Ben Saunders: Extreme Polar Explorer

Ben Saunders is one of the world’s leading polar explorers, and a record-breaking long-distance skier who has covered more than 4,300 miles on foot in the Polar Region. His accomplishments include skiing solo to both the North and South poles, and leading The Scott Expedition, the longest human-powered polar journey in history, a 105-day, 1,800 mile round-trip from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode: 

• Hear the remarkable story of how he traveled the equivalent of 69 marathons, the distance from Maine to Miami, in frigid temperatures in near whiteout conditions, over the course of 3.5 months. 

• Preparation entailed both extreme endurance and extreme weight training. He was able to run a 2:55 marathon and deadlift 485 lbs.  

• The key to staying motivated was to shorten the focus from the ultimate goal to something that felt achievable whether the end of the day or even the end of an hour. 

• One of his proudest moments on the journey was to make the call to have food delivered during their return. That moment calling for help was when he matured as a leader as he learned to get priorities straight. 

• In hindsight, he made the mistake of often living too much in the future, thinking that success was defined by a finish line. 

• The cliché holds true that the journey is way more important than the destination. 

• Learn how he evolved from needing external validation to having more of an internal compass driving his motivations. 

• “Self-belief is a malleable human quality. The more time you spend outside your comfort zone, the stronger it becomes.” 

• “Excellence is having the internal drive to make tomorrow better than today.”