Tim Jarvis AM

 ‘Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour"

(Sir Ernest Shackleton)

Image: Anthony McKee

Shackleton Epic Expedition Leader Tim Jarvis AM, is one of the world’s leading explorers and possesses an extraordinary adventure and leadership resume.  He is also a best-selling author, film-maker and public speaker.

On 3 January 2013, Jarvis, in his role as Expedition Leader of Shackleton Epic, will set sail with his crew from Punta Arenas, Chile, aboard the Alexandra Shackleton, an exact replica of Shackleton’s 22.5’ (6.9m) whaler, the James Caird, heading for Elephant Island, off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. From here, on January 17, Jarvis and his crew will emulate Shackleton’s voyage across 800 nautical miles of the treacherous Southern Ocean to South Georgia where Jarvis and two crew members will traverse its mountainous interior to reach the former whaling station at Stromness.  To this day, no-one has successfully re-created Shackleton’s complete ‘double’ journey using traditional gear.

Jarvis has previously completed a re-enactment of Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1912 trek across Antarctica in an attempt to answer some of the questions and controversies surrounding Mawson’s tragic expedition.  The best-selling book and award-winning documentary of the same name, Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica  (When Hell Freezes Over on UK Channel 4), is Jarvis’ account of the re-enactment and his struggles to overcome extreme isolation, physical deprivation and his own self-doubt.  Jarvis is also the author of another best-selling book, The Unforgiving Minute, about his first three polar expeditions.

Image: Ed Wardle Shackleton Epic

A senior associate of Sustainability for Australasia at Arup and Director of an outcome-focused environmental initiative Do-Tank, Jarvis is also a sustainability adviser on multilateral aid projects for the World Bank and AusAID. As an internationally certified environmental auditor Jarvis’ specialist disciplines include environmental auditing/site assessment, provision of sustainability advice, EIA preparation and review, natural resource management planning, and EMS design and implementation.

With Masters in both Environmental Science and Environmental Law, Jarvis is a 2009 Yale World Fellow and 2010 Member of the Order of Australia for “service to conservation and the environment, particularly through advisory roles to developing countries regarding land sustainability and resource management, as an explorer and to the community”.

Jarvis holds the record for the fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole and the longest unsupported journey in Antarctica in 1999.

 

Jarvis’ other expeditions are as follows:

Lake Eyre (2004): The first unsupported traverse of the Warburton River and Australia’s largest salt lake, Lake Eyre in northern South Australia. Tim and his expedition partner Ben Kozel were awarded the Australian Geographic Society’s Spirit of Adventure Award for the expedition.

North Pole Expedition (2002): In 2002, Tim undertook an unsupported trek to the North Pole, crossing approximately 400 kilometres of the frozen Arctic Ocean, enduring unwelcome attention from polar bears and extremely low temperatures.

Great Victoria Desert (2001): The first unsupported crossing of Australia’s largest desert, the Great Victoria Desert.

Spitsbergen (1996): Traverse of Spitsbergen Island in the northern Arctic Ocean. This was an unsupported crossing of 500km of a crevassed ice sheet across the frozen Arctic Ocean.

Jarvis lives in Adelaide, Australia, and holds dual British and Australian citizenship.