Episode 14 ~ Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole.
In episode 14, I talk to Wendy Searle, who in January 2020, became the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole. Now, she’s a polar expedition leader, speechwriter, an inspirational speaker on adventure and mental resilience, and also a mother of four.
In the episode, Wendy describes how she had a relatively ordinary existence until 2015, when she met a team going to Antarctica. Afterwards, she began to wonder if someone with no experience, time, or money, could successfully complete a Polar expedition. An almost impossible challenge.
Her story is one of the highs and lows of training with the dedication of an Olympic athlete, how she completed a fully unsupported crossing of Greenland, raised tens of thousands of pounds to fund the trip, and juggling the commitments of everyday life.
She also offers insight into how to cope in the most difficult of situations, how to build mental resilience, and offers life lessons from the edge of existence.
Image credit: Richard Grassie / Compeed / Shackleton
Social media:
https://www.instagram.com/betweensnowandsky/
https://twitter.com/betweensnowsky?lang=en
Web:
https://shackleton.com/en-ee/blogs/articles/wendy-searle-she-who-dares
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00:00:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Hi and welcome to the Tales of Venture podcast I'm Chris, your host. And every month I'll be interviewing inspiring adventures about overcoming hardship, taking risk, and doing it differently. The podcast aims to document the learning that got these stand out individuals to where they are now.
00:00:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
In episode 14, I talked to Wendy Searle, who in January 2020 began the seventh woman in history to ski cellar to the South Pole. Now she's a polar expedition leader, speech writer, an inspirational speaker on adventure and mental resilience.
00:00:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
And mother of four.
00:00:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
In the episode, Wendy highlights, she had a relatively ordinary existence to 2015, when she met her team going to Antarctica.
00:00:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Afterwards, she began to wonder if some, with no experience time or money, could successfully complete at Poner expedition, an almost impossible challenge.
00:00:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Hey, Wendy, how you doing? Let's have you on the podcast.
00:00:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I'm doing good, really nice to be here. Thanks.
00:00:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
For having me.
00:00:57 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Because, well, let's jump straight into the exploration anyway. I'm going to your she who dares expedition. So the first question is to to kick things off. Is asking whereabouts the idea came from for the she who dares challenge.
00:01:09 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But basically it was skiing skiing solo to the South Pole with all your stuff and and having no kind of outside assistance so.
00:01:16 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
We're back in.
00:01:17 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
2015 probably I met a a team of soldiers who were raising money for the charity that I was working for at the time.
00:01:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And they came in and they said Ohh, we're doing this traverse of Antarctica and we'd like to raise some money for your charity. And I I was looking after the the promoting people's stories of fundraising. And I said, oh, thanks very much. That's great and really thought no more about it. I went away on a couple of training weekends with them and saw what they were kind of letting themselves in for we had.
00:01:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Various lectures about frostbite injuries they were doing sort of tyre hauling, which is the traditional kind of training when you don't have a a sled or any snow. And I thought this this looks absolutely fascinating. I was really kind of captured by that, but then started reading a little bit of polar history, which is not something I really.
00:01:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:02:01 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Knew anything about?
00:02:02 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
About nothing about Scott and Shackleton or anything and read a few books and then.
00:02:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Kind of got.
00:02:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
More and more drawn into this idea of Antarctica.
00:02:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But for someone like me, who I was working in an office full time I had, I was really busy with family. I had four children and I just wondered what it would take for someone like me with kind of no time, no money. I couldn't ski. I didn't have a background in adventure to kind of even get to the start point of a a a solo journey in Antarctica and.
00:02:30 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's a it's quite a long story, but cutting short I did various trips, including a crossing of the Greenland ice sheet and learn about polar travel.
00:02:40 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And being safe in the environment and it sounds a bit kind of. Well, it's just skiing and camping and it is really. But there's a lot to it with you've gotta be so specific about, you know, how you put your tent up, how you.
00:02:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Look.
00:02:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
After your hands and face in sort of -30 and below. So.
00:02:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It took a lot of training and fundraising and.
00:02:57
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:00 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Sacrifices. And I was like super single minded about it and I did that journey in 2019 and got to the South Pole in 42 days and and became only the 7th woman in history to do that journey. And I think at the time I thought well it's just because.
00:03:12
Well.
00:03:14 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Was it's really expensive and I had to go and get corporate fundraising for that. Or maybe it's, you know, maybe it's just cause it's really far away. But actually it was an incredibly difficult and it's just really hard and and at times quite miserable. But there's something very kind of captivating about polar travel that sort of simplicity of life, that kind of being in the elements of the environment.
00:03:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And even the solo stuff was quite sort of, you know, that that was something that I learned to do after, you know, because we never run our own. Really. So I I I did that journey finished in 2020.
00:03:48 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And obviously COVID happened.
00:03:51
But.
00:03:52 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Antarctica is always in my in my mind. I guess in my heart, in a way it kind of gets you that way. And once you've been, you just kind of would do anything to go back. And so I I, I cooked up this idea because if I looked at all the maths of it, I only needed to be 7% faster to break the the women's record as it stood at the time, which was 38 days, 23 hours, so 39.
00:03:57
Yes, yes.
00:04:12 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Means effectively and and the the Sheen who dares. I didn't actually name the expedition a colleague at at Shackleton where I work now named it, but I think it's absolutely genius and I I loved it straight away because.
00:04:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Really.
00:04:25 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
There's kind of obviously a play on the, you know, who dares wins, who dares and stuff which.
00:04:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:04:31 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
There there are kind of a couple of ways of of interpreting who dares wins, and it's almost like just by daring you're you're winning if sort of me. So she who dares is was really I really wanted to focus on it being obviously a a female expedition. A woman.
00:04:45 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Doing it and you know you dare each other to do things as kids, don't you? But you very rarely kind of have that sort of daring your yourself to do things and kind of putting yourself out of your.
00:04:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Comfort zone and.
00:04:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
The yeah, the daring part for me. And it it, it still stands. Even now I'm backwards actually telling everybody that I was intending to do this because.
00:04:56
Right here.
00:05:03 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's very what I'd like to have done is kind of hide away and go well, we'll.
00:05:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
See how it goes and.
00:05:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know.
00:05:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It might go well, it might not. But you know, if it goes well, then I'll tell people you have to kind of really stand up and and and fly the flag for what you're intending to do. And that's kind of scary. So the the name really kind of encapsulated what it was. And it was this idea to.
00:05:11
Yeah.
00:05:25 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To to just go go that bit faster and my intention was to go do it in 36 days, which would take, you know, a good more than 7% but a.
00:05:33 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Good percentage off.
00:05:34 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And and I thought it was basically that simple. I trained at least 7% harder, which is kind of the easy, but I'm quite good at sort of making.
00:05:43 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Myself, stick to that, that routine.
00:05:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And tyre hauling and gym and everything. And I I was really forensic about I had a sports psychologist, had a sleep consultant.
00:05:47 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:05:55 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I had various testing at University of Bedfordshire. I thought I'd done absolutely everything that I I needed to do and I was went in kind of feeling quite well prepared and confident, but it it definitely what happened in the end was Antarctica had a lot to teach me about, you know, humanity in the face of nature.
00:06:15 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That things you can and can't control. I wouldn't say it was a I wouldn't say it was a disaster because I've taken so much from that and learned so much from that. But it kind of was bad on.
00:06:23 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Day one, it went downhill from there.
00:06:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I think I think you you pretty much.
00:06:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Kind of captured there, didn't you? Is that it? It's. There's always something to be gained from these kind of big life. Concealing adventures, aren't there? You know it. It's it's never just a case of getting to the summit or getting to the finish line there. There's always there. That's almost in. In some ways, the easy part, isn't it? It's the generating interest generating the funds.
00:06:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Or it training for it, balancing all of the the different demands that come with essentially what is a a kind of a second job, isn't it? Because it's it's you have to treat it almost with so much attention and focus and energy, is it? It can become like a, you know, a second job, obviously in in addition to.
00:07:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, obviously four children like you saying, you know, running a house, you know, having having a job doing all of the all of the, the other other stuff is a a second job on top of it is actually probably the last thing you want, you know, and most days, isn't it? You know, it's it's.
00:07:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
It it's so much an extra time consumption but then.
00:07:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
See having been to the South Pole is that you know how within your grasp it is. So you're like, well, if I just do do this and make these changes and I can, I can. I'm in with a real shot of getting this. I think it's in in some ways it's harder being in that position than it is you know to to say well, I'm just gonna go to the South Pole.
00:07:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, because because you don't know that what's involved with that project, you almost, you know, you kind of figure that out on the way and that kind of keeps you drawn in motivating you. Whereas I think it's even harder when you know something in your reach that you, you just need to work a bit harder to to get.
00:08:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yes.
00:08:04 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I definitely think that it was it. It felt like when I.
00:08:06 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Started before I.
00:08:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Were left. It felt like it was within my grasp and then trying to and I I got sick at the logistics base in called Union Glacier. So I'd gone into Antarctica and stayed there for sort of 5-6 days, tinkering with kits, dialling everything, making sure that I get got rid of as much weight in.
00:08:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
My pole as possible.
00:08:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And I picked up some sort of chest infection. Was it COVID? I don't know, but I was pretty unwell and was taking antibiotics and the antibiotics then gave me once I got out, onto onto the ice.
00:08:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I had some stomach issues, then my skis snapped and then there was, like, terrible weather and really bad ground conditions and the the kind of cumulative effect of that plus trying to make the mileage and the pressure that I it's quite interesting because I always like I I don't know if you're familiar with Park Run. I don't know if it's made it to.
00:08:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Estonia.
00:08:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yet, but yeah, I actually hate Park run, even though I keep.
00:08:56
Good.
00:08:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I love to do it, but I feel under so much pressure and everyone's like, well, there's no pressure, but I I put myself under so much pressure and so I was, I was definitely putting myself under a huge amount of pressure to make the mileage everyday.
00:09:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And and you know, and whatever the conditions you have to make that mileage and you know, it was mentally a completely different game for me. Whether that was because.
00:09:17 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I wasn't well.
00:09:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Or, you know, it was a combination of factors. But yeah, I was in a completely different sort of headspace. And yeah, you're right. I think going back, you know exactly how hard it's going to be.
00:09:29 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And and it was a a real kind of shock and and made me really sort of rethink.
00:09:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Think lots of things about exhibition life, but what was really I think my big takeaway from that journey was when I took the decision to stop and then let people know the kind of the, the love and support that I had from people, which I totally wasn't expecting, I'm sort of expecting people to go. Ohh yeah. You know, you're so rubbish.
00:09:55 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You didn't complete, obviously.
00:09:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I was gonna say that, but maybe that's again my sort of.
00:09:59 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Internal, yeah.
00:10:00 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
My my inner critic. But you know, everybody's friends, family, strangers, sponsors, people already in Antarctica, people in the polar community. Everyone's just like you, you know, you, you you made the right decision and.
00:10:14 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, it's Antarctica will still be there and it's almost harder to make that decision to stop that is just to kind of keep plodding on. And I thought I'd feel terrible about it. Maybe I'm waiting for the crash of, you know, when it all sort of catches up with me. But I I definitely feel like I'm when they pick me up as soon as they pick me up, like the overwhelming emotion was just relief. Not ohh. You know, I kind of kept going or.
00:10:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Because sometimes when.
00:10:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You when? Like if you're doing a long run or something you feel like, oh, maybe I didn't run as hard as I could have done. You on reflection, but actually I felt like I gave it everything. And you know, the fact that it's still.
00:10:48 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, I wasn't gonna make the record that season, and I'd already reached the pole. Everything was sort of pointing to, you know, the safe thing to do was to was to stop. So, yeah, it's been an interesting. It was an interesting season.
00:11:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, I think there's there's a few interesting things there. I think probably the probably the biggest one for me is is that you went, you said essentially when kind of what six or seven years ago, you had no you you had never done this stuff before like like that's the like, the utterly astounding thing for me is is that.
00:11:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Is that I don't having come from like a a slow background. Where did you know? Did Duke of Edinburgh as a youngster and that kind of sets, you know, some ideas in my mind. And then, you know, air cadets and doing the military and there's kind of like a slow, you know, you could almost follow like a journey where it's like, you know, the idea got planted and then and then kind of ended up just having a a real interest in this stuff, but I think.
00:11:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I think what's worse of standing is that he he didn't have any any of this kind of interest or passion or drive or motivation for.
00:11:47 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, these real, real huge life changing events, you know, and there's certain world record and you're going to places that you know hardly anyone has ever been to.
00:11:59 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It doesn't. Yeah, it kind of sounds mad when you say it like that. But when it when I was younger, my parents took me to sort of wet, wet weeks in the Lake District and Dartmouth and stuff. So maybe there was something there, but I.
00:12:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
We didn't. I fell back in love with the outdoors when I started doing a bit of foul running in in the South Shropshire Hills, so that was only, you know, that was only a few years ago. Really. When you think about it. But I think it that's really interesting because and to kind of develop that that sort of that conversation a little bit because I definitely feel that.
00:12:30 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's there's, there's a bit of a, you know, you can only be an adventurer if you grew up that way, or you did spend time in the military or your parents were adventurers or you know, they that that that you've gotta have been doing working towards it, that that it doesn't feel as authentic if you're kind of coming to it from left field. But I that's totally not the case. And you know you.
00:12:50 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I feel like also that 40 I'm 45 now 45 isn't old, you know, with this you you can still start doing new things when you're you can find your passion, you can, you know, discover a new love when you're 40 or 50 or 60, you know? And and it's it's never too late.
00:13:05 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To go for it.
00:13:06
Yeah.
00:13:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, that's. I mean, that's that's such sage advice as well as is because the the I think I I turned 40 this year and I I definitely have those you know those fears and like well I'm still kind of recovering from my mountaineering accident, you know, am I still am I gonna be running across deserts or doing these things that I've you know fallen in love with doing over the past decade.
00:13:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
And and actually more my more my interests now are are turning towards.
00:13:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, kind of sciences and and you know tech and coding and stuff. And but I'm like, well, at the same time as I know that this stuff is what actually brings me alive and also keeps, you know, gives me almost like a borderline obsessive focus on not, you know, getting away from a laptop screen, getting, getting out and doing, you know, improving my swim times or my, you know, my bike.
00:13:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Backing skills or just or things like that.
00:13:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Which which I don't know it kind of it give it gives me purpose and and colour and vibrancy which I think is you know it is kind of where it exactly where it should be or what it's it should be.
00:14:05 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yeah, for sure. And I think if you're, you know, if you're coming to something new A, you know, don't worry about being rubbish at something to to begin with because that's how everybody starts. But BI think you bring so much. There's so much crossover with, you know, if if you discover how amazing it is to to have that passion or whether you've.
00:14:23 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Become part of a community because of that passion, you can really easily transfer that from coding to climbing or, you know, horse riding to polar travel. What whatever it is, you know that and and and it doesn't, you don't.
00:14:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Have to have always been.
00:14:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I was put extremely average at sport at school. It doesn't have to be something that you've kind of always.
00:14:43 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Always had a love for and have this amazing back story. Sometimes you can just decide that you're gonna do something different and bring all those other experiences with you.
00:14:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Such a strong message. I'm I'm. I'm literally going to make sure that's in the headline there because that's that's I think something like a lot of people need to hear and you know, especially in this this kind of era of social media, you know, where where I think we both kind of grew up with it in the last, you know, few decades and actually is is it kind of you know taking a step back from it and reminding yourself well actually.
00:15:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Keep people who are doing these these incredible world world, you know, life changing things.
00:15:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Haven't always, you know, had the long history of of doing it. Actually, it's something you can come to at any point of your life.
00:15:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
And.
00:15:27 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yeah. And I think you know that maybe there are some things that.
00:15:30 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, if you haven't been climbing for 25 years, you might never free solo El Capitan. But does that matter, you know, and.
00:15:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's.
00:15:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
About yeah, whether whether it's kind of the experience that it's important for you and I think when you're when you have a bit of more age and wisdom, it's definitely as much about that than it is about ticking a box or saying ohh, you know being able.
00:15:49 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To say oh.
00:15:50 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I've done whatever it is.
00:15:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, it's definitely about it sounds cheesy, but you know, it is about the journey. It is about those people you meet along the way and and being part of a sort.
00:15:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Of and just incredible or community, whether that's an outdoor community or you know your, your, your, your coding, online people or whatever that happens to be for you. You know, being those, it's connections with people. I think that really make the difference.
00:16:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
OK. Yeah, yeah. Touching. Yeah.
00:16:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I kind of want to jump into a I guess more of a technical question now it like, how did you prepare for something like this? I realise that that's probably a long, complicated generalist questions. I do I do apologise but it's the the idea of.
00:16:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
It's not just a marathon. We have to develop the fitness. It's also the the technical knowledge. It's the you mentioned the the temp, you know putting up the tent in the right order has to be done because obviously it's such a finite balance between, you know, minus what, 20-30 degrees to them being, you know, kind of warm and comfortable. So how, yeah, how do you prepare for this?
00:16:49 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I mean it's.
00:16:49 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yeah, you're right. It could be carried on answer, but there are there are definitely definitely elements and I would say the three elements are the sort of men.
00:16:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
At all.
00:16:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Mental and physical sort of preparation and skills and experience, because without all of those, it's quite you're making life more difficult for yourself. So if you were really good at using and repairing the cooker, but you weren't very fit, then that's, you know, that's probably not gonna work. And if you've if you've developed loads of skills of how to put a.
00:17:17 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Tent up or.
00:17:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Or, you know, repair a sleepy bag or whatever it is. But you've never been out on snow and ice, and again, you know, you're it's it. There's there's a sort of safety and and risk issues. So you've kind of gotta get those, those things all moving towards the end goal at a similar sort of rate and it sort of happens naturally in a way because as you're.
00:17:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Going and doing.
00:17:37 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
A traverse across Greenland. Then you kind of you gain an enormous amount of skill. You're you're doing the physical and you're gaining that experience. That's so important for going into a. So doing a solo journey. But I suppose it's a bit, you know, it starts more. So do a a week's course or a two week course and then you.
00:17:57 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You get enough experience to just make be able to go to the next step, and now I'm really lucky. I'm. I'm a I'm a guy and I take other people out to do these kind of journeys and share the amazing sort of magic of exhibitions with them. But and someone came on a 5 day sort of expedition.
00:18:14 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And at the end of it, he said, oh, I think, you know, I would come back and do this again. And I said no, no, no. You've gotta think about this a a completely different way. You were uncomfortable and apprehensive, but you could do it. And and what you need to do.
00:18:25 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Now is.
00:18:25 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Look to the next thing. That's yeah, that little bit you're apprehensive about. It's out of your comfort zone. But. But you know, you'll be pushing yourself to complete it, but as the next step.
00:18:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, if you're always sort of doing what you know you're capable of, you'll never. Yeah, you'll never kind of move along.
00:18:41 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That sort of journey of experiences and doing harder things you've gotta all not always be on that edge between and out of your comfort zone, but not in your panic zone. Somewhere in that sweet, sweet spot of, you know, it's it's hard, but it's achievable, but it's probably a little bit beyond where.
00:18:52
Yes.
00:19:01 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You were.
00:19:02 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Thinking that it might be.
00:19:03 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Sort of.
00:19:03
If you're free, yeah.
00:19:04 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Comfortable. So trying to trying to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and being in that sort of sweet spot is is good and saying yes, I've just. I've literally just read this some, some newspaper supplement about advice from people who are over 100 and it was one of them actually said.
00:19:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Always say yes to adventures and you just never know where that's going to go. So originally reversing right back to sort of 2015, I put my hand up and said I'd be the.
00:19:31 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Exhibition manager for.
00:19:32 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That, that team that went to do the Antarctic traverse, and that was probably a kind of.
00:19:38 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That was that, that sliding doors moment of just saying yes to something. No idea whether I could do it, or even what it entailed.
00:19:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But yeah, saying.
00:19:45 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yes, figuring out as I went along and it kind of opened this whole new world. So yeah, that's good advice from centre Denarians is that.
00:19:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
What they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm still thinking about that. You just gave an incredible.
00:19:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
But then I think it went something along the lines of be outside of your comfort zone, but not in your panic zone. It's like a. Yeah, that that's that's a a sound bite right there. So it's condense that into it, you know, into into writing cause that's that's fantastic. But I guess I guess in in.
00:20:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
In kind of broad brush handfuls, I mean like, what did your typical week look like when you're preparing for this or or preparing for any any polar expeditions? I mean in terms of the the, are you still learning technical skills kind of that close to it are you?
00:20:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Just doing fitness or?
00:20:31 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I would say you learn something on every single expedition that you go on. So if every time, even if it's only a weekend or.
00:20:36
Yeah.
00:20:38 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Equal. You know you're doing mountains, not polar. You. There's something somebody will show you something or you see someone do something, or you'll have this light bulb moment. You think? Ohh, that. Why have I never thought of that before? But the typical week would be in the sort of run up to an expedition. I would spend an hour a day.
00:20:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Probably doing some sort of fitness training plus a big tyre haul of four or five hours at the weekend and the rest of the time it would be, you know, finessing kit so a lot of the kit that the sort of clothing in particular sleeping bags, that kind of thing is made for an average.
00:21:16 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Man and I'm only 5 foot 5 so I I would get in the sleeping bag and there'd be, you know, a foot or so of sleeping bag at the bottom doing nothing. So I've got a sleeping bag made just just for for my dimensions and it's so much warmer. I was putting down jackets all around me before trying to kind of.
00:21:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Feel the space in this gigantic sleeping bag so, you know, think thinking about I'm way too obsessed as well. So anywhere that I can save weight, I'm always thinking about that and making sure that I've got, you know, my Med packs up to date. My first day's up to date.
00:21:39
Yeah.
00:21:45
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:52 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
With the fundraising, that's the kind of it's almost.
00:21:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
A whole different.
00:21:55 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Podcast about fundraising and and the media side. But you know, try tying down any last minute things with that and making sure that you're gathering the right content that that the sponsors want while you're out there. So there's a tonne of stuff to do and you know, I'm getting pretty good at at the packing.
00:22:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, and you, you definitely the first time I went and did a trip like this I had, you know, 5 pairs of gloves and six hats and things like that. But you get really dialled and know what works for you. So you can literally.
00:22:23 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Kind of grab everything and.
00:22:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And not you end up taking much less in terms of spares and extras because you know.
00:22:29 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Exactly what you use, exactly how much and and you can kind of finesse it that way. So you're always tinkering.
00:22:37 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Huge interesting to hear about the preparation for it, but how? How did the actual expedition go? The Shadows expedition actually go from your home to say to the to the, to the recovering in Antarctic going back home again. Because I think just the the sheer logistics of it.
00:22:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Some town, sometimes, you know, really assuming themselves here because it's not like you can just get a a, you know, a flight or a train to Antarctica. It's a super remote place. So yeah. How do?
00:23:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
How do?
00:23:05 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You do it. I always say that the the exhibition starts the minute you leave the the front door of your house. Really. But you. So I had to get.
00:23:13 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Back to Heathrow. And then you go Heathrow to Santiago in Chile and then you.
00:23:20
You.
00:23:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Well, I think this like they've got the times and they've changed the timing. So you're then stuck in Santiago for 12 hours and then you get on a domestic flight right to the southern tip of Chile to a place called Punta Arenas. And it was sold to me as a sort of one horse town. But it's not like that at all. It's a really beautiful old colonial pretty place. And the people are amazing. It's one of my favourite places in the.
00:23:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
World and it's a it was the jumping off point for so many Antarctic journeys like Scott and Shackleton went there. Who who was sailing the Beagle? Darwin. He was. He went there.
00:23:45 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Oh wow.
00:23:55 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
As well and.
00:23:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So people kind of go to, to refuel and and replenish the ships and things. And there's a huge amount of Shackleton.
00:24:04 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
History. There you can go and see where.
00:24:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
He he signed some books at a school. He was there. There's a building where he went. So it's you're kind of soaking up that that polar history and you spend about 5 days there just chopping, chopping cheese, sorting your your kit because there are some things that you can't bring with you, like fresh food and stuff. And then you're depositing.
00:24:17
Heron.
00:24:27 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Or your your, your.
00:24:28 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Food for the journey into 24 hour bags, essentially. So that'll have a a bag of your your freeze dried dinner. Your freeze dried breakfast.
00:24:38 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Just your sort of daytime snacks because you're not stopping to put put the stove on, put the tent up so you're just having a mouth full of every time you you stop for a break, which is usually about every hour 90 minutes. Somewhere between that and you, you know, grab a mouth full of nuts and chocolate and things. So preparing all that into the 24 hour rations takes quite a quite a long time.
00:24:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:24:59 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:25:00 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So you spend some time doing that, you have some sort of Commons cheques because the logistics team have a a sort of sort of building office in Pinto arenas. And then then you fly in on a chartered plane. So it used to be a, an illusion, which is a cargo plane.
00:25:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And now they've they've graduated to taking people in on a passenger jet. So it's actually nice and a passenger jet land. It lands on this blue rice runway at this place called Union Glacier and and the the they only have the camp. The camp's an amazing place in itself because they only have the camp for two or three months of the year and they.
00:25:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Have.
00:25:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To clear the runway of snow and then they get smaller.
00:25:39 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Planes in and then people start up the camp and then they bring this passenger jet in and when it was the cargo plane there were there were no windows.
00:25:47 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And so you're kind of, there's a load of stuff in the back that supplies, and then the, the, the plane lure is like a portaloo behind the curtain and stuff. It was really kind of rough and ready, but actually that was part of the charm of it. And when you landed on the rice runway the first time I'd ever seen Antarctica was when they opened the door, and it was just this kind of magical. It felt like I'd gone into this sort of magical.
00:26:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Well and but this time it was a pestered it which is way more comfortable, but it doesn't definitely doesn't have quite the same quite the same charm. So we then get into the new the logistics space and I spent.
00:26:17 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, just.
00:26:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I spent a.
00:26:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Little while there, this time last time it was a.
00:26:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Few days I.
00:26:25 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Bounce through, but you get your fuel because you can't fly with that. You have cheques with the medical team, the communications team, and you have to do a schedule. Call it once every 24 hours while you're out on the ice, so you get.
00:26:36 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
A A.
00:26:37
Yeah.
00:26:37 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Daily slot for that and then you get in a twin.
00:26:40 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Not a ski plane, and they drop you.
00:26:42 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Whatever your chosen start point was, and mine was a place called Hercules Inlet, which is.
00:26:47 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Was it was sort of. They dropped you actually on the sea ice, so the floating?
00:26:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Ice have just.
00:26:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To.
00:26:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Ensure that you're, you know, in no way could be seen as cheating by starting on the you sort of start on the ice sheet and then within a couple of kilometres you're on the continental sort of land mass, Antarctica. And then that's it. You're on your own. There's no kind of the start point, it's.
00:27:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:05 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Just a a random.
00:27:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Bit of ice. You know, there's nothing there. So that's quite weird. You kind of the the pilots fly off and and leave you there and you're completely on your own. And there's this great fact which is like, I feel like it's a bit of an urban myth I'm perpetuating. But anyway, that you that you could be.
00:27:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:27:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
We'll be there.
00:27:23 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
The the closest other person could be on the International Space Station when you're alone in Antarctica, and I just love that because you know, it just, even, even if that's not quite technically right, it's all there or thereabouts and it gives you an idea of just how isolated and remote this place is. So and then you when you do get to a pole, well, a disaster, but when.
00:27:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:27:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
If you get to pole, they then fly you back and then you kind of do the whole thing in reverse so you don't have.
00:27:48 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To go ski back from from the South Pole.
00:27:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah, I I I'm. I'm just thinking that literally that's a that's a International Space Station. So it's the same with ocean rowing as well. So when you when you when the kind of the race kind of like you know spreads out a bit and people find their own their own route, I think it's it's fit. I might be misquoting this but it's about 30 miles. I think the International Space Centre so that you get the same.
00:28:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Get the same sense of kind of almost like loneliness and remoteness or austerity, maybe.
00:28:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I've forgotten you've you've done that, actually. And I did think about ocean rowers when I was out there this time and felt how much it was like.
00:28:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:28:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Being alone on an ocean just, you know, the way it looks and the sort of surface of the ice and just the whole sort of isolation. Yeah, it was. There's a lot of similarities, I think.
00:28:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I I think I.
00:28:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Think.
00:28:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I don't know in some ways, because with ocean rain you obviously set off from, you know, an island and you you've still got phone reception for, you know, for like a day or so or, you know, probably even longer than that. I think almost there's probably almost this.
00:28:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
It always feels like it would be harder if you literally got out of a plane. You know, you got your pork, you're set up. You're, you know, you're you're, you're good to go. And the plane just flies off. And then all of a sudden, you're like, oh, so I'm. I'm literally here and there's.
00:29:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
There's nothing. There's nothing else here. There's there's nothing else. Yeah.
00:29:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
In it the first time, it was really daunting and the second time probably more so in some ways, because I knew kind of what was ahead of me. But so yeah, this season in Antarctica was quite an interesting one because once I got back once I've been picked up and taken back to Union. Gracia, I then spent sort of 7-8 days.
00:29:11
Yeah.
00:29:27 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Eating and sleeping and being checked over and you know I I think the the main thing was, you know, I'd I'd started to recover from the chest infection and and it was just sort of exhausted. And then I I felt fine and then everyone was saying, oh, you know, you should do Mount Vincent while you're here, which is Antarctica's.
00:29:43 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Highest peak and.
00:29:44 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I think it's like 4, eight 4800 metres.
00:29:47 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And so it's not it's not high high, but everyone says it feels higher because something to do with the ionosphere and the air.
00:29:52 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Pressure. I don't know.
00:29:53 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But but it feels more like A6000 metre peak. And then I haven't really done anything.
00:29:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I've climbed like a couple of 14000 metre peak in in the Alps, but that was pretty much it. That was my sum total of my experience, so I'd actually brought brought fresh out the box which is always a bad idea, but I bought fresh out the box some 6000 metre boots and taken them down with me just.
00:30:13 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
In just on the off chance.
00:30:15 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Because you know, you've gotta sort of grab those opportunities where where you find them.
00:30:19 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You. You. I didn't know that. If I'd ever go to Antarctica ever again, I I have an inkling that I might now, but so I had these boots, but I didn't really have anything else. I didn't. I have my polar gear and I sort of beg borrowed and stole. But it was like the whole triangle of stuff again, because I had good fit.
00:30:34 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
This and we have to look after myself in the environment, but I didn't have any mountain experience to speak of and so I was super worried. I was gonna be the weak link. And you know, if I'm honest, like I thought if I if I messed that up again, if I'm if I messed up as well, that's gonna be like I'm gonna, you know, be really in the doldrums and and it's gonna be a bad thing. So it's really important that I, you know, I didn't mess it up.
00:30:39
Period.
00:30:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Dear.
00:30:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But fortunately I I had a great guide and and it's it was hard in. It wasn't like it's not technically a hard mountain. It's just hard for all the other reasons. So I was, I was all.
00:31:06 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Right. And made it to the top and actually ended up sharing the mountain with Alex Honnold. I'm sure you.
00:31:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:31:12 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Know who he is.
00:31:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah. Wow.
00:31:14 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So for anyone that's listening that doesn't know he's like this rock climbing God, and he did free solo El Capitan, which is what made me think of it earlier. But he's he's just a super kind of humble, nice, normal person. But if if anyone had said Ohh, who was the most famous person you'd wanna meet, you know, I'd. I'd have probably picked him. So that kind of really made.
00:31:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
The season it was really. And then my my partner flew in and he was doing a last degree with clients.
00:31:42 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So we all met at the South Pole. And so actually I kind of fell back in love with Antarctica again.
00:31:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It.
00:31:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Was kind of really important that I did those things more than I realised at the time and just I'm just so grateful that kind of I was able to do that. So yeah, I mean.
00:31:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It was, it's.
00:31:58 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's just one of those things where.
00:32:01 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know you can the the, the bouncing back thing I guess and being able to reframe what happened as well. This is a learning process. What am I gonna go on to do next and you know.
00:32:11 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I'm not gonna be.
00:32:13 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I'm not gonna feel less of an adventurer or anything like that because of what happened. It's. I'm just gonna, you know, go move on to the next thing and make the most of my time here. So that and it did definitely help.
00:32:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah. Yeah. And just to put into context as well is that I love you. Like it's just a a 4800.
00:32:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Me to mount him. It's like obviously the the oxygen decreases every every hundred metres above 1800. So you're you're what, 20? About 25% less oxygen. From what I can gather from that kind of height. But it's also also the fact that you.
00:32:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You, you. You.
00:32:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Cracked a 4800 metre mountain after what, 440 days on the ice?
00:32:54 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I was only actually out this time for 14 days, so I definitely wasn't wasn't as depleted by any means.
00:32:58
You're both.
00:33:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
But a chest infection and you know, obviously all the other, you know, all the other pressures of you know kind of, you know, pulling the pulling the pull beyond the anti antibiotics. And I think it's, yeah, I I you're just like I it's it's just.
00:33:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
It's just, yeah, I do. I do, Vincent, because it's, you know, I'm I'm here and it should be done. Everyone. I think there's a.
00:33:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Lot of people who.
00:33:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Have gone. Wow, Vincent, that's you know that's it. Is that is a.
00:33:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
A A difficult challenge for you know, for for people to do, you know, even if you weren't having just done 14 days.
00:33:29 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yeah.
00:33:31 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Well, I think I think they're so afraid of messing it up all the time, aren't we? I think that was and and that that was definitely the biggest fear. But that was the biggest fear about going through the expedition. And then when that actually.
00:33:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:41 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Happened when?
00:33:41 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I failed as such.
00:33:43 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, being able to kind of.
00:33:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Look, failure in the face. If you wanna call it that. But you know really kind of.
00:33:51 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Face that experience that and and well didn't end, you know, failure is something that happens.
00:33:59 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To everyone. And I think if you're not failing, maybe you're not.
00:34:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Trying hard enough. Yeah, no, I agree. I've got the same. The same kind of mindset in that failure should also be a classification for how kind of how much you're kind of living outside of that comfort zone. Because obviously if you're if you're not, if I'm not failing the way I see it, if I'm not failing enough, then I'm not kind of.
00:34:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Pushing myself to grow.
00:34:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Enough. You know, in that so.
00:34:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know the the amount of failures I have is directly proportional to how hard I'm trying. So I'm kind of coasting. If I'm not having enough failures, which is only it's only really kind of a a mindset that I kind of adopted after. So I I tried to go for special forces selection the same as kind of cross a lot of other other military, you know, military officers and you know.
00:34:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
And then couldn't couldn't put it together when you know I was stuck, my body was starting to fall to pieces. You know, from from this over train.
00:34:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Thing and you know this this extra effort I was trying to put on as well as the the job, but you know, kind of years later now I'll come to put it into context and say, well, you know that's this is kind of what it looks like when I'm when I'm outside my comfort zone. So as long as I'm not as long as I'm not experiencing those things again, then I should be able to to.
00:35:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Go for these bigger these bigger. What is the proportion, do you think of?
00:35:11 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Area to six.
00:35:12 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Yes.
00:35:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
OK, that's that's a really good, good one to put me on the on the on the spot with I think I think probably I my my psyche would be maybe 11 big failure every every five years I think is is maybe is a good one I'm I'm maybe I'm kind of.
00:35:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I want to to kind of finish off learning some coding skills before I take on medical school. So medical Medical school is my next big, you know, my next big goal because I I I've I've had the interest for.
00:35:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
15 years now and and it's only really doing during the pandemic. That's I kind of sat there and I really started looking at well, can I can I pass the entrance test? Let's that would be the first indicator if it would be a, you know, a worthy challenge to take on. And I I was able to start passing the entrance tests so I was like OK well I've got. I've got no excuse. I can't really just let this.
00:36:05 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That's so amazing that it's, like, exactly what we're.
00:36:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
When?
00:36:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Talking about though, right?
00:36:09 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Is, you know, coming to things a bit later and what you can bring with you because of that. And actually what you said about, you know, the being able to put things into context later on. I feel like we do have a lot more.
00:36:20 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Self-awareness. We might call it wisdom, I don't know, but self-awareness and knowledge about the world that we're able to deal with things that are challenging, we're able to deal with failure better and but you can only do that with practise. So it is.
00:36:35 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Important to fail often.
00:36:37 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, I think that's kind of what you know dealing with the the pandemic for example is, was that it kind of kind of had to do like a bit of a career change, you know, during the pandemic when when the the kind of the thing that I was focused on kind of travel risk wasn't really happening and I was I was the injured from a a man during an accident so.
00:36:55 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, but it kind of felt like it came a lot easier than if I had been 10 years younger, you know, 15 years younger. So I'd I'd put all those, all those failures down actually, was that, you know, I guess in in a roundabout way, they do build resilience as well because you then have to, you know, like when you are there alone on the ocean or on the on the ice, you know, you're you're kind of.
00:37:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You you playing these scenarios out? You know a game, the game, the game, you know, whether you, whether you want to or not some days so.
00:37:20 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I think you do have. You have a lot of thinking time. You know your your mind's busy thinking about, you know, am I warming up for my is my core cool enough?
00:37:28 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, what do I need to do at the next break? But also.
00:37:30 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You you do have that kind of.
00:37:32 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You almost like separate bit of you. That's sort of reflecting on things that have happened earlier in your life or you know, and doing a bit of sort of mental mental spring cleaning.
00:37:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:37:43 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah. Yeah, that's such a good way of putting it. I remember when when I rolled across the Atlantic, I the first two weeks, I didn't didn't do anything of them, just row. It's it's on. So you know after two weeks I I I stopped listening to podcasts and listened to music and actually just kind of sat there and thought it was the first two weeks.
00:38:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I was almost.
00:38:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Still kind of moving at quite a fast pace and you know and and think and want to listen to podcasts and audio books and stuff, and then for some reason, just like one day it just stopped. And I was like.
00:38:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I just wanna sit here and.
00:38:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Think. Yeah. No, it's it's.
00:38:13 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Which we don't get the chance to do very often. So that's another reason why expeditions, you know, should be should be essential in whatever capacity that means to you.
00:38:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, completely agree. Yeah. Well, I mean it. It does get me on to my next question into in what advice would you have for other people who want to go to the South Pole as well? I mean other other than.
00:38:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Don't, don't do it.
00:38:37 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
No, I I mean it depends if you mean practical or sort of I think the the the thing that I would advise is consistency. So whether that means you're consistently training, you're consistently fundraising, you're consistently going out and getting skills and experience. Because I suppose the analogy is you want to train for marathon.
00:38:59 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Go and do a 10 mile run. You're totally exhausted. You don't do anything for three weeks.
00:39:02
Yeah.
00:39:03 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
If you're chipping away at it all the time, like you said, it almost becomes another job, but it becomes a part of your life and there's definitely a tipping point where first we have to tell everybody what you're going to do because then you can't back out of it. But where an an expedition kind of takes on.
00:39:15
Yeah.
00:39:17 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
A momentum.
00:39:17 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Of its own. And you're not going towards this. The start of this journey at this end point.
00:39:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Almost. Whether you want to or not, and I think that's a that's a good thing because then you can't kind of, you can't back out. You can't sort of put it off to another time and it that's a good place to be in. And if you are apprehensive, that's again a good a good thing, a good emotion I think so yeah, I think start and then just keep chipping away.
00:39:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, it's in the you mentioned almost like a, a a business metaphor that I've heard of in the past. I forget Jim Collins. I think it was. He talks about this flywheel effect of where you you to get anything to to move you essentially it's you use this metaphor about pushing this giant heavy flywheel where at first it moves a little bit you know but then.
00:40:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
After a long sustained effort, it will then start to move its own weight. You know it just, but it just takes a long time to get the thing moving at the start and you don't ever see any.
00:40:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Any small gains from it, because obviously you're you're pushing as you can, you're only seeing a tiny bit of change, but after a while after that, that sustained effort, you're you're seeing the whole thing is just moving because of its own weight, you know.
00:40:26 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I think, yeah, it's really interesting to kind of.
00:40:27 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Look back and.
00:40:28 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
See where you were and it's quite hard in the moment to be like, oh, I'm, you know, I've, I've, I've done this. So I've come this far. But then just, you know, whenever I do a talk and I did a talk last weekend, but I had to put some photos together of of things that I'd done.
00:40:42 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And I was looking at these photos, thinking actually, I've done a hell of a lot much more than you know. If you told me to just kind of sit down and write a list, I'll have. I'd have forgotten half of what I've done in the like, you know, I've, I'm, I and I I definitely recognise how fortunate I am to have done all those things. But you know the I've probably done where, where perhaps you or people in the military might have sort of done.
00:40:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:41:04 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
This here and there. I've had a really concentrated.
00:41:08 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Probably 7 years now. We're getting on for of immersion in that world and have done so much. You know, it's it's been a really amazing kind of complete life shift, complete life change.
00:41:10
Yeah.
00:41:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, I guess. But in that in that because you've you've come round to it in a in a winnable period as in seven years. I mean, have you have you, can you see any lessons that you've learned in the last seven years of of undertaking this stuff that you were like you maybe saw had been missing before?
00:41:37 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
That, as in, I don't know if if you see any benefits in your professional life, in your relationships or your friendships or you know, can you see anything where you go? Ohh, that definitely came from this.
00:41:45
I think.
00:41:48 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
This experience, yeah, definitely. I mean in the in the round, I would say a sense of perspective.
00:41:53 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
About what's important.
00:41:54
Yes.
00:41:55 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So you know, you might have a leaky roof or.
00:41:57 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You're in. You're in a traffic jam or it's raining when you wanted it to be sunny or you dropped your favourite bowl or whatever it is you know when.
00:42:03 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You're.
00:42:03 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Thinking about what's important is is.
00:42:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know, life, death and relationships. Really. And that's almost everything. And you know, I I felt that I've only learned that from going away and doing these, these journeys that you, you recognise what's important and you know just being being able to have a hot shower or turn on a tap or go to a supermarket and choose food. And I it's like.
00:42:28 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Like you can't bottle sleep like you can't. You know, once, once you needed to go to sleep, you need to go sleep. But I I think you need to go and do those journeys or some sort of.
00:42:38 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Experience where you're in that uncomfortable position, even if it's a day's hiking or whatever, to remind yourself of what's important in life, and to be grateful for that, that hot meal in the pub at the end of the the hike or whatever, whatever that is, you know that getting that perspective as as to how lucky we are, you know that is is sort of.
00:42:51
Yeah.
00:42:59 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Again, part of the kind of expedition the the reason for expeditions and there's intrinsic value to their expeditions and going and seeing these incredible places and pushing yourself to the limits. But.
00:43:09 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It's the other things that I've learned along the way that have been so that that are so stand out for me and that's why my mission is to get more people to to be going and doing these things.
00:43:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, yeah, I would actually would just putting video actually is my next question is is how do you think kind of busy people professionals in careers as well, how how can we weave more of this stuff into already busy lifestyle? So I realise it's it's.
00:43:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Sometimes, sometimes it's it's hard to get it in when you don't, when you don't really want to do it or or it's not easily accessible. It's how do you kind of push, push that out. The way to kind of.
00:43:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Get it in there. I mean, that's it's definitely not easy. And and again, I'm privileged that I had, I could kind of make time and it is like it's like wedges of time almost where, you know.
00:43:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
If you've got a lunch break, go and do something, a lunch break and and if you don't do that, you've kind of lost the opportunity to put something towards your your your long term goal goal. But I think it's a mindset thing as well. So always challenging yourself. So the example when when you sent the question.
00:44:12 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
A few days ago I had kind of thought about this and and and how I would approach that, and I think so. I used to ride my rickety old bike 8 miles there and back to to my work for a couple of years and it was. It wasn't big things, but I'd be like ohh can I climb this hill in a higher gear?
00:44:32 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Or can I make a? Can I get a minute off the time today because it's like it's it's not. It's the winds. Not on my face. And you know, can I can I? I don't know like.
00:44:43 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Add 10 minutes to the run that I did before breakfast. Or can I, you know, make myself something slightly healthier? And it's like those incremental things all the time of, you know, being in that mindset of challenge and challenging yourself. No one else ever has to know about that. You know, it's just for you. And and I think that's how you can and and there's so many adventures.
00:44:50
Yeah, yeah.
00:45:02 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That you can have on your doorstep, you know, really kind of exploring where you live. And I think a lot of us experienced that and locked down I I found.
00:45:09 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That there were pile of site, you know where I was at the time that I'd I I lived there for 10 years and I've never walked on that path and it was half a mile from my house. And and being able to see things in that way. Even though you're not.
00:45:16
Yeah.
00:45:24 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You know in Antarctica or at the top of the mountain, you know, can you notice new things and being curious about the world? And I think that that that's the mindset and you can have challenge every day that.
00:45:34
OK.
00:45:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, I I guess it almost, I think people will probably thinking the same is it sounds a lot like our Humphreys microadventures concept where you you always you always have those those kind of predetermined packets of time. I think you you you said and then finding some way of kind of adding a a little bit of challenge or or you know.
00:45:55 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
With potential some way you can you.
00:45:56 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Can.
00:45:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Challenge yourself into into those into those times and and.
00:46:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I could have. I've developed it into a concept myself of something which I call compound adventure, which is then is a load of microadventures add up to something bigger. So my my compound adventure for example, in the next few years is to try and cycle the whole UOL 11 route, which is goes from North Cap in Norway. The northern most point of Europe or we're down to.
00:46:23 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
This.
00:46:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
The the base of Greece or something like that. It's it's a a few 1000 kilometres, but I can do it in incrementally and say, you know, a few days cycling across the Estonia, which I did last year and then this year might try and do some some of the Finland leg and then the year after that maybe do some some of the the Latvia leg for example and that's that then.
00:46:44 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Going to keep gives me enough of that.
00:46:45 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
That's you know that that kind of taste of and distraction from work but also overtime builds up into something something bigger so it's.
00:46:52 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That's such a great idea. You should copyright that term immediately, and I I love our answers and I love this white for adventure concept, so I if I've pinched any ideas off him, I'm sorry, I'll that it's all it all kind of comes down to the same thing, doesn't it? About finding those ways that you can you can access adventure.
00:46:53 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
All.
00:46:59 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah. So yeah.
00:47:09 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And challenge and.
00:47:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Whatever that means.
00:47:11 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
To you and however, you can kind of fit that into your life.
00:47:13 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I love the idea of, you know, a sort of a life's work of cycling across the world or whatever, but doing it in sections, you know, why not?
00:47:20 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
And it means that you've always got something to go for and always got something to build on. I think that's, yeah, compound adventures.
00:47:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah. Yeah, kind of.
00:47:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Gives you direction as well. It certainly gives me direction because then I'm then I'm like right? I need to get out and it's like, minus what? -10 outside at the moment. And so, you know, today, today I won't necessarily be mountain biking because there's there's, like a foot or two of snow on the ground. But, you know, when it all melts in a few weeks time, I'm like, right, I'm going to.
00:47:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Get out and do.
00:47:47 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
You know, two weeks worth of of cycling in in a few days and just spend, you know, the next week after that probably exhausted and recovering but.
00:47:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
But if you can fit it in, you know, and sometimes it is. You know about conditions and stuff as well. I I really hate running in the dark and early mornings, and my coach is always like, up at some godforsaken hour and running in his head talk for my I.
00:47:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:48:07 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
It I just don't need to do that. I can, you know, I can go out and daylight and enjoy some enjoy some nature and sunshine. So it's you know it's however work however it.
00:48:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah.
00:48:15 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Works for you.
00:48:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Definitely too many bad memories from the militia and early morning fitness. Yeah, like, I guess. OK, so last last question is.
00:48:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Ohh my days I know.
00:48:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
An obvious one here is what's the next challenge and and you know, please be as honest or or or I don't have to share things that are under wraps if.
00:48:34 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You don't want to. Well, I think as I mentioned earlier, I don't know if you're gonna include this in the edit, but about how I talked about how Antarctica really kind of takes takes you you it draws you in and you really.
00:48:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Just think about going back all the time, so I'd love there to be something in Antarctica and I'm hoping if we have enough clients that I'll, I'll get to go and guide last degree that our 60 nautical miles in Antarctica to the South Pole, which is an incredible.
00:48:58
Yeah.
00:49:00 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That so that would be my first solo guiding trip. So that's kind of a a huge deal for me. But they're, you know, they're definitely be something. And I I think you have a real post expedition Blues experience. You know, it's a really common thing and the only solution is to plan something else. And then you're back in that cycle of something put forward to something to aim for, something to train.
00:49:22 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
For so, there definitely will be something, but I'm very busy with guiding for work and so that's that's definitely my priority at the moment. But I've got all sorts of other ideas about trying to because my mission is about getting people out into our ventures.
00:49:37 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Somehow trying to give people enough skills to go out giving people cause I'm I'm I somehow passed my mountain leader just before Christmas, so that was exciting.
00:49:45
Wow.
00:49:48 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
That's that's just that's that's that's fantastic, that's like.
00:49:51
It's it sound like.
00:49:52 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
One of the biggest achievements of.
00:49:53 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
My life it was so hard. So.
00:49:53 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
3 not 10 minutes.
00:49:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Someone out there?
00:49:56 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Incredible congratulations.
00:49:56 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Somewhere it's time we have to take people up mountains, so get on board and then you know, giving them the skills and the equipment because people either don't have it, they don't know what they need. They don't know how to use it. And giving people enough skills to go out and do their.
00:50:11 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Own thing would feel.
00:50:12 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Like a mission that you need to empower other people to go and do those things would be really powerful. So yeah.
00:50:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I'd love to do that.
00:50:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Fantastic. So I don't wanna Friday is out there, but it sounds like.
00:50:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Guiding the last degree and then up Vince and is my is my geography is correct is that can you do the last degree and then what flight flight flight to Vincent or do you can you.
00:50:31 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
People do. Yeah. You have to fly back. No. You'd have to fly back then to union Grey. So it's quite close from from Union Glacier. But I I wouldn't be qualified to guide that at all. That would be a sort of international guiding and and mountaineering. But.
00:50:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Walk to Vincent from there.
00:50:46 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
That that's definitely a combination of people. People do. So being able to share that with with clients and then share the experience of Vincent and maybe get to go up again who knows and and yeah, the other thing is I was so it's one of the seven summits obviously being the highest mountain in Antarctica. And everyone says that the the tipping point between.
00:51:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Yeah, well, that's.
00:51:06 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
I'm not doing any and thinking, Oh well, I might as well do. All seven is actually one.
00:51:10 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
So I'm definitely I'm off to do Kilimanjaro in in the summer and I can thank you the next year. And so that's three already. So you know, why not carry on.
00:51:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Fantastic. Yeah, that's that's I love. I love how, like all of a sudden, you kind of almost fall into this thing of like, well, seven years ago, I wasn't really doing any of this stuff.
00:51:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Now I'm I lead people to the South Pole and then Vincent and I've got myself into mountaineering. I've got like, you know, some of the seven summits ticked off and and some being planned for so.
00:51:43 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Well, I'm I've. I've been sat around for far too long. Just we got to get back to it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the, the wild swimming and and camping elements. That's. Yeah. No, Wendy, thank you so much for. For chatting to me, that's.
00:51:49 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Enjoying Estonia too much.
00:52:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
And there's loads of lessons, some really good stuff, some really positively inspiring lessons here, which just I now need to spend.
00:52:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
Later time translating into words for for the show, notes and stuff. But yeah, thank.
00:52:15 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
You again so much. Ohh. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast. It's been great. It's been a.
00:52:18 Wendy Searle, polar expedition leader, speechwriter, and the 7th Woman in History to Ski Solo to the South Pole
Long time coming. So glad we got to organise it in the end.
00:52:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
It's really great to chat to Wendy on these hugely insightful topics. If you're interested in Antarctic expeditions, be sure to check the show notes below for the Web links and.
00:52:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio
I'll see you next time.
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