Hempleman-Adams, David (1956-…), is an English mountaineer and explorer. His career is marked by a number of extraordinary achievements. He was the first person to reach the north magnetic pole alone and without dogs, snowmobiles, or flown-in supplies (1984) and the first to reach both the north and south magnetic poles in the same year (1996). In 1998, he was the first person to complete the “adventurers’ grand slam”—ascents of the highest mountain on each of the seven continents and journeys to the north and south geographic and magnetic poles. In the same year, he became the first person to cross the Andes mountain range in South America by hot-air balloon.
Hempleman-Adams first became a mountaineer while completing a Gold Award in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program (see Duke of Edinburgh’s Award ). The award, called the International Award for Young People in some countries, is a program of practical, cultural, and adventure activities designed to promote the personal development of young people aged 14 to 25. Hempleman-Adams’s entry into the higher ranks of mountaineers came in 1980, when he climbed Alaska’s Denali, the highest mountain in North America, for the first time. He is, however, better known for his more difficult polar journeys.
Polar expeditions are particularly dangerous because they involve journeys of weeks or months, through some of the coldest places in the world, across vast territories of rough ice. On the 1998 expedition to the north geographic pole, Hempleman-Adams and his partner, the Norwegian explorer Rune Gjeldnes, dragged their sledges, on skis, nearly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) across the ice covering the Arctic Ocean. Traveling to the north poles is complicated by the fact that the ice covering the Arctic Ocean drifts constantly, and sometimes cracks, leaving gaps to cross or go around. Hempleman-Adams nearly died when he fell through the ice into the Arctic Ocean on his 1998 expedition to the north geographic pole.
David Hempleman-Adams was born on Oct. 10, 1956, in Swindon, Wiltshire. He gained degrees from Manchester and Bristol universities. Hempleman-Adams followed a career as a businessman, having founded his own chemicals firm in 1984 and selling it in 1996. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (M.B.E.) in 1994, and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 1998. He has written three books: A Race Against Time (1993), Toughing It Out (1997), and Walking on Thin Ice (1998), an account of his 1998 journey to the North Pole.
