Pen Hadow   Age 35

One of the country's leading polar explorers and guides, and a member of Sector Sport Watches global 'No Limits Team', Pen Hadow has many achievements to his name, amongst which is the furthest voyage north in an open boat, (he went from London's Tower Bridge to Greenland in a rigid hull inflatable dinghy), and one of the longest duration sledging journeys of recent times, crossing the Svalbard Islands in the high Arctic.

He has also made the first solo attempt to reach the North Geographic Pole on foot, without air support; and the first solo attempt on the Pole without even a sledge!

He was a guide to a successful thirty day, two-way crossing by foot of Spitsbergen in the polar night, and he completed a seventy day, two-man sledging journey, without resupply, across the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard photographing polar bears.

Mr Hadow is managing director of The Polar Travel Company, a specialist guide service for the Arctic and the Antarctic - the only service of its kind in the world.