From Southampton to the South Pole, an EngD student plans an epic trek
Engineering postgraduate Ollie Robinson is preparing for the experience of a lifetime. He will be trekking Antarctica in winter 2018 with five friends in the first Scout-led expedition to the South Pole, raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association along the way.
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The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) student got involved in Scouting as a teenager. Right from the start, he seized his opportunities to get involved in adventures such as trekking and climbing with Hampshire Scout Expeditions (HSX). One of them in 2007 involved trekking to Everest base camp to mark 100 years of Scouting. “It’s made a difference to my life, improved my confidence and helped with my application to University. I’m hoping the expedition to the South Pole will help raise awareness of how the movement can help young people to broaden their horizons and achieve their potential.”
The 1,400 round trip to the Pole will start in November 2018 at Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf, 80 degrees South 78 degrees West, and will take around six weeks. Members of the team will haul their own supplies throughout the trip, skiing cross country in temperatures as low as -45 degrees Celsius and with wind speeds of 80 mph in perpetual sunlight. To raise money for the trek and help with training, they ran from Salisbury to Winchester, pulling a giant tyre for 26.2 miles to simulate the weight of their packs, and managed it in five hours 48 minutes.
Ollie, a graduate of Southampton’s Masters in Environmental Science programme, is now examining ways of supporting the University and other organisations to reduce their carbon footprint in his EngD. After graduating he is considering a career in environmental consultancy.
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