Alex Hibbert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 April 1986 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Canford School |
| Alma mater | St Hugh's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Athlete (Cross-country skiing, Mountaineering, Rowing, Triathlon, Kayaking), Polar explorer, author, speaker, photographer |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Known for | Tiso TransGreenland The Long Haul |
Alexander Piers William Hibbert (born 19 April 1986) is a British polar expedition leader, public speaker, author and photographer. He lives in London.
Hibbert was born in Southsea, England, the second son of Commodore Richard Hibbert CBE RN, an officer in the Royal Navy. [1] The younger of two brothers, Hibbert attended Canford School before reading biological sciences at St Hugh's College, Oxford. [2] Whilst attending University of Oxford, Hibbert was actively involved in the Oxford University Exploration Club, The Oxford Union and college boat clubs. He graduated in 2007. Hibbert trained for 12 months in the Royal Marines young officer batch from September 2008, withdrawing shortly before completion due to injury. [3]
In 2008, along with his teammate George Bullard, Hibbert crossed the Greenland icecap twice, along a new route, in 113 days. This expedition held the record for the longest unsupported journey in any polar region, and after the 2011 expedition by Aleksander Gamme, still holds the record in the Arctic. [4]
In January 2011, he announced that he would attempt to break the speed record for crossing the Greenland icecap. The current Norwegian-held record stands at 8 days 9 hours. In order to break the record Hibbert stated that he and his teammate planned to ski in excess of 40 miles (64 kilometres) and up to 15 hours per day. Although the team was positioned on the Greenlandic coast on schedule, the planned attempt in April 2011 was not made, as low barometric pressure and low cloud cover in the Arctic kept them stranded in Tasiilaq, Greenland for more than a week.
The second attempt on the speed record did take place, starting on 12 August, but was completed outside record pace in less than twelve days.[ citation needed ] Heavily crevassed and turbulent glacial ice and high winds on the plateau contributed to delays. The pair returned to London on 25 August after flying by helicopter and aircraft from their final position on the Russell Glacier.[ citation needed ]
Having been elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2007 and a Member of The Explorers Club in 2010, Hibbert relinquished both positions in 2012. He cited a reduction of the value of such titles and memberships in his book Maybe as the reason, stating that they latterly lacked distinction and acted purely as revenue generation for societies. [5]
In 2017 Hibbert was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Portsmouth. [6]
Hibbert announced plans to reach the Geographic North Pole unsupported in the darkness of winter from the last feasible starting point as yet unattained.[ citation needed ] The first attempt to launch the first phase ended when Hibbert's teammate suffered a hernia and the pair had to walk back to Qaanaaq. [7] In 2013 the project was relaunched with a new team but despite good health, it was again cancelled due to adverse ice conditions in the northern Nares Strait. They remained in the Qaanaaq region of the High Arctic and integrated with the local Inughuit, driving over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) with large Thule dogs, similar to Greenland dogs.[ citation needed ]
Sponsor websites appear to show that the project was due to relaunch in the winter of 2020/21. An update announced its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [8]
Hibbert's first book was an account of his university years and the Tiso TransGreenland expedition, titled The Long Haul, which was published by Tricorn Books in March 2010, and launched in Stanford's travel bookstore in London.[ citation needed ] It attracted positive reviews from Wanderlust magazine and Sir Ranulph Fiennes.[ citation needed ]
A paperback, Maybe, was announced as due for publishing in late May 2013. The subject matter is a move towards social commentary combined with expedition accounts. [9] Maybe received mostly positive reviews despite some negativity regarding his forceful and direct style of peer review. [10]
In 2018, Polar Eskimo was published. The book was part travelogue and part social and political commentary surrounding Greenland's past, present and future, including indigenous rights. It was reviewed as 'one of the most rewarding books on exploration and wilderness' by Sidetracked. [11]
Hibbert competed along with fellow graduates of St Hugh's College, Oxford in the 2013 of Christmas University Challenge . They defeated the University of Stirling but did not reach the final. [12]
Hibbert was a finalist in the international BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in 2003, 2004 and 2010 and was agency signed from the age of eighteen. He contributed exclusively to Getty Images, Oxford Scientific Films and Robert Harding World Imagery. Hibbert was one of the judging panel on the STA Travel Photo Competition 2010, along with senior figures from the photographic industry. [13]
Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian Inuit.
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in April 1909, leading an expedition that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole.
Ellesmere Island is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of 196,236 km2 (75,767 sq mi), slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total length of the island is 830 km (520 mi).
Qaanaaq, formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the local Inuktun language and many also speak Kalaallisut and Danish. The town has a population of 646 as of 2020. The population was forcibly relocated from its former, traditional home, which was expropriated for the construction of a United States Air Force base in 1953.
Pituffik is a former settlement in northern Greenland, located at the eastern end of Bylot Sound by a tombolo known as Uummannaq, near the current site of the American Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base. The former inhabitants were relocated to the present-day town of Qaanaaq. The relocation and the fallout from the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash in the vicinity are a contentious issue in Greenland's relations with Denmark and the United States.
Siorapaluk or Hiurapaluk is a settlement in the Qaanaaq area of the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. It is one of the world's northernmost inhabited settlements, the northernmost settlement inhabited by natives, and the northernmost public settlement in Greenland. It has a population of 43 who speak the Inuktun language of the Polar Inuit as well as the Kalaallisut dialect of Greenlandic. Many of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the last migration of Inuit from Canada in the 20th century.
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).
The Inughuit, or the Smith Sound Inuit, historically Arctic Highlanders or Polar Eskimos, are Greenlandic Inuit. They are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in North America, living in Greenland. Inughuit make up about 1% of the population of Greenland.
Comer's Midden was a 1916 archaeological excavation site near Thule, north of Mt. Dundas in North Star Bay in northern Greenland. It is the find after which the Thule culture was named. The site was first excavated in 1916 by whaling Captain George Comer, ice master of the Crocker Land Expedition's relief team, and of members of Knud Rasmussen's Second Danish Thule Expedition who were in the area charting the North Greenland coast.
Eric Philips OAM is an Australian polar explorer, adventurer and polar guide.
Count Eigil Knuth was a Danish explorer, archaeologist, sculptor and writer. He is referred to as the Nestor of Danish polar explorers. His archaeological investigations were made in Peary Land and adjacent areas of High Arctic Greenland. Knuth was made a Knight of the Dannebrog.
David Haig-Thomas was a British ornithologist, wildlife photographer, explorer and rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1932 Summer Olympics. He was an army commando during the Second World War, and was killed in action during the Normandy Landings. Haig-Thomas Island in the Canadian Arctic is named after him.
Augustine Courtauld, often called August Courtauld, was a yachtsman and British Arctic explorer, best known for serving as the solo meteorologist of a winter observation post, Icecap Station, located in the interior of Greenland in 1930–1931.
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.
Adrian Hayes is a British record-breaking polar explorer and adventurer, best known for reaching the three extreme points of the Earth—the Three Poles Challenge—which involved walking all the way to the North Pole, South Pole and summiting Mount Everest, all in the shortest period of time.
John Huston is an American polar explorer, motivational speaker, wilderness guide, and safety and logistics consultant. In 2009, Huston completed the first successful unsupported American expedition to the North Pole. He has also completed expeditions to the South Pole, Greenland, and Ellesmere Island. Huston is the co-author of Forward: The First American Unsupported Expedition to the North Pole.
Ramón Hernando de Larramendi is a Spanish polar explorer and adventurous traveler who has promoted and developed a WindSled unique in the world, intended for the research in Antarctica and Greenland. He has travelled more than 40,000 km in polar territories.
Jade Hameister is an Australian woman who, at age 16, became the youngest person in history to pull off the "polar hat-trick", ski to the North and South Poles, and cross the second largest polar icecap on the planet: Greenland. Hameister travelled over 1,300 km on these three missions, which totalled almost four months on ice.