Legendary adventurer Myrtle Simpson talks to Sue Stockdale about her life. In part 1 of a two-part interview, Myrtle recalls her North Pole expedition attempt in 1969, and some of the adventures that she has undertaken with her husband and children. In January 2017 Myrtle was awarded the Polar Medal in recognition of her arctic achievements, and National Geographic named Myrtle as one of four women 'who defied expectations and explored the world'.

Born in 1930, Myrtle Simpson began her early life in India, and then returned to Scotland after the war where she developed a love of climbing. Myrtle travelled to New Zealand and began working as a radiographer, spending weekends learning about climbing high peaks. After Mount Everest had been conquered in 1953 and the Himalayas became more popular and expensive for climbing expeditions, Myrtle and two friends decided to travel to Peru where they climbed numerous virgin peaks including a new route on Huascarán, the highest mountain in Peru at 6768m.

After getting married and having children, Myrtle continued to travel along with her husband, Professor Hugh Simpson, a scientist and pioneer of breast cancer research, whose research took him to many remote places. Hugh and Myrtle crossed the Greenland ice cap on skis in 1965, and four years later attempted to reach the North Pole, setting the record for the farthest North reached by any unsupported expedition at the time.

Myrtle's adventures have been immortalised in an award-winning documentary "A Life on Ice" that premiered in 2019, winning several awards for 'Best Exploration and Adventure film' at film festivals around the world. She has also written several books including Due North, White Horizons and Home is a Tent.

Key Quotes

'We put the very last of our fuel into our Primus and realised that if the sea didn't freeze that night, we'd had it'.

'My very first memory was sitting on a mule in a basket'.

'In those days, you could find unclaimed peaks and it was just absolutely magic to be a climber at the time'.

'We had just a magic trip to Peru and climbed numerous virgin peaks, including a new route on the highest mountain in Peru'.

'My daughter Rona was three and there was another local girl of three. And the two girls didn't have a word of each other's language but they never stopped talking to each other for three months'.

'Early women explorers were nearly all botanists because that was something women were allowed to be, back into early Victorian times'.

'I would find ordinary suburban life excruciatingly boring, but you don't have to walk far into nature to really suddenly you feel yourself becoming alive'.

This series is kindly supported by Squadcast –the remote recording platform which empowers podcasters by capturing high-quality audio and video conversations. https://squadcast.fm

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Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)
Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)