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supplies on individual sledges 350 miles to the North
Magnetic Pole, in four weeks. The expedition pin-pointed the magnetic Pole using modern electronic instruments. In 1996/7 with Crispin Day (and Robert Swan for the first 350 miles) Somers kited from the South Geographic Pole 1,000 miles via the Ronne Ice Shelf to the Orville Coast, the first such traverse relying totally on kites and the wind. In 1997 Somers ran all the polar training in Resolute Bay, Canada for the McVities Penguin Polar Relay, the first Women's expedition to the North Pole. In 1999 he co-guided (with Victor Serov) the second ever commercially organised expedition to the South Pole with clients Fiona and Mike Thornewill, Catherine Hartley, Grahame Murphy, Veijo Merilainen, Steve Peyton, & Justin Speake. In 2001 he co-guided a polar training course in Spitsbergen for Pen Hadow's The Polar Travel Company. In 2003 he guided Martin Burton on a kite skiing expedition from the South Pole to Hercules Inlet, with Ronny Finsas. In 2005 he guided the Numis Polar Challenge Expedition, a four-man team which skied 170 miles to the South Pole in replica clothing and equipment from Captain Scott's 1911-12 Expedition. In 2012-13 he guided Henry Evans over the Last Degree to the South Pole as The International Scott Centenary Expedition.
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159:, representing the United Kingdom, in charge of logistics and dogs. As part of the training for that, in April to June 1988, Somers with his Antarctic crossing companions and three dog teams, claimed a first by travelling 1,400 miles over the Greenland Ice Cap from the most southern part to the Humboldt glacier in the North. The expedition then successfully travelled from
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Somers has continued his polar journeys, with several notable pioneering firsts. On 12 December 1995, with world record hot air balloonist Bill Arras, he co-piloted the first hot air balloon flight at
Patriot Hills, Antarctica. In 1996 he was a guide for the first commercial ski expedition pulling
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on March 3, 1990, despite resupply problems as they passed the South Pole. This was the first and only crossing of
Antarctica on foot, by its greatest axis, and with dogs. The 'impossible journey', as some commentators had called it, was hailed as a great success, both for its completion and its
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and the
Central Aboriginal Reserves. Somers set up an Outward Bound school in Borneo, and with three companions traversed Sabah, through much uncharted and perhaps unseen rainforest via the Maliau Basin, now a notable tourist area.
140:, where his father was working as a doctor. They returned to England in 1955, to the small Suffolk town of Eye. After leaving school with few qualifications, Somers spent several years working as an
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is a
British explorer, particularly of the polar regions. He was the first Briton to cross Antarctica on foot, and has an Antarctic peak named in his honour,
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In 1993 with a companion Craig
Hetherington and little knowledge of desert travel, Somers set off to trek 1,400 miles across Western Australia from
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and in schools in Africa, Borneo, and North
America. He was then selected to work as a mountaineer and field guide for the
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contribution to international cooperation and its message for protection of the environment.
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near the north end of the
Antarctic Peninsula to reach the Russian station of
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https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/documents/rpt_f_first_flights.pdf
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for services to outdoor education and polar exploration, and in 1996 the
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382:, publisher: MagnificentOcean. With contribution by Geoff Somers
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Hempleman-Adams, David (1997) “Toughing it out”, Orion
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296:Transantarctica La traverse du dernier continent
444:People educated at St Joseph's College, Ipswich
157:1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition
245:"Polar explorer relives "mission impossible""
133:for his contributions to polar exploration.
409:Members of the Order of the British Empire
269:Steger, Will and Bowermaster, Jon, (1992)
127:Member of the Order of the British Empire
102:Member of the Order of the British Empire
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284:La Traversate a Piedi Dell’ Antartide
234:, Minnesota Historical Society Press
208:, Grosvenor House Publishing Limited
206:Antarctica: The Impossible Crossing?
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380:From University To The South Pole
353:An English Amateur in Antarctica
155:He was then invited to join the
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414:Recipients of the Polar Medal
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219:Encyclopedia of the Antarctic
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439:British expatriates in Sudan
340:To The Poles Without A Beard
294:Etienne, Jean-Louis, (1990)
77:St Joseph's College, Ipswich
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355:, New European Publications
338:Hartley, Catherine, (2003)
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217:Riffenburgh, Beau, (2007)
144:instructor in the English
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282:Boyarsky, Victor (1995)
150:British Antarctic Survey
434:Explorers of Antarctica
424:British polar explorers
366:"They may be some time"
351:Burton, Martin, (2004)
230:de Moll, Cathy, (2015)
136:He was born in 1950 in
204:Somers, Geoff, (2018)
378:Evans, Henry, (2013)
114:Geoffrey Usher Somers
22:Geoffrey Usher Somers
419:People from Khartoum
39:Geoff Somers in 1997
319:North Magnetic Pole
271:Crossing Antarctica
368:. 11 October 2005.
429:English explorers
273:, Alfred A. Knopf
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123:Somers Nunatak
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161:Seal Nunataks
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142:Outward Bound
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253:. Retrieved
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399:1950 births
232:Think south
131:Polar Medal
106:Polar Medal
393:Categories
192:References
51:1950-02-19
298:, Laffont
93:and guide
73:Education
181:Carnegie
138:Khartoum
91:Explorer
62:Khartoum
255:22 July
81:Suffolk
98:Awards
177:Uluru
173:Perth
165:Mirny
66:Sudan
257:2019
45:Born
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118:MBE
26:MBE
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