Gareth Brauteseth

The Norwegians love the Ice, I suppose because they live in it for half the year.

My forefathers are Norwegian with Otto Brauteseth, a hard man of humble means, coming out on a ship to South Africa in 1882. 130 years later I am getting ready for a trip to Antarctica just like so many Norwegians that have gone before.

One of Norways greatest modern day explorers is Børge Ousland, who, for the past 20 years has been exploring the Arctic and Antarctic pushing the boundaries of human endeavor.

The man is amazing, there are not many people who can boast a first under their belt these days, but Børge was the first person to complete a solo expedition to the North Pole without re-supplying, and the first to cross the Antarctic continent alone. He is still the only person to have accomplished both feats.

As I write the man is in the North Atlantic on his latest mission of sailing through the North East and North West Passage in one season.

Awesome!

The Dream Expedition

Mike Horn is in the middle of the most amazing expedition the world is currently faced with. It is a combination of global traverse, extreme challenge, all environments and one key issue. That of climate change and what is happening.
How is this for a line up:

It was only fitting that in October 2008, the Pangaea Expedition launched from Ushuaia, the capital of Argentina’s province of Tierra del Fuego (‘Land of Fire’). That’s because it’s the southernmost city in the world, the city closest to Antarctica and is often just referred to as Fin del Mundo, which means ‘End of the Earth’.
Since then, the Pangaea Expedition has had numerous and diverse destinations on its itinerary; Brazil, Cape Town, New Zealand, Sydney, The Great Barrier Reef, Yokohama in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. From there, Pangaea sets sail for India in January 2010 for the Indian leg of our exciting Young Explorers Programme.
Once in India, Mike will set foot through the Himalayas, to China and Shanghai. And in mid 2010, head back to Japan and then to the Pacific Garbage patch. Then it’s off to Kamchatka and onwards up the North East passage to the North Pole.

The fun part is this, if you are between 15 and 20 make sure you apply to get on to this program, they call them YEPs Young Explorer Pangaea. If I was 16 again and knew about this I would do everything I could to get onto the expedition.

So team, if you have some youngster mates, point them in this direction and get them to have a look at the page. (http://pangaea-yep.com/)