Preet Chandi wants to be first woman to do solo trip to North Pole
She first went to the South Pole by herself in 2022
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British Army Officer Preet Chandi comes by her nickname — Polar Preet — honestly.
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Chandi, 37, who served 16 years in the army before leaving last year, has already made it to the South Pole on her own (following in the footsteps of a handful of women), and hopes to become the first woman to travel solo and unsupported to the North Pole.
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“I didn’t know anything about adventure or exploration,” she said down the line from Winnipeg of growing up in Derby, England.
“I was doing a half-marathon, and then a full marathon, and then an ultra-marathon. I remember thinking, ‘What else can I do?’ And in 2019, someone said to me, ‘Well, what about going to Antartica where the South Pole is?’”
Chandi said she literally Googled it and eventually became the first woman of colour (she’s Punjabi) to do a solo expedition to the South Pole in 2022 and returned twice more, gaining four Guinness World Records in the process.
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“So then having gone to the South Pole, I thought, “I wonder if I could get to the North Pole?” Not really knowing anything about it. But you learn as you go so I learned that the North Pole is in the middle of the sea and it’s much harder. I think I just want to bring as many people on this journey as I can and hopefully inspire a few others along the way as well.”
Posts daily voice mail messages
Those who are interested can follow her as she updates her website, polarpreet.com (same as her social media handles), with daily voice mail blogs.
Following a weekend stop in Toronto from Friday to Sunday (Feb. 20-22), where she hopes to raise $200,000 for her journey, Chandi will travel to Ottawa, Iqaluit, Resolute Bay and then Ellesmere Island, the latter her starting off point to the North Pole.
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“That’s basically the northern edge of Canada,” she said. “(From there) it’ll be 500 miles (800 kilometres) and 60-70 days to the North Pole. I don’t know if I can make it. This trip is so hard. No woman has ever done it. It is hard and expensive to get to but I do believe in trying anyway.”
Her husband, who she met in the British Army and who works in IT, is joining her shortly to act as her base camp manager in Resolute Bay.
Chandi, who says she loses about 40 pounds on such expeditions, had been doing some training in Churchill, Man., beforehand to make sure she could do the physical tasks required.
“I think the biggest risk is the water so there’ll be sections of open water,” she said. “And I’ll put on an immersion suit, like a big orange suit, and I will then swim across to the other side and then pull my (two) sleds (carrying supplies) across afterwards. But there are, of course, polar bears, as well as there.”
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Carries supplies on two sleds
The sleds collectively weigh 130 kilograms and will carry freeze-dried foods, nuts, raisins, chocolate (as she needs 5,000 calories daily), her tent that she sleeps in night with a polar bear alarm (plus she carries a firearm and flares) and she’ll wear either skis or snow shoes when moving on land.
“(I saw a polar bear) in Resolute Bay where I went to train last year, and I shot my flares off,” said Chandi. “But yeah, it’s a pretty terrifying feeling when you see a bear.”
Then there’s the mental strength required.
“I don’t think people realize that I’m actually alone and that there’s not somebody following me,” said Chandi. “I would say I become more spiritual from the trips because you are alone and you spend a lot of time in your own head and that’s not the easiest thing to do.”
Chandi said she was a bit of tomboy growing up with two older brothers but never thought about exploring back then.
“I always joke, the only reason I got world records was to show I’m better than them which we all find funny. But I also know, for example, that my mom is super proud, seeing the outcome of it, like doing something like this. Showing that we belong in every space and every room and man, I’ve been in spaces where I wasn’t sure I belonged there.”
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