Rosie Stancer

In March 2007, Rosie Stancer embarked on an epic solo journey to the North Pole. When successful, she will become the first woman in the world to reach the North Pole solo. She will also be the only woman in the world to have reached both Poles solo. This will be a double world first.

Rosie flew to Ward Hunt Island on the northern tip of Canada and set off on her epic journey across the frozen arctic ocean. The expedition is expected to take some 60 days.

The North Pole is the axis of the earth's rotation where all lines of longitude and time zones converge. It lies on floating pack ice in the middle of the arctic ocean 415 nautical miles from Canada.

This endeavour is a mental and physical challenge of the greatest possible order. In reaching the Pole and realising her dream, Rosie hopes to demonstrate to others that their goals, however daunting, can be achieved.

Rosie Stancer is an internationally famous polar adventurer and speaker. During the last ten years Rosie has embarked on major polar expeditions of increasing severity and commitment. Her achievements have put her into the record books for groundbreaking polar journeys.

It all started in 1997 when Rosie was one of 20 amateur women who were selected for a place on the first all women's expedition to the North Pole, The McVities Penguin Polar Relay. In a relay of five teams they hauled sleds of up to 150lbs across 500 miles of shifting pack ice, surviving temperatures down to minus 40ºc, disintegrating ice, pressure ridges and polar bears. After 73 days the final relay group stood on top of the world at the North Pole.

Two years later, Rosie and four others from the first expedition organised and managed their own expedition to the South Pole. The M&G ISA Challenge. This time they had no guides, just one re-supply and undertook the entire 700 mile journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole by themselves. It took 61 days to reach the South Pole, enduring the hazards of the least hospitable continent: crevasses, white outs, sastrugi and extreme cold.

Rosie's biggest challenge yet came in the Austral summer of 2003-4 on the Snickers South Pole Solo 2004 expedition, when she undertook to walk alone and without re-supply to the South Pole. Hauling a sledge more than twice her body weight for over 700 miles, Rosie reached the Pole in 43 days 23 hours, smashing all previous years speed records by 7 days (average expedition duration 60 days). During the expedition Rosie gathered both meteorological and physiological data.

She has been honoured to have HRH The Prince of Wales as royal expedition patron for both the M&G ISA Challenge and the Snickers South Pole Solo expeditions. Her forthcoming North Pole Solo Expedition in 2007 will again be under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales.