As TV concepts go, it sounds pretty compelling. Imagine the pitch ‘Take one seasoned explorer to the last great arctic unknown leading a rag-bag crew escaping from their emotional backstory before voting them off one by one.’
“They wanted to call it ‘ice-idol’ or something like that”, said the seasoned explorer Jim McNeill - “but I said: ‘Absolutely no way, I’m not doing that’ ”.
McNeill could well be the one great explorer you’ve never heard of - until now.
Based in Princetown on Dartmoor, the 61-year old is explaining how he turned down a TV production company ahead of his next big adventure with a team of ‘citizen scientists’ aka ordinary people, called the The Last Pole Polar Expedition.
It’s fair to say, if he wanted fame, he would have had it already. He has an impressive track record - has worked as a safety advisor on BBC’s Frozen Planet, counts Sir Chris Bonington as a friend and has been Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ polar consultant for 21 years.
What else…he has been a fireman at Windsor Castle, called on a favour from Sir David Attenborough and has helped NASA pinpoint some of the remotest landmarks on earth.
But he’s not one to be in the limelight. In fact, he’s happiest when he’s getting the best out of other people.
And that is what is making his next mission so extraordinary.
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In 2023, McNeill intends to lead a 28-strong expedition to reach the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility, the last significant place on earth as yet unreached by mankind.
Defined as the furthest point from land at the very centre of the Arctic Ocean, it is 270 miles from the Geographic North Pole and the furthest point from land anywhere on Earth.
In a mission that echoes Ernest Shackleton who led a team who had no previous experience, McNeill is pulling together a crew of men and women who are complete novices but are willing and able to put up with what he calls the ‘inbuggerances of going on expedition’.
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On top of that, they will face fiercely low temperatures, disintegrating ice flows beneath their feet and the possibility of encountering hungry polar bears.
Among those who have signed up are ground maintenance workers from Cornwall, a merchant seaman and an HR man for B&Q - there is still time to apply with the deadline closing in December 2022.
He has taken businessmen and women who are more desk bound than outward bound on expeditions before, saying that anyone from any walk of life can become a good explorer - if they can get through the selection process and training regime.
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And this expedition is about citizen science, collecting data from an area that has never been set foot on before to map the effects of climate change.
McNeill explained: “I want it to be accessible to everyone because traditionally, exploration was the preserve of men who were Eton educated and who started life with a silver spoon. But it was always ordinary working people who would have made up the team around them.
“It gives people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to do an incredible thing.
“And importantly, they can’t pay for all of the trip themselves, they have to get sponsorship because that is part of the process, that teaches you the skills to be on the expedition - it teaches you important things like courage and dealing with frustration”
McNeill said that most of the applicants will rule themselves out of the process at the training stage.
He explained: “We do whatever we need to do to upset their expectations of what it will be like because it is only then that they can really learn about themselves and what they’re capable of.”
McNeill has done that all his life. Born into 1960s North London, his father Richard emigrated from Ireland at a time when shops still had signs saying ‘no Blacks, no Irish’ on the door. He grew up on a council estate in Barnet and as a self-confessed naughty boy at school, he got a reputation for being able to stare down the bullies.
He didn’t like the classroom much and the only thing he was interested in was sport. Aged 16, his mum sent him on an outward bounds course to try and get him on the right path. It worked and he has been exploring ever since.
He started mountaineering while working in a scientific research post at the Grasslands Institute, he devised military exercises in arctic Norway while in the British Army. developed his relationship with the Inuit people during three month sabbaticals while serving with the Royal Berkshire fire service - including 10 years as a fire officer at Windsor Castle.
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McNeill went on to set up Ice Warrior Project in 2001 which he now operates from the Princetown basecamp along with his partner Sam Clifford.
From his base in Resolute Bay and more recently since 2010 at his base in Longyearbyen, Svalbard McNeill annually trains ordinary people to become polar competent. To date he has trained over 400 people and led 7 flagship expeditions.
His expeditions have taken him to the Antarctica via the Southern Ocean, mainland Canada, mainland Norway, Svalbard, Baffin Island, Cornwallis Island, Bathurst Island, Ellesmere Island and the Arctic Ocean for his attempts to reach the North Pole of Inaccessibility.
He had been on expedition every year until 2021, that is, when the pandemic put paid to overseas travel.
But the enforced down time did give him the opportunity to plan for this new venture, which will be his third attempt to reach the North Pole of Inaccessibility.
In 2003, he aborted a solo attempt after contracting a flesh-eating disease in his left ankle and his second attempt in 2006 was thwarted by disintegrating sea ice, some 130 miles into the journey.
This truly is the last big unknown in polar exploration, McNeill explained.
He doesn’t know if it is even possible - and even if it is, it needs a target of around £1.8million to get there.
The dream would be to ditch air travel and transport the kit via boat from Plymouth to Resolute Island, Canada. From here, the team would set off from nearby Ellef Ringnes Island before starting the 800mile 80-day journey across sea ice. Each team would take one of four legs of the journey, each taking around 20 days.
“For novices, 20 days is enough, if people start feeling down and need picking up then 20 days is achievable, Any more is probably asking too much.”
The plan is to record everything they see to track the effects of climate change - from polar bear sightings and weather to levels of pollution.
“I don’t know if we will even be able to reach it and that will tell another story if we can’t because that will be because of melting sea ice as a result of climate change. But what I do know is whether we can get there or not, then we will have recorded everything along the way and will have a record of exactly why we failed.
“We know that the arctic is warming three times faster than other parts of the earth and it will be a forewarning of what is coming our way.”
Crucially, the project needs sponsorship. McNeill is currently in talks with Australia’s richest man, billionaire Andrew Forrest, chairman of mining giant, Fortescue Metals Group that has vowed to become to reach its targets for absolute zero operations by 2030.
Generally, the increased interest within the world of business and finance for sustainability, corporate responsibility and green issues is starting to pay off - but there is still a lot of greenwashing to sift through.
McNeill said that the sustained periods of lockdown during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted a renewed interest in the environment.
He said: “People are seeing the effects everyday, fewer planes in the sky, wildlife coming closer for the first time, reduced traffic.”
And it is that personal experience that has done more to promote the cause of climate awareness than G7 or Cop 26 in Glasgow, which he found ‘hugely frustrating’.
In fact, it is the big corporates that hold much of the power.
He said: “I was asked to talk at a similar event in Tromsø in 2007 about the arctic frontiers.. The scientists were saying all the right things, politicians were saying the usual and with the commerce guys - there are 168 oil wells in the Arctic at the moment. And I realised then, it doesn’t matter what the scientists or politicians say, if you are going to affect change then you have to have the commerce guys on side.”
The plan is to secure a forward thinking corporate sponsor and the hope is to involve small businesses, schools and individuals who want to pledge what they can.
“They may not be able to afford huge sums but they could put their name to a footstep along the way and help get the word out.
“I want to be able to engage the business world so they can be involved in getting a finger on the pulse of the planet which will help us all make properly informed decisions about climate change.
“If we don't do this, how do we know that anything we might do to mitigate the climate crisis is actually working?”
And McNeill is not one to be daunted by a challenge.
He admits that he can’t ever remember being frightened of anything, despite witnessing a fair amount of trauma in his career, particularly specialising in road accidents with the fire service.
He said: “I love being responsible for other people and the way I do that is by being dedicated. I’m not interested in ego, I just want whatever I’m doing to be purposeful and worthwhile.”
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