Up Close and Personal with Robert Swan. the the first man in history to walk to both the North and South Poles

Published: Saturday December 21, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday December 21, 2013 MYT 12:53:04 PM

Up Close and Personal with Robert Swan

BY WONG WEI-SHEN

“YOU’RE going to fail” and “You’re going to die” was the reaction Robert Swan OBE often received when he spoke of his dream to walk to the South Pole. Everyone knows the power words possess, in encouraging or discouraging a person. If Swan had listened to them, he probably would have never realised his dream.Instead, he ignored the negativity, and concentrated on the positive, which turned out for the better really, because he became the first man in history to walk to both the North and South Poles.

Now polar explorer and environmental leader, Swan tells StarBizWeek how important it is to never forget the dream.

A leader without a dream is nothing.

Swan was impeccably dressed in a dark suit and blue tie but stood out with a bright yellow backpack swung across his shoulders.

Once seated, it only took but a moment to realise he had pink polka-dotted socks on.

“I just want to keep people guessing about life in general. They don’t expect a polar explorer to wear pink socks,” he laughs.

While the world marvelled, Swan saw his achievement as a responsibility.

Experiencing first-hand the effects of climate change, he more than willingly took up a 50-year mission to preserve the Antarctica by promoting recycling, renewable energy and sustainability.

Swan is now 22 years into that mission. He formed 2041 with the aim to continue protecting the last great wilderness on Earth so that it can never be exploited.

It is in the year 2041 that the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which prohibits drilling and mining, could potentially be modified or amended.

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it, he told attendees at the Leadership Energy Summit Asia 2013 (LESA) held earlier this month.

“I think my passion for it comes from the sense of being a survivor. I’ve seen what’s happening and we need to react to that,” he says.

Swan was among the illustrious line-up of speakers featured at LESA.

It was organised by the Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre, a non-profit organisation under Bank Negara, to help individuals find their purpose in life and values.

The dream

Don’t forget your dream, Swan cautions. “I see people charging through life, they forget their dream, and then one day they wake up and ask – so that was it?” he says.

Swan was first inspired to walk to both poles when he saw a feature film on Antarctica at the age of 11.

Others laughed at his dream. His siblings encouraged him to “just do it”.

“You’d end up with houses, mortgages, wives, children, and you’d never do it,” they warned him.

His family also helped put things into perspective for him.

“They didn’t make a big deal about it. My family always helped me in that what I was doing was amazing but someone else in a slum in India is probably having a harder time than I’ve ever had,” he says.

The fact that it has only been about a hundred years since Antarctica was first explored only further intrigued Swan. “I just got inspired by this place that nobody owned and there was peace there,” he says.

He and his team named their first expedition to the South Pole “In the Footsteps of Scott”, after Robert Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition in early 20th century.

Scott and his four comrades made it to the South Pole, but died on their journey back due to a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Swan’s journey to the South Pole began in 1984.

“Imagine walking for 70 days, nine hours each day. There are three of you carrying 180kg. There are no radio communications with the outside world and you are navigating using the sun,” he describes.

In those 70 days, he had lost 33kg. His eyes also changed colour due to prolonged exposure to the hole in the ozone layer.

It was hard and actually pointless to walk to both poles, he laughs. But standing at the South geomagnetic pole, Swan and his team could not be more proud of what they had achieved.

By 1992, he became the first person to walk to both the North and South Poles.

The coldest day Swan has ever experienced is –72 degrees Celsius, at temperatures where sweat turns into ice.

One thing he is sure of is that he does not enjoy having ice in his underpants, he says.

“I hate being cold, more than most people, but you prepare yourself by not going for the most modern thing. The latest technology is not always the best. We looked at the technology of 100 years ago, those used by Inuit people. So it wasn’t always the most modern but a mixture of old and new technologies,” he says.

Swan and his team had to undergo a strict and intense physical preparation before they started on the longest unassisted march to the South Pole.

“Our physical preparation was interestingly not only to get fit but also to be fat. The best way to carry food was on you. We were eating a huge amount of calories,” he says.

International        expedition

He led the first corporate expedition to Antarctica in March 2003 and has since taken over 770 people from 58 nations there to experience the continent’s ecosystem, and learn what can be done to protect it.

In March next year, he and the 2041 team will lead the International Antarctica Expedition (IAE) 2014, comprising corporate leaders, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, teachers and young people, meeting at Ushuaia, Argentina and then travelling together to the Antarctic peninsula.

Three Malaysians were selected as winners of the PRU4Antarctica search, beating some 300 applicants, to represent Malaysia.

Swan will be returning to the South Pole in 2015, starting his journey at the South Pole and walking to the coast. Notably, his son, who will be 21 then, will be joining him on this journey.

The project, or “the return journey”, will entail Swan and his team relying solely on renewable energy to survive.

“In my business you’re old when you’re 35. Thirty years on, I’m going to do the same. I have to look after my joints, back and knees, in a whole different way. Interestingly enough, cycling is a very good way to get strong and fit because it doesn’t put so much impact on your body,” he says.

He hopes he is inspirational to people who are in their 50s and 60s, that they too can be fit. “If you look after yourself you’re as young as you feel,” he says.

What is also special is that by the time Swan and his son fly out for the expedition, his mother will be 100 years old!

The balancing act

“When you live like I live, it’s not very normal. I live the whole year out of a suitcase, even while I’m at home. That’s the way it is,” he shrugs.

He knew that when he got married, his wife would have to be supportive of his cause, even if it meant being apart for periods of time.

“I’m married to a special person who would probably kill me if I’m spending too much time with her. You can’t feel bad about how you live,” he says.

His mother taught him to not expect his son to follow in his footsteps. “It was him that came to me. If I had pushed him, I don’t think he would be coming on the expedition in 2015. Don’t push your children to do what you think they should do,” he says.

He adds that his mother has been a big influence in his life. “When I was 16, one day, she sat me down at a station somewhere and told me two things,” he says.

She said: “I’m going to try and be your friend, not your mother. But occasionally I might act like your mother because it’ll be hard not to. And secondly, if you want to make all these dreams happen, understand that women have the power.”

He admits that his mother is right – women are much more sustainable than men.

“Out of 80 people coming on the March expedition, 60 are women. You’ve got to see the results, and they are that women deliver, hence my mother was right. And I respect that. I’m in the survival business and I’ve learnt that women are tougher and more resilient,” he says.

Swan has hope for the future. His advice to the next generation is to be brave to join businesses and make changes. “You’re not going to make a difference by hugging a tree. Be part of an industry and make changes from within,” he says.