
Exploration
Why cave exploration matters
2022 is the International Year of Caves and Karst. Here’s why you should care about the hidden worlds beneath our feet.
- 2517 words
- 11 minutes
Exploration
ALOHA WANDERWELL
1906-96 | Winnipeg
A filmmaker, author, pilot and adventurer who was the first woman to circumnavigate Earth’s land portions by car. She travelled through 80 countries and shot documentary reels, including the earliest film of Brazil’s Bororo people.
MATTY MCNAIR (FRCGS)
1951- | Iqaluit
Renowned Arctic guide and polar adventurer. Led the first all-female expedition to the North Pole, skied to the South Pole and crossed Greenland’s ice cap and Ellesmere Island. A founding member of the International Polar Guides Association.
BERNARD VOYER (FRCGS)
1953- | Montreal
Polar explorer and mountaineer who was the first to ski across Ellesmere Island, the first Canadian to ski east to west across Greenland and to complete the “Explorers Grand Slam” (unassisted trips to both poles and all Seven Summits).
PAUL LANDRY
1955- | Montreal
Veteran Arctic guide, explorer and mountaineer. Part of the first team that reached Antarctica’s Pole of Inaccessibility without motorized craft. Earned Canada’s Medal of Bravery for saving hikers trapped in a river in Auyuittuq National Park.
SHARON WOOD
1957- | Canmore, Alta.
Mountaineer and guide who in 1986 became the first North American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest — and the first woman ever to do so by a new route along the west ridge, and without the assistance of a Sherpa.
JULIE ANGUS & COLIN ANGUS (FRCGS)
1974- / 1971- | Victoria
Prolific world adventurers: Julie was the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean and the first Canadian woman to cross any ocean this way; Colin was the first person to complete a self-propelled global circumnavigation. Their company Open Ocean Robotics develops autonomous boats used for research.
MEAGAN MCGRATH (FRCGS)
1977- | Sudbury, Ont.
An aerospace engineer with the Canadian military who’s the only Canadian woman to climb two versions of the Seven Summits, and the first Canadian to ski solo to the South Pole, which she completed in 40 days.
ERIC & SARAH MCNAIR-LANDRY
1984- / 1986- | Iqaluit
Brother and sister polar guides and explorers. Sarah was the youngest person to travel to both geographic poles, while Eric set a world record for longest distance kite-skied in 24 hours. Together, they have kite-skied across the Northwest Passage and crossed Ellesmere Island by dogsled.
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