Matty McNair

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Matty L McNair (born in Pennsylvania, USA) is an American explorer. She now lives in the Canadian Arctic in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Baffin Island, where she runs her company NorthWinds.^[1] Among her many accomplishments^[2] are:

• 1997 leading the first ever all-female expedition to the Geographic North Pole.
• 2000 she led an expedition across Ellesmere Island through the Sverdrup Pass.
• 2003/04 she led two ski-all-the-way expeditions to the South Pole.
• 2003 crossed the Greenland Ice Cap with her children Sarah and Eric by ski-kites with dog sled support.
• 2004/2005 completed an unsupported ski expedition to the South Pole, again accompanied by her children Sarah and Eric, who became the youngest persons to ski to the South Pole.
• 2007 drove a dogsled with Richard Hammond in a race to the 1996 location of the North Magnetic Pole as part of Top Gear: Polar Special. This journey was cut short before her party reached the pole because the other competitors (in trucks) reached the destination first.
• She is the first American to ski to both the North and South Poles.

References[]

Books[]

On Thin Ice: A Woman's Journey to the North Pole (1999), ISBN 978-0-9685343-0-4

External links[]

• NorthWinds
• National Geographic Adventurers of the Year 2005
• Best of ExplorersWeb 2005 Awards: Matty McNair - Arctic and Antarctica
• All American Speakers bio