Sam Branson
Age 21
Great Britain
Sam joined Will Steger on the Global Warming 101 Expedition from Clyde River to Iglulik, Baffin Island, and took to dogsledding and Arctic travel like a seasoned adventurer. Son of billionaire Sir Richard Branson, Sam grew up in between England and the Caribbean and has a great respect for nature and all the elements within it. After school he trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu and then went on to do a year’s diploma in music.
Sigrid Ekran
Age: 26
Norway
Sigrid is completing her MA in Northern Studies from the University of Alaska–Fairbanks. She placed 20th in the 2007 Iditarod, receiving such awards as Rookie of the Year and Best Female Musher. In the same year she received 4th place in the Klondike 300 race. Outside of her dogsledding awards, Sigrid’s passion and inspiration has come from the Norwegian school of explorers. Sigrid is committed to combining a career in conservation management and dogsled mushing.
Ben Horton
Age: 24
United States
Recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Young Explorer award for research recently completed on Cocos Island involving shark poachers, Ben is a budding photographer and adventurer. Ben is motivated by travel and extreme sports with a yearning to make a difference for his generation. At 17, he traveled around the world with his brother, visiting numerous countries and living the adventures they had dreamed of. Ben splits his time between Colorado and the rest of the world.
Eric McNair-Landry
Age: 23
Canada
Eric spent most of his childhood in Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Nunavut, where he was raised in a family of adventurers. Eric graduated with a degree in engineering from Acadia University and is considering continuing in architecture. In 2004-5 he took a year off of school to join the family Kites on Ice Expedition and became the first American/Canadian to haul un-resupplied to the South Pole.
Sarah McNair-Landry
Age: 21
Canada
No stranger to cold weather, Sarah grew up in Iqaluit. Shortly after turning 17 she went on her first extended expedition, crossing the Greenland ice cap with her parents and older brother Eric. A year later she traveled to the South Pole on a 71 day kite-ski expedition with her mother and brother. In 2005 she traveled by kite-ski again joining her father and brother in setting the speed record for crossing the Greenland Ice Cap, east to west. In 2006, Sarah traveled to the North Pole on a 100-day dogsled expedition with her father and two British explorers. Most recently, Sarah and her brother Eric returned to Greenland to cross the Ice Cap vertically by kite-ski, traveling 1429 miles/ 2300 km over the course of 2 months! When she’s not off chasing the winds across the Arctic, Sarah is busy chasing her dreams of becoming a filmmaker. After graduating from high school in Quebec, she took courses at the New York Film Academy studying digital filmmaking in New York City.
Thorleif Tobias Thorleifsson (Toby)
Age 28
Norway
Toby finished his MA in polar history and politics at Simon Fraser University in the fall of 2006. He has since worked as a writer, lecturer, and mountain guide, focusing on environmental issues. In February 2007 he assisted the opening of the world’s first education base in Antarctica with explorer Robert Swan. Toby has circumnavigated most of the North Atlantic by sailboat and last summer he sailed to Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic. When Toby is not traveling he splits his time between the city of Oslo and Finse in the Norwegian mountains.