In 2018, British climate scientist turned polar explorer, Felicity Aston MBE, led a team of 10 women from across Europe and the Middle East on a ski expedition to traverse the last degree of latitude to the North Geographic Pole across the constantly shifting sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. The team were largely novices and undertook a two-year campaign of training expeditions in both Iceland and the Arabian Peninsula before setting out across the ice. They faced temperatures down to -40C, the risk of predatory polar bears, ridges of hazardous ice rubble and the menace of open water but the reward was to stand together at the top of the world.

Read more about Felicity on her website.

Training expedition in Oman

Sledges being loaded into an aircraft on the runway at 'Barneo'. The runway is cleared directly on the sea ice

The team skiing together across the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean towards the North Pole

The team at 'our' North Pole