:44.224 --> 00:01:48.000
What is the use of climbing Mt. Everest?

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.688
And my answer must at once be, it is no use.

00:01:50.688 --> 00:01:54.449
There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.

00:01:54.449 --> 00:01:56.322
Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior

00:01:56.322 --> 00:01:58.404
of the human body at high altitudes,

00:01:58.404 --> 00:02:01.068
and possibly medical men may turn our observation

00:02:01.068 --> 00:02:04.097
to some account for the purposes of aviation,

00:02:04.097 --> 00:02:06.297
but otherwise nothing will come of it.

00:02:06.297 --> 00:02:08.683
We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver,

00:02:08.683 --> 00:02:11.282
and not a gem, nor any coal or iron.

00:02:11.282 --> 00:02:14.081
We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted

00:02:14.081 --> 00:02:18.223
with crops to raise food. So it is no use.

00:02:18.223 --> 00:02:19.882
If you cannot understand that there is something in man

00:02:19.882 --> 00:02:22.554
which responds to the challenge of this mountain

00:02:22.554 --> 00:02:25.777
and goes out to meet it, that the struggle

00:02:25.777 --> 00:02:30.231
is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward,

00:02:30.231 --> 00:02:33.479
then you won't see why we go.

00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:36.608
What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy,

00:02:36.608 --> 00:02:39.542
and joy, after all, is the end of life.

00:02:39.542 --> 00:02:41.745
We don't live to eat and make money.

00:02:41.745 --> 00:02:44.207
We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life.

00:02:44.207 --> 00:02:49.115
That is what life means, and that is what life is for."

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:49.115 --> 00:02:52.569
Mallory's argument that leaving the house,

00:02:52.569 --> 00:02:55.012
embarking on these grand adventures is joyful and fun,

00:02:55.012 --> 00:02:58.918
however, doesn't tally that neatly with my own experience.

00:02:58.918 --> 00:03:02.320
The furthest I've ever got away from my front door

00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:05.464
was in the spring of 2004. I still don't know exactly

00:03:05.464 --> 00:03:07.971
what came over me, but my plan was to make

00:03:07.971 --> 00:03:12.214
a solo and unsupported crossing of the Arctic Ocean.

00:03:12.214 --> 00:03:14.771
I planned essentially to walk from the north coast of Russia

00:03:14.771 --> 00:03:18.103
to the North Pole, and then to carry on to the north coast of Canada.

00:03:18.103 --> 00:03:21.011
No one had ever done this. I was 26 at the time.

00:03:21.011 --> 00:03:23.263
A lot of experts were saying it was impossible,

00:03:23.263 --> 00:03:26.617
and my mum certainly wasn't very keen on the idea.

00:03:26.617 --> 00:03:28.970
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:28.970 --> 00:03:31.896
The journey from a small weather station on the north coast

00:03:31.896 --> 00:03:34.081
of Siberia up to my final starting point,

00:03:34.081 --> 00:03:36.633
the edge of the pack ice, the coast of the Arctic Ocean,

00:03:36.633 --> 00:03:40.094
took about five hours, and if anyone watched fearless

00:03:40.094 --> 00:03:43.406
Felix Baumgartner going up, rather than just coming down,

00:03:43.406 --> 00:03:46.010
you'll appreciate the sense of apprehension,

00:03:46.010 --> 00:03:49.322
as I sat in a helicopter thundering north,

00:03:49.322 --> 00:03:51.979
and the sense, I think if anything, of impending doom.

00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:55.669
I sat there wondering what on Earth I had gotten myself into.

00:03:55.669 --> 00:03:57.713
There was a bit of fun, a bit of joy.

00:03:57.713 --> 00:03:59.554
I was 26. I remember sitting there

00:03:59.554 --> 00:04:02.146
looking down at my sledge. I had my skis ready to go,

00:04:02.146 --> 00:04:04.387
I had a satellite phone, a pump-action shotgun

00:04:04.387 --> 00:04:06.410
in case I was attacked by a polar bear.

00:04:06.410 --> 00:04:08.701
I remember looking out of the window and seeing the second helicopter.

00:04:08.701 --> 00:04:12.187
We were both thundering through this incredible Siberian dawn,

00:04:12.187 --> 00:04:15.052
and part of me felt a bit like a cross between Jason Bourne

00:04:15.052 --> 00:04:17.944
and Wilfred Thesiger. Part of me

00:04:17.944 --> 00:04:24.266
felt quite proud of myself, but mostly I was just utterly terrified.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:24.266 --> 00:04:26.356
And that journey lasted 10 weeks, 72 days.

00:04:26.356 --> 00:04:28.855
I didn't see anyone else. We took this photo next to the helicopter.

00:04:28.855 --> 00:04:31.414
Beyond that, I didn't see anyone for 10 weeks.

00:04:31.414 --> 00:04:33.356
The North Pole is slap bang in the middle of the sea,

00:04:33.356 --> 00:04:36.617
so I'm traveling over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean.

00:04:36.617 --> 00:04:40.727
NASA described conditions that year as the worst since records began.

00:04:40.727 --> 00:04:44.383
I was dragging 180 kilos of food and fuel and supplies,

00:04:44.383 --> 00:04:46.984
about 400 pounds. The average temperature for the 10 weeks

00:04:46.984 --> 00:04:49.675
was minus 35. Minus 50 was the coldest.

00:04:49.675 --> 00:04:56.954
So again, there wasn't an awful lot of joy or fun to be had.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:56.954 --> 00:04:58.487
One of the magical things about this journey, however,

00:04:58.487 --> 00:05:00.590
is that because I'm walking over the sea,

00:05:00.590 --> 00:05:04.652
over this floating, drifting, shifting crust of ice

00:05:04.652 --> 00:05:06.847
that's floating on top of the Arctic Ocean is

00:05:06.847 --> 00:05:08.795
it's an environment that's in a constant state of flux.

00:05:08.795 --> 00:05:11.141
The ice is always moving, breaking up, drifting around,

00:05:11.141 --> 00:05:14.601
refreezing, so the scenery that I saw for nearly 3 months

00:05:14.601 --> 00:05:18.048
was unique to me. No one else will ever, could ever,

00:05:18.048 --> 00:05:23.077
possibly see the views, the vistas, that I saw for 10 weeks.

00:05:23.077 --> 00:05:27.040
And that, I guess, is probably the finest argument for leaving the house.

00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.922
I can try to tell you what it was like,

00:05:30.922 --> 00:05:32.767
but you'll never know what it was like,

00:05:32.767 --> 00:05:35.695
and the more I try to explain that I felt lonely,

00:05:35.695 --> 00:05:39.414
I was the only human being in 5.4 million square-miles,

00:05:39.414 --> 00:05:43.719
it was cold, nearly minus 75 with windchill on a bad day,

00:05:43.719 --> 00:05:47.551
the more words fall short, and I'm unable to do it justice.

00:05:47.551 --> 00:05:51.742
And it seems to me, therefore, that the doing,

00:05:51.742 --> 00:05:57.040
you know, to try to experience, to engage, to endeavor,

00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:02.426
rather than to watch and to wonder, that's where

00:06:02.426 --> 00:06:04.652
the real meat of life is to be found,

00:06:04.652 --> 00:06:08.596
the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days.

00:06:08.596 --> 00:06:11.079
And I would add a cautionary note here, however.

00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:13.167
In my experience, there is something addictive

00:06:13.167 --> 00:06:17.606
about tasting life at the very edge of what's humanly possible.

00:06:17.606 --> 00:06:19.841
Now I don't just mean in the field of

00:06:19.841 --> 00:06:22.128
daft macho Edwardian style derring-do,

00:06:22.128 --> 00:06:24.321
but also in the fields of pancreatic cancer,

00:06:24.321 --> 00:06:26.228
there is something addictive about this, and in my case,

00:06:26.228 --> 00:06:28.778
I think polar expeditions are perhaps not that far removed

00:06:28.778 --> 00:06:30.160
from having a crack habit.

00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.865
I can't explain quite how good it is until you've tried it,

00:06:33.865 --> 00:06:37.682
but it has the capacity to burn up all the money I can get my hands on,

00:06:37.682 --> 00:06:41.260
to ruin every relationship I've ever had,

00:06:41.260 --> 00:06:45.661
so be careful what you wish for.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:45.661 --> 00:06:48.042
Mallory postulated that there is something in man

00:06:48.042 --> 00:06:50.682
that responds to the challenge of the mountain,

00:06:50.682 --> 00:06:52.708
and I wonder if that's the case whether there's something

00:06:52.708 --> 00:06:55.765
in the challenge itself, in the endeavor, and particularly

00:06:55.765 --> 00:06:58.877
in the big, unfinished, chunky challenges that face humanity

00:06:58.877 --> 00:07:03.193
that call out to us, and in my experience that's certainly the case.

00:07:03.193 --> 00:07:04.973
There is one unfinished challenge

00:07:04.973 --> 00:07:08.245
that's been calling out to me for most of my adult life.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:08.245 --> 00:07:09.673
Many of you will know the story.

00:07:09.673 --> 00:07:12.264
This is a photo of Captain Scott and his team.

00:07:12.264 --> 00:07:14.137
Scott set out just over a hundred years ago to try

00:07:14.137 --> 00:07:17.404
to become the first person to reach the South Pole.

00:07:17.404 --> 00:07:19.228
No one knew what was there. It was utterly unmapped

00:07:19.228 --> 00:07:21.253
at the time. We knew more about the surface of the moon

00:07:21.253 --> 00:07:24.000
than we did about the heart of Antarctica.

00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.916
Scott, as many of you will know, was beaten to it

00:07:26.916 --> 00:07:29.209
by Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team,

00:07:29.209 --> 00:07:31.564
who used dogs and dogsleds. Scott's team were on foot,

00:07:31.564 --> 00:07:33.985
all five of them wearing harnesses and dragging around sledges,

00:07:33.985 --> 00:07:38.417
and they arrived at the pole to find the Norwegian flag already there,

00:07:38.417 --> 00:07:41.675
I'd imagine pretty bitter and demoralized.

00:07:41.675 --> 00:07:43.945
All five of them turned and started walking back to the coast

00:07:43.945 --> 00:07:47.533
and all five died on that return journey.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:47.533 --> 00:07:49.767
There is a sort of misconception nowadays that

00:07:49.767 --> 00:07:53.393
it's all been done in the fields of exploration and adventure.

00:07:53.393 --> 00:07:54.680
When I talk about Antarctica, people often say,

00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:55.970
"Hasn't, you know, that's interesting,

00:07:55.970 --> 00:07:59.163
hasn't that Blue Peter presenter just done it on a bike?"

00:07:59.163 --> 00:08:02.753
Or, "That's nice. You know, my grandmother's going

00:08:02.753 --> 00:08:05.383
on a cruise to Antarctica next year. You know.

00:08:05.383 --> 00:08:08.249
Is there a chance you'll see her there?"

00:08:08.249 --> 00:08:10.067
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:10.067 --> 00:08:13.281
But Scott's journey remains unfinished.

00:08:13.281 --> 00:08:15.608
No one has ever walked from the very coast of Antarctica

00:08:15.608 --> 00:08:17.405
to the South Pole and back again.

00:08:17.405 --> 00:08:20.179
It is, arguably, the most audacious endeavor

00:08:20.179 --> 00:08:22.804
of that Edwardian golden age of exploration,

00:08:22.804 --> 00:08:25.357
and it seemed to me high time, given everything

00:08:25.357 --> 00:08:27.278
we have figured out in the century since

00:08:27.278 --> 00:08:30.859
from scurvy to solar panels, that it was high time

00:08:30.859 --> 00:08:32.636
someone had a go at finishing the job.

00:08:32.636 --> 00:08:35.332
So that's precisely what I'm setting out to do.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:35.332 --> 00:08:37.900
This time next year, in October, I'm leading a team of three.

00:08:37.900 --> 00:08:40.759
It will take us about four months to make this return journey.

00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:43.812
That's the scale. The red line is obviously halfway to the pole.

00:08:43.812 --> 00:08:45.206
We have to turn around and come back again.

00:08:45.206 --> 00:08:47.453
I'm well aware of the irony of telling you that we will be

00:08:47.453 --> 00:08:50.188
blogging and tweeting. You'll be able to live

00:08:50.188 --> 00:08:52.621
vicariously and virtually through this journey

00:08:52.621 --> 00:08:55.628
in a way that no one has ever before.

00:08:55.628 --> 00:08:58.211
And it'll also be a four-month chance for me to finally

00:08:58.211 --> 00:09:02.085
come up with a pithy answer to the question, "Why?"

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:02.085 --> 00:09:07.018
And our lives today are safer and more comfortable

00:09:07.018 --> 00:09:09.600
than they have ever been. There certainly isn't much call

00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.458
for explorers nowadays. My career advisor at school

00:09:13.458 --> 00:09:16.099
never mentioned it as an option.

00:09:16.099 --> 00:09:18.521
If I wanted to know, for example,

00:09:18.521 --> 00:09:20.817
how many stars were in the Milky Way,

00:09:20.817 --> 00:09:23.396
how old those giant heads on Easter Island were,

00:09:23.396 --> 00:09:25.521
most of you could find that out right now

00:09:25.521 --> 00:09:28.347
without even standing up.

00:09:28.347 --> 00:09:31.112
And yet, if I've learned anything in nearly 12 years now

00:09:31.112 --> 00:09:34.199
of dragging heavy things around cold places,

00:09:34.199 --> 00:09:38.158
it is that true, real inspiration and growth

00:09:38.158 --> 00:09:42.418
only comes from adversity and from challenge,

00:09:42.418 --> 00:09:45.434
from stepping away from what's comfortable and familiar

00:09:45.434 --> 00:09:47.915
and stepping out into the unknown.

00:09:47.915 --> 00:09:51.456
In life, we all have tempests to ride and poles to walk to,

00:09:51.456 --> 00:09:53.265
and I think metaphorically speaking, at least,

00:09:53.265 --> 00:09:56.135
we could all benefit from getting outside the house

00:09:56.135 --> 00:10:00.016
a little more often, if only we could summon up the courage.

00:10:00.016 --> 00:10:03.241
I certainly would implore you to open the door just a little bit

00:10:03.241 --> 00:10:06.137
and take a look at what's outside.

00:10:06.137 --> 00:10:07.365
Thank you very much.

00:10:07.365 --> 00:10:16.334
(Applause)