Pole of Cold – A Journey to Chase Winter
3rd October 2017
Felicity Aston MBE
'What does winter mean to you?' This was the question that Felicity and her team sought to answer as they travelled for more than four months through some of the most extreme winter environments in the world. Using images, stories, film footage and sounds gathered during the expedition, Felicity describes the people and places the team experienced as they headed towards the Pole of Cold, the coldest inhabited place on the planet where temperatures plummeted to almost -60C. What is the best form of transport when it is so cold that fuel becomes solid? How cold does it have to be before children stop going to school? And is it possible to hear your own breath freeze....?
Felicity Aston MBE is a Polar Explorer and Scientist.
Her first journey to Antarctica was as a meteorologist with the British
Antarctic Survey to monitor climate and ozone. Felicity spent three
years (without a break) at Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic
Peninsula, including two consecutive winters. She went on to complete
numerous journeys in Antarctica and other cold regions of the world.
Felicity has written three books; ‘Call of the white: Taking the world
to the South Pole’ is an account of the international women’s expedition
in 2009 and was a finalist in the Banff Mountain Festival Book
Competition. ‘Alone in Antarctica’ was published in 2013 and describes
her solo crossing of the continent. Her most recent book, ‘Chasing
Winter: A Journey to the Pole of Cold’, is a collection of images and
stories from the 2014 Pole of Cold Expedition.
Felicity regularly speaks to a variety of audiences around the world
about her expedition experiences as well as more generally about Polar
Science, Antarctica and Meteorology. She has appeared on shows ranging
from BBC Breakfast and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch to the Today Show in
the US. Felicity was the expedition leader and co-presenter of ‘Cloud
Lab: Science of the Skies’ a two-part BBC Science film broadcast on BBC
Two in July 2014.
Felicity was appointed MBE in 2015 for services to Polar Exploration and
in the same year was awarded the Queen’s Polar Medal – one of only 9
women ever to have been recognised in this way. Outside Magazine in the
US made her one of their 2012 ‘Adventurers of the Year’ and in 2014 she
was given the Women of Discovery Courage Award. Felicity has been
elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and of The
Explorers Club in New York.
Felicity divides her time between her home in Reykjavik and her native UK. Her website can be found here.