About Ben

"The next Sir Ranulph Fiennes."
The Times, February 2004

Ben Saunders is a polar explorer and a record-breaking long-distance skier, with four North Pole expeditions under his belt. He is the youngest to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton.

Since 2001, Ben has skied more than 2,500km (1,500 miles) in the high Arctic, which he recently worked out equates to two percent of his entire life living in a tent.

Ben is currently preparing for three groundbreaking expeditions between 2010 and 2012. More details will be published shortly.

Born in 1977, Ben grew up in Devon, was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and lives in London. He is passionate about the great outdoors and spent four months walking and climbing in the Nepalese Himalayas aged 19, going on to work as an instructor at the John Ridgway School of Adventure in the Scottish Highlands (once billed as "the UK's toughest management training school"). John has proved a role model and mentor of the highest calibre – in 1966 Ridgway (along with Chay Blyth) became the first to row across the Atlantic, and he went on to break records in non-stop round the world sailing.

Ben is a keen athlete – after an unpromising start ("I was the podgy kid at school that was always picked last for the football team") he discovered mountain biking in his teens and went on to race bikes on and off-road at national level. He has run seven marathons (New York is his favourite course and 2:55 is his best time, set in London in 2007) and three ultramarathons, including an attempt at the inaugural Thames Ring 250 in summer 2009. In the gym, his deadlift PB is 200kg (440lbs) at 78kg (172lbs) bodyweight, set in February 2009.

When he's not pulling a sledge, Ben divides his time between planning and training for his next expedition, and earning a crust as one of the UK's leading motivational speakers. He is an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, a Patron of the British Schools Exploring Society, an honorary member of the Cordon Rouge Club, a Fellow of the British American Project, and supports the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Orchid Cancer Appeal.

Ben in Print
In 2006 Ben wrote a chapter (and the introduction) for the Lonely Planet Guide to The Middle of Nowhere and contributed to Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century. He is working on his first book.