Tom Smitheringale – One Man Epic

All profits from this event will including speaker fee will be donated to the Esperance Goldfields Surf Life Saving Club.

Founder and Director of Southpeak, Tom Smitheringale is an aspiring adventurer and explorer best known for his solo unsupported expedition to the North Pole in 2010, a feat that has only been achieved by 2 people in the history of polar exploration and one that is described by famous climber Reinhold Meissner as being “10 times more difficult than climbing Mt Everest”. An epic battle by one man against blizzards, bears and broken ice, covering 800km in under 60 days on the ice. Days out from completing his expedition he tragically fell through the ice and had to be rescued by the Canadian military. A ‘failure’ of epic proportions that would nearly cost him his life.

The experience of failure would take years to reconcile and has made Tom stronger, wiser and more humble and he continues to apply the lessons learned. Upon returning from the North Pole he would experience a paradigm shift spending the next 2 years living in Egypt through the Arab Spring becoming the first person to kayak solo the 1300km length of the Egyptian Nile from the Sudanese border to Cairo and trekking 1400km through the eastern Sahara on camels and on foot before being captured and imprisoned in a Libyan jail.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in collaboration with Australia's Golden Outback.