Paul Walker (Arctic explorer)

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Paul Walker is an Arctic explorer and . He is owner and Director of Greenland Expedition Logistics & Consultancy (GELCO), a trading name of California Ocean Northumbria Ltd. He is owner and Director of Futures Greenland ApS, a Greenland based expedition logistics, storage and rental company. He is also co-owner of the luxury UK campervan rental company California Ocean Northumbria Ltd. He was previously owner and Director of Tangent Expeditions Ltd, which closed in 2020 due to COVID-19 after 31 years. He was born in Shrewsbury, England on 09 March 1966. He achieved a B.Ed Honours degree in Outdoor Education and Mathematics after graduating from Charlotte Mason College, Ambleside (UK) in 1988; the teaching arm of Lancaster University. Since becoming one of the UK's youngest qualified Winter Mountain Leaders, aged 23, Paul has organised more than 250 arctic expeditions to Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Baffin Island (Canada), Iceland and Greenland in a 32 year career. In 2006 he led an 8 man team to make the first and only winter ascent of Gunnbjørnsfjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic Circle, which has never been repeated. After 30 years living in the Lake District, North West England, Paul moved to the small rural town of Wooler, Northumberland. Paul is married and has three children.

Biography[]

Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire Walker moved to Wetherby aged 8 and later graduated from Charlotte Mason College, Ambleside in 1988 with a B.Ed Honours degree in Outdoor Education and Mathematics. It was here he led his first Greenland expedition, a 2 month climbing trip to the Schweizerland Alps, beginning a lifelong obsession.

At just 23, Walker became one of the UK's youngest Winter Mountain Leaders. In 1993 he made the first ascent of the 28 pitch northeast ridge of Mont Forel in east Greenland. At 3360m Mont Forel was once thought to be the highest mountain in the Arctic Circle before the discovery of Gunnbjørnsfjeld 3693m. In 1996 he climbed a number of the main summits of the Crown Prince Frederick Range together with members of the Tangent British East Greenland Expedition.[1]

In 1999 he led the first British guided ski crossing of the Greenland Icecap using kites. In 2001 he headed to Svalbard to lead the "Polestar" team to make the first British south-north ski traverse of Spitsbergen.

In 2004 Paul organized and led the US Navy Air Crash Recovery Expedition to the Kronborg Glacier, east Greenland. This expedition was commissioned by the US Navy to recover the human remains of US Navy personnel lost in an earlier air crash of a P-2V Neptune on January 12, 1962.

In 2006 he led an 8 man team to make the first winter ascent of Gunnbjørnsfjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic Circle. During this expedition the team were attacked during the night at their base camp by a polar bear who ripped through several tents.

Paul has worked extensively as a Greenland location and logistics consultant for numerous TV documentaries, films and marketing projects. He has also worked with a range of celebrities organising their personal adventure holidays, expeditions and TV programme logistics including Ian Wright, Christie Turlington, Paul Rose, Steve Backshall and Google founders Larry Page & Sergei Bryn.

In 2018 he was logistics consultant for the record breaking longest vehicle polar journey in history, with the double south-north-south crossing of the Greenland icecap by three specially adapted 4x4 and 6x6 vehicles, supplied by Arctic Trucks of Reykjavik (the guys behind many of Top Gear's arctic antics).

Personal life[]

After 30 years living in the Lake District, North West England, Paul moved to the small town of Wooler, Northumberland in 2014, with his wife Lizzie. Paul and Lizzie have one daughter, Ailsa Bee Walker, born March 2019. He has two further children from his first marriage: Jonathan Walker, born September 1997, and Naomi Walker, born May 2000. With his wife he owns and runs the camper van rental company California Ocean Northumbria Ltd, which incorporates the Arctic expedition consultancy business GELCO (Greenland Expedition Logistics & Consultancy).

References[]

  1. ^ Tangent Expedition Reports Archived 2016-06-24 at the Wayback Machine

External links[]

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