Sir Wally Herbert, for one night only
As perhaps the biggest unsung hero of the polar world, I've always felt the epic achievements of Sir Wally Herbert deserved a little more recognition.
He led the first undisputed expedition to the North Pole on foot, and he went on to make a dogsled crossing of the entire Arctic Ocean by its longest route – a feat that no one has come close to repeating. His book Across the Top of the World is an amazing tale of human endeavour, and his accounts of the perils and pitfalls of organising sponsorship and logistics for an expedition on such a scale now seem oddly familiar.
In light of this, Pen Hadow has been busy organising a gala testimonial evening to honour Sir Wally on October 18th at London's Royal Geographical Society. If you fancy coming along (and there are plenty of polar/mountaineering stars there to regale you if you do – Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Robert Swan, Sir Chris Bonington, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Pen Hadow, Fritz Koerner and of course Sir Wally Herbert himself) then you can read more about the event here.
(Wally Herbert portrait by Martin Hartley.)
— Filed under Inspiration