Henry Cookson FRGS | |
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![]() Henry Cookson kissing a wolf in Norway | |
Born | |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Explorer – expedition organiser |
Years active | 2005–present |
Known for | Holder of the World Record for reaching the exact centre of the Antarctic without mechanical means in 2006 |
Website | http://www.henrycookson.com |
Henry John Richard Cookson, FRGS (born 16 September 1975) [1] is a British polar explorer and adventurer. On 19 January 2007 he, alongside fellow Britons Rory Sweet and Rupert Longsdon, and their Canadian polar guide Paul Landry, became the first team to reach the southern pole of Inaccessibility (POI) by foot, the last visitors being a research team using tracked vehicles & planes in 1965. [2]
He was born in Wimbledon and attended the Ecole de Roche, Harrow School, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He briefly worked at investment bank Goldman Sachs.
In 2005 he was persuaded to enter the Scott Dunn Polar Challenge as the third member of Team Hardware, alongside Rory Sweet and Rupert Longsdon. Despite all being novice polar explorers, they defied the odds and won the gruelling 360 mile race to the magnetic north pole, breaking the course record in the process and finishing four hours ahead of the nearest competitors, a team of a Royal Marine and two Army Commandos. [3]
Following the success of the Scott Dunn Polar Challenge, the trio decided to turn their sights on an expedition to the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility. Training began in 2006, and Canadian Paul Landry joined the effort. On 19 January 2007, 48 days after setting off from Novolazarevskaya Station, the four reached their goal, after kite skiing 1,100 miles to their destination. [4] Upon arrival, they discovered the most visible remains left behind from the previous Soviet expedition in 1958, and the only indication that they had reached the POI - a bust of Lenin, which had been fixed to the chimney of a Russian built hut.
For their endeavors, they are in the Guinness Book of Records as the first people to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility without using motored craft.
It was announced in 2010 that Henry had been approached by Simon Daglish and Edward Parker to sign on as an expedition guide for Walking With The Wounded, a charitable expedition to the north pole aimed at raising funds for injured servicemen and women. The expedition patron was Prince Harry, who stated his intention to join the expedition for its final days should his military commitments allow. [5]
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole, Terrestrial North Pole or 90th Parallel North, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole.
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Sir David Kim Hempleman-Adams, is an English industrialist and adventurer.
In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest and most difficult to access location in a given landmass, sea, or topographical feature, category, or criterion, relative to a given origin point. A geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying the farthest point into a landmass from touching the shore, or the farthest point into the ocean from any landmass. In these cases, a pole of inaccessibility can be defined as the center of the largest circle that can be drawn within an area of interest without encountering a coast. Where a coast is imprecisely defined, the pole will be similarly imprecise.
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The Pole of Inaccessibility research station is a defunct Soviet research station in Kemp Land, Antarctica, at the southern pole of inaccessibility as defined in 1958 when the station was established. Later definitions give other locations, all relatively near this point. It performed meteorological observations from 14 to 26 December 1958. The Pole of Inaccessibility has the world's coldest year-round average temperature of −58.2 °C (−72.8 °F).
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Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates was a British army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who died from hypothermia during the Terra Nova Expedition when he walked from his tent into a blizzard. His death, which occurred on his 32nd birthday, is seen as an act of self-sacrifice when, aware that the gangrene and frostbite from which he was suffering was compromising his three companions' chances of survival, he chose certain death for himself to relieve them of the burden of caring for him.
Sebastian Copeland is a British-American-French photographer, polar explorer, author, lecturer, and environmental advocate. He has led numerous expeditions in the polar regions to photograph and film endangered environments. In 2017, Copeland was named one of the world's top 25 adventurers of the last 25 years by Men's Journal. He is a fellow of The Explorers Club. His documentary Into the Cold was a featured selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD timed to Earth Day 2011.