15-year-old Parker Liautaud will be the youngest person to ski to the North Pole.

NEXT month, a 15-year-old boy will try to be the youngest person to ski to the North Pole.
After a trip to Antartica opened his eyes to climate change, Parker Liautaud, a school boy from Eton, will set off at the end of this month for the Arctic. We grabbed five minutes with him, as he packed, to find out more…


Why are you doing something as difficult as skiing to the North Pole?
I think that it is the best way to show young people what is happening in the Arctic, one of the most remote and inaccessible regions on the planet. This way, people will know exactly the effects we are having, and hopefully we will be able to show people what they can do today to solve these issues.

How have you prepared for the trip?
I work out every single day. I drag tyres around my school’s sports fields, to simulate the action of dragging a heavy sled. This is hard and at the beginning of my training I did this for only an hour. However, getting closer to my expedition I have been doing four hours without stopping, once a week.

What do you think will be the toughest part of the whole adventure?
The Arctic is having a very warm summer, and there is a good chance we will have to put on our dry suits and swim some stretches. I think the toughest part of the whole adventure will be getting in the water and swimming. It is a very real challenge that is significantly more dangerous than other parts of the expedition.

What message do you want to give young people?
The Arctic and Antarctic are under severe threat, and if nothing is done soon, they could be lost. It is important for young people all over the world to understand that the fate of these beautiful places, and indeed the entire world, rests squarely on their shoulders. It is our actions that matter, and we are the ones who will ultimately inherit the problems before it is too late to do anything about them.