Advice from a Polar Explorer
Boulder’s resident polar explorer Eric Larsen was the featured speaker at last week’s middle school assembly where he talked about his travels to some of the earth’s coldest and most remote areas. Students were inspired by his description of Antarctica (ice on land), the North Pole (ice on water) and Mt. Everest (ice on mountain).
Boulder’s resident polar explorer Eric Larsen was the featured speaker at last week’s middle school assembly where he talked about his travels to some of the earth’s coldest and most remote areas. Students were inspired by his description of Antarctica (ice on land), the North Pole (ice on water) and Mt. Everest (ice on mountain).
Eric, a native of Wisconsin, says he discovered his polar passion at an early age when his family spent a lot of time camping, even in the winter. “I was always fascinated with cold places,” he says. “I read adventure journals and was curious about what’s out there." After studying biology and environmental studies in college, he got a job in Alaska and was hooked.
Today, Eric is one of the world’s most respected polar explorers. He is the only person to ever reach the three poles—North, South, and Everest—within a year. With several adventures and a lot of arctic miles under his belt, Eric is still curious about the natural world. His focus now, he says, is the environmental impact of humans on the world's iconic frozen places. He’s written a book, On Thin Ice: An Epic Final Quest into the Melting Arctic (available Oct. 1) to educate others on the effect of global climate change.
Eric believes that any of Graland’s students can join him in being advocates for the earth. “I’m not a crazy risk taker,” he says. “I was the slowest person on my soccer team. My wheelhouse isn’t extreme sports. Arctic exploration is more like a long, boring suffer-fest but there’s a thoughtfulness to it, like the moves in a chess game.”
It takes months or even years of planning to successfully spend 40-50 days in brutal conditions where the temperature can drop to 50 below zero. Eric and his small crew pack in all their equipment and supplies, including food, tent and clothing layers.
“The danger,” he describes, “is not only being too cold, but also being too hot. As we work our way across the ice, our sweat freezes and we don’t have a dryer to throw the clothes into to warm them up. We have to wear the right layers for the conditions and our level of exertion.”
The explorers consume as many as 8,000 calories in a day as they make slow but steady progress to their destination. Depending on the terrain, the team skis in a single file or walks in snow shoes or even swims encased in a special body suit. Eric also has an ice bicycle with extra fat tires.
While the extreme weather is one challenge, Eric has also experienced other dangers up close and personal. “It seems at times that everything wants to kill you,” he shares. “There are obstacles on the route, moving ice, white out conditions and things that want to eat us, like polar bears.”
In times like these, Eric remembers to keep moving ahead and to focus on the short term goals. “I take one more step and go one more hour and finish one more day,” he says. “To imagine the end of the day at the beginning is too overwhelming.”
Before wrapping up his multimedia presentation, Eric inspired students with some parting advice.1. Be part of a team: You can do more as a group than as an individual. Each member brings a different strength and perspective to the project.
2. Persevere: There are lots of reasons to give up. The difference in being successful or not is perseverance.
3. Know how to innovate and problem solve: Things will not go as planned and you have to adapt to the situation. Innovation leads to solutions.
4. To achieve excellence, be decisive, be confident, be safe.
5. Know your goals: Long and short term goals are important so obstacles don’t seem as dramatic.
6. Begin with one step, no matter what is ahead.
7. We are all explorers. Our job is not to conquer these natural places in the world but to protect them.
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Graland Country Day School
Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.
