Felicity Aston | |
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| Born | |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University College London (BSc) University of Reading (MSc) |
| Awards | Member of the Order of the British Empire (2015) Polar medal (2015) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Climatology |
| Website | felicityaston |
Felicity Ann Dawn Aston MBE FRGS is a British explorer, author and climate scientist.
Originally from Kent, [1] Aston went to Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls and was educated at University College London (BSc) and Reading University (MSc in applied meteorology). [2]
Between 2000 and 2003, Felicity Aston was the senior meteorologist at Rothera Research Station located on Adelaide Island off the Antarctic Peninsula operated by the British Antarctic Survey, monitoring climate and ozone. As was usual at the time for British Antarctic Survey staff, she spent three summers and two winters continuously at the station without leaving the Antarctic.
In 2005, Aston joined a race across Arctic Canada to the 1996 position of the North Magnetic Pole, known as the Polar Challenge. She was part of the first all-female team to complete this race; they came in 6th place out of 16 teams. [3]
In 2006, Aston led the first all-female British expedition across the Greenland ice sheet. [4]
In 2009, she organised and led the Kaspersky Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition, in which seven women from six Commonwealth member countries skied to the South Pole in 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth. [5] [6] Call of the White: Taking the world to the South Pole is her account of this expedition. [7] It was published by Summersdale in 2011 and was a finalist in the Banff Mountain Book Competition in that year. [8]
In 2012, she became the first person to ski alone across the Antarctic land-mass using only personal muscle power, as well as the first woman to cross the Antarctic land-mass alone. [9] [10] Her journey began on 25 November 2011, at the Leverett Glacier, and continued for 59 days and a distance of 1,084 miles (1,744 kilometres). [11] She had two supply drops. [11] She said, "The fact that I had crossed Antartica. despite the tears and the fear and the alone-ness, deepened my belief that we are each far more capable than we give ourselves credit for. Our bodies are stronger and our minds more resilient than we could ever imagine." [12]
In 2018 she led an all-women EuroArabian expedition to the North Pole, the team included the mountaineer Asma Al Thani, who became the first Qatari person to ski there. [13] The expedition contributed to the study of human psychology under extreme conditions. [14]
Aston has also walked across the ice of Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and oldest lake, and completed the Marathon des Sables. [3] [15]
Between 2020 and 2024 Aston led the B.I.G (Before It's Gone) expedition, an all-female expedition project to research Arctic sea ice. [16] [17]
The four-year project involved ski expeditions to Drangajökull, the northernmost glacier in Iceland, Svalbard and Nunavut in Canada. In each location her team completed a ski traverse and collected surface snow and ice samples, to be analyzed for the presence of microplastics, black carbon and heavy metals.
She is an official ambassador for both the British Antarctic Monument Trust [18] and the Equaladventure charity, [19] and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Canterbury Christ Church University for her exploration achievements. [20] She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. [21] In 2016 she co-presented a television history programme series about the 1898 Klondyke Gold Rush. [22] Her photo-portrait by Anita Corbin was one of the 100 First Women Portraits at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter. [23]
Aston was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), [24] and awarded the Polar Medal in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to polar exploration. [25] [26] [27]
She lives in Iceland and farms eiderdown from wild eider ducks on an island in the Arctic Westfjords, is married and has a son. [28]
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
Ann Bancroft is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom to individuals who have outstanding achievements in the field of polar research, and particularly for those who have worked over extended periods in harsh climates. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal, and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.
Robert Charles Swan, OBE, FRGS is the first person to walk to both poles.
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages.
Liv Ragnheim Arnesen is a Norwegian educator, cross-country skier, adventurer, guide, and motivational speaker. Arnesen led the first unsupported women’s crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap in 1992. In 1994, she made international headlines becoming the first woman in the world to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole. – a 50-day expedition of 745 miles (1,200 km).
Teodor Gheorghe Negoiță was a polar region explorer. In 1995 he became the first known Romanian explorer to reach the North Pole.
Eric Philips OAM is an Australian polar explorer, adventurer, polar guide and private astronaut.
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole, at a distance of 20,004 km in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.
Polar aviation refers to aviation in the polar regions of the Earth. Specifically, one may speak of Arctic aviation and Antarctic aviation in the Arctic and Antarctic respectively.
Jean-Louis Étienne is a French doctor, explorer and scientist. He is well known for his Arctic explorations, where he was the first man to reach the North Pole alone in 1986, and his Antarctic explorations, including the famous 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition.
There may have been women in Antarctica, exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.
This is a Timeline ofwomen in Antarctica. This article describes many of the firsts and accomplishments that women from various countries have accomplished in different fields of endeavor on the continent of Antarctica.
Ramón Hernando de Larramendi is a Spanish polar explorer and adventure traveler who has promoted and developed a WindSled unique in the world, intended for the research in Antarctica and Greenland. He has traveled more than 40,000 km in polar territories.
The Ice Maiden expedition was a British Army expedition in which six women from the United Kingdom became the first female team to ski across the Antarctic continent using muscle power alone. The Ice Maidens were also the largest team to ski across the continent. The 1,704 km expedition began on 20 November 2017 and finished on 20 January 2018, lasting 62 days.
Silver Endeavour is a cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises. Originally built for Crystal Cruises by MV Werften in Stralsund, Germany, she was laid down in 2018 and completed in June 2021. She is the world's largest ice class expedition yacht, bearing a Polar Class rating of PC6.
Harpreet Kaur "Preet" Chandi is a British physiotherapist and British Army medical officer who completed a solo expedition across Antarctica to the South Pole, finishing on 3 January 2022. In January 2023, she recorded the longest ever solo and unsupported polar expedition.
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