Roger Chao

Roger Chao is an Australian explorer/adventurer and environmental campaigner.

Roger was recently awarded the 2006 Young Adventurer of the Year award, by the Australian Geographic Society, a highly prestigous annual award. This was given in recognition of a a world first unassisted (no food drops) mid-winter traverse of both the Western and Eastern Arthurs, combined with a succesfful mid-winter as­cent of the treacherous Federation Peak, a world first. He was also elected as a member of the prestigious Explorers Club ( New York) . Roger recently also completed a full east to west coast ski(hauling a sled behind him) traverse of the Greenland Polar Icecap, high above the arctic cirle, fighting 200 kph winds and -45°C(exlcuding wind chill) temperatures with a 130 kg sled and pack. He was the youngest person ever to complete a full east to west traverse of the greenland icecap unsupported and unaided (no kites, or dog sleds,or guides etc) and as such is another world first. His dedication to his supporters and sponsors is evident in his past sponsorship by numerous large multinational corporations, financial institutions, adventure gear companies and telecommunications companies.

Roger has a huge plethora of media experience, having provided photos and writing articles for magainze such as The Australian Geographic Journal, Wild magazine, Adventure magazine, Outdoors Magazine , Feed the Rat, and well as in numerous newspapers such as,The Herald Sun,The Leader, The Mercury, and countless others. He has been interviewed live on camera for numerous pod-casts, national television (S//unday on Channel Nine), national radio (ABC Radio National), countless others and made numerous presentations to large audiences on issues such as exploration, leadership and motivation, climate change, and global warming and indigenous cultures.

Roger’s has a long standing wealth of outdoor experience including leading groups, as a section representative and delegate for Search and Rescue with the Victoria Police, and as wel as serving a term as President of the Monash Bushwalking Club. He is qualified as a Swift Water Rescue techician, in Verti­cle Rescue,as Wilderness First responder, Technical Mountaineering certificates, and a many other outdoor skills. Roger has extensively paddled, skied, climbed and mountaineered around the world as well as all throughout Australia. Roger also works as, an environmental consultant for the Office of Environmental Sustainability as well as a professional Expedition Consultant and guide for individual clients, corporate teams, and schools, and as well as a guest speaker/MC at many events. In the past he has also worked for the wilderness society , the indigenous tutorial assistance scheme, and numerous other bodies.

Roger's next upcoming trip will be throughout central asia(all the Stan's, Mongolia, Western China, and Souther Russia) on a amphibious tandem sociable recumbent quad. A fully pedal powered vehical designed for long haul open water crossings (pedal powered propellar and inflatable pontoons), month long desert crossings (carrying all their water for the duration, as well as using some very fat sand tyres), glacier and snow crossings (tungsten carbide spiked tyres, and fat snow floating ones) and every other imaginable terrain. This vehical will truly be all terrain, allowing them to access many different areas on the same vehicle, all pedal powered. Cars, people on foot, horses, etc cannot access all these areas due to the terrain, thus these vehicle will allow them free and unrestricted access to all of these areas.

They aim to be staying with numerous nomadic and endangered tribes, documenting their lifestyles and way of life before they disappear forever. Many of these tribes hae very few members left, and will disappear within the next 20-50 years. These tribes have gathered hundreds of years know knowledge and wisdom which would be a terrible waste if it was lost. They aim to be recording all this knowledge and culture in various mediums, recording their songs, stories, dances, knowledge, way o life, social structures, myths of creation, the works. The vanishing tribes, if not documented now, will have their wisdom and knowledge (which has been gathered througout the centuries and passed down from generation to generation) lost forever. Our current lifestyle as it is, is not the only way to live, there are many things wrong with it, it is only by looking to how other cultures live that we can progress. It is only by looking at other groups lifestyles that we can see how we can change ours, what works in their way of life, what doesnt, what works in our way of life, what doesnt, that we can truly move forward. This is what the expedition is all about.

References

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/icing-on-the-cake-for-those-who-make-a-meal-of-adventure/2006/09/24/1159036415581.html

* http://www.icecapjourneys.com.au/?s=team&p=rogerbio&ss=roger
* http://www.feedtherat.com/540.html
* http://www.anzec.org/view_member.php?member_id=50
* http://www.steppebysteppe.com.au/
* http://www.kinesys.com/athletes.php?pg=roger-chao
* http://www.adventurepro.com.au/news/?action=details&id=1205812481Aussiesplanfirst
* http://wild.com.au/resources/news.aspx?article_guid=6F41C446-920B-47EF-A4BF-92CE00C5311F
* http://www.wildernesswear.com.au/information.asp?departmentID=119
* http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monash.edu.au%2Fnews%2Fmonashmemo%2Fstories%2F20080423%2Fquike.html&ei=2rOaSLTzKIOspwTEz629AQ&usg=AFQjCNGlbbUFCr9oCAdKp_8YqVA910FROg&sig2=PsErWk2GKU876ljFirV0UA
* http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&ct=html&cd=31&url=http%3A%2F%2F209.85.173.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3AafeZW5ki4kEJ%3Awww.oscanet.com.au%2Fattachments%2Fgreatscot%2FGSMay07%2FOSCA.pdf%2B%2522roger%2Bchao%2522%2Bgreenland%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D31%26gl%3Dau%26client%3Dfirefox-a&ei=ArKaSL-2GpG-pgSiquiwAQ&usg=AFQjCNHn1UJ-qVRWgg_8WAPS109jHqXWBg&sig2=r1SlHJgmt7OcZZeyYe801Q
* http://www.bianz.org.nz/default.asp?PageID=15048

http://www.foe.org.au/climate-justice/media/news-items/archive/2007/carbon-neutral-across-greenlandhttp://www.mindsandpictures.com.au/film.phphttp://www.slf.org.au/festival07/program/talks/806http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/home/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=121