Jason De Carteret

Jason De Carteret is an Antarctic World Record holder and is an experienced Polar guide having skied to the both the North and South Pole four times each. In 2007 he and another attempted to break another world record for the fastest ski to the South Pole but unfortunately Jason tore a calf muscle and had to be airlifted off the ice.

A seasoned explorer he has led over 40 expeditions on every continent and was the first British person ever allowed to compete in the most northern dog sled race in the world. Covering 500km in less than 3 days he was only hours behind the race leader and astounded other dog mushers who thought at best it would take him 5 days if he managed to cover the distance at all!

As a consultant to major polar expeditions Jason has been working with all walks of life from skiing to the South Pole leading the military elite Special Forces to people who had never skied before. In 2005 he planned and helped develop a vehicle which smashed the record for the fastest surface travel from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, the record stood at 24 days and this team did it in 2 days 21 hours battling crevasse fields and extreme cold with coupled with breakdowns and huge sasstrugi Ice formations.

We proved that more efficient vehicles could be used safely on Antarctica and would cut the carbon emissions 60% and now we have taken this a step further. After the 2005 expedition to the Pole Jason got to working out a more efficient Concept Vehicle to travel over the ice powered by Bio fuel. He teamed up with an ex F1 engineer and together they developed a bio fuelled concept vehicle which Lotus have helped construct. This will be the first bio fuelled vehicle to ever operate in Antarctica.

A Trans Antarctic Expedition has only once been achieved in 1957 with Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hilary. Jason is the Polar consultant on the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition which will be the first expedition to follow in their footsteps undertaking science experiments along the way involving schools, colleges and universities in a huge web based educational program via satellite communications sending back pictures and video’s of life on the ice and educate people on the importance of Antarctica on global weather systems. This totally interactive application will allow school children to talk directly to the expedition by phone and email.

Innovation is key to success and meticulous planning has meant that this expedition is now in its third year of planning for a departure date of Nov 2009. Vehicle testing team testing and selection not to mention extremely detailed logistical planning will make this expedition a world’s first and its findings are of global interest and we already have powerful media partners.

Jason has a long history of leading expeditions and teams, he was the youngest person ever to become an expedition leader for “Operation Raleigh” in 1991. Leadership of 11 three month expeditions in Africa, Alaska and South America, controlling teams of over 200 people per country and coordinating 14 different projects has given him incredible experience as a leader in challenging locations and situations.

As a commercial helicopter pilot in Southern Africa Jason played an important role as a specialist in game relocation removing animals that were under threat by either poachers or drought. A five year career of flying enabled him to move over 10,000 animals to better environments and he became a “top five” respected pilot who had many adventures being charged by Rhinos, elephants and big cats!

After a donation envelop dropped through his family’s post box asking for money to help the WWF save the Rhino in 1989 it inspired Jason enough to drive a Land Rover from the UK, across the Sahara, through central Africa and then down the East coast, 23,000 kms to Zimbabwe. He donated the vehicle to the Rhino anti-poaching unit and then volunteered for this unit. An Expedition that was to take 6 months captured his imagination and he lived the dream in Africa for almost 9 years.

Jason grew up on the small Island of Guernsey, at the tender age of 18 spent three months cave diving in the Bahamas working with the Worlds number one cave diver at that time, Rob Palmer, since that experience his life was never the same. He is an inspiration to anyone who believes that life is out there and with the power of determination, study, discipline and passion anyone can achieve great things, he is living proof.

He is a Trustee of the Science Exploration Society, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a registered Polar guide.