25 Facts About Tom Avery

Tom Avery, FRGS was born on 17 December 1975 and is a British explorer, author and motivational speaker.

Tom Avery made record-breaking journeys to the South Pole in 2002 and to the North Pole in 2005.

Tom Avery is one of fewer than ten people throughout history to have completed the Polar Trilogy; full length expeditions to the South Pole and North Pole and a coast to coast crossing of Greenland.

Tom Avery is the youngest Briton to have reached both the North and South Poles on foot.

Tom Avery was born to Julian and Quenelda Avery in London, England and educated at Vinehall School in East Sussex.

When Tom Avery was seven years old, his mother gave him a book about the adventures of Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Tom Avery has said that he has no interest in climbing Mount Everest due to commercialism and overcrowding on the mountain.

Tom Avery made attempts on Artesonraju in Peru in 1997, Aconcagua in Argentina in 1998 and Cho Oyu in September 2006, when alongside teammate Kenton Cool he was aiming to be the first Briton to ski down an 8,000-metre peak.

Tom Avery was forced to turn back at 6,500m after suffering a retinal hemorrhage, while Cool went on to summit and ski back down.

In 2000 Tom Avery completed the Haute Route alpine traverse on skis, and in 2002, while training for the South Pole, he and his teammates made the first ski descent of the western breach of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand's, Southern Alps,.

On 28 December 2002,45 days and 6 hours later, Tom Avery's team completed the journey to the South Pole.

In recognition of the Expedition's accomplishments, Tom Avery was presented with the Royal Institute of Navigation's Certificate of Achievement by The Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society.

Tom Avery's party reached the Pole in a faster time that any expedition had managed since 1909.

Tom Avery beat his time, and that takes away a little bit of the argument that Peary didn't make it.

Tom Avery recounted his experience in his 2009 book, To The End of the Earth: The Race to Solve Polar Exploration's Greatest Mystery, which was published on both sides of the Atlantic.

However, in his book, Tom Avery argued that Herbert could not be deemed an impartial adjudicator, because by renouncing Peary's claim, that would then crown Herbert himself as the first person to reach the North Pole on foot.

In 2015, Tom Avery announced that he was setting out to complete the final leg of the Polar Trilogy by making a coast-to-coast crossing of Greenland, and to do so in a record time.

Tom Avery is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and a member of the Explorers Club in New York.

Tom Avery is a regular on the international motivational and corporate speaking circuit, lecturing in a variety of venues from the Davos World Economic Forum to an uninhabited sandbar in the Maldives.

Tom Avery is a patron of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award who he supports by presenting participants with their Gold Awards at ceremonies held at the Royal Palaces.

Tom Avery was an official ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and took an Olympic torch to the North Pole on his 2005 expedition.

Alongside fellow explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and rugby union player and coach Dean Richards, Tom Avery led 200 members of the public on the 2006 Talisker Trek on the Isle of Skye.

Tom Avery led the 2007 Talisker Trek with endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh and rugby union player and broadcaster Martin Bayfield.

In 2008 Tom Avery designed a mountain journal in conjunction with the luxury stationers Smythson of Bond Street.

In 2009 Tom Avery founded the luxury ski holiday company Verbier Exclusive, which is headquartered in the Cotswolds and Verbier in the Swiss Alps.