Our Instructors
Are Johansen - Polar Expedition Skills
Are is one of the most experienced polar guides in the world at this time, having completed 3 coast to South Pole expeditions in the past few years. He is known and respected for delivering professional and steady expeditions, reaching his destinations with happy, healthy teams.
Andrew Chapman - Polar Expedition Skills
Andy has extensive polar experience. He has worked with British Antarctic Survey and has spent six seasons with Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, guiding Mount Vinson and Ski Last Degree expeditions, as well as Emperor Penguin experiences on the sea ice at Gould Bay Camp. Andy is also a qualified Mountaineering Instructor (MIC). During his thirty year career, he has led and participated in over 40 international mountaineering expeditions, including Everest and Cho Oyu, technical 7000 meter peaks, and five of the Seven Summits.
Devon McDiarmid - Polar Expedition Skills
Devon is one of the most experienced and respected polar guides in the world. He has skied long distance to the South Pole 5 times and has also undertaken long Greenland and North Pole expeditions. Devon has been doing remote fieldwork since he was 16, looking for gold in northern Canada and working with film crews high in the mountains. He lives in the Yukon and in northern British Columbia, Canada, and he works for ALE as a Remote Camp Manager and a Ski Expedition Guide.
Prof. Chris Imray - Cold Injury and Metabolism
Chris is a vascular surgeon and is an acknowledged expert in frostbite and non-freezing cold injuries. He runs the UK internet telemedicine frostbite service for the British Mountaineering Council.
He is the founder of the Global Polar and Altitude Research Registry which studies the physiological and metabolic effects of extended expeditions to polar and high altitude environments on individuals before and after such journeys. Analysis takes place in the NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) and the Human Metabolic Unit (HMRU) in the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry.
Chelsea Bomba -Avalanche Safety
We are excited to be collaborating with the amazingly talented Chelsea Bomba on our Avalanche Safety courses.
Raised just south of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Chelsea grew up exploring the mountains at every opportunity, most often on skis. Her passion for the outdoors took her to Juneau, Alaska, where she attended university and studied Outdoor Skills and Leadership. Chelsea now lives in Talkeetna, Alaska at the base of the Alaska Range where she works at the Alaska Mountaineering School as a mountaineering instructor and guide on Denali. In the winter months she splits her time between traveling to Antarctica where she works as a field guide for Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, and Alaska where she feeds her passion for snow science and avalanche education by working for the Alaska Avalanche School.