Meet Dr Amelia Wendy Searle

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr Amelia Wendy Searle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr Amelia Wendy below.

Dr Amelia Wendy, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I think I’ve always had ‘purpose’ rather than ‘a purpose’. So I’ve always tried to do everything to the best of my ability, whether that’s being a mother, skiing to the South Pole, or bar work when I was a student.

I had my family young; I had pretty solid plans to join the Army, but that wasn’t going to work with young children, especially more than 20 years ago. I wanted to be a journalist when I was at school, so I set about finding experience and training to make that happen. It took me years, and not taking no for an answer. I was eventually given a job at a newspaper by a legendary editor who taught me a lot about excellence.

I think it was always just trying my best which led me to my polar journey, and to the life I now have beyond that, as a guide.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

In 2020, I became only the seventh woman in history to ski solo from Hercules Inlet to the geographic South Pole. A journey of over 700 miles, alone and with no resupply. I didn’t speak to anyone for most of those 42 days, and had only audio books for company.

I spent almost five years training, preparing and fundraising for that journey, alongside working full time and as a busy mother to four young children. I was a life-changing expedition in almost every sense; my work, my personal life, how I saw myself. After that, going back to a regular office job was hard! I wanted to be around people who also understood this new perspective I had on life; one where you realise what matters. I was able to find a job as a guide, sharing the life-changing magic of expeditions with others.

My job is so special not because I get to be in the wilderness again, but because I aim to bring out the best in each person that comes on a trip. They may not be the fittest, but they might be great at camp life, or give tonnes of morale to the rest of the team. It’s showing people just how capable they are, and how much they have to give, that is the best part of my job.

I hope the legacy of my own expedition is to show that an ordinary woman can do extraordinary things. You don’t have to have a good backstory, or a long-held dream, you can just decide you want to do something.

What’s important to me now is to help other women – especially mothers and women in mid-life – to realise how much they have to offer, and to realise their ambitions.

I work for a company called Shackleton, which makes expedition-grade apparel, and runs expeditions to wild places. I am constantly working towards making the outdoor and adventure world more welcoming to women, and more representative of every community.

We have recently launched a women-only Challenge (what we call our expeditions) and I hope that will help more women to join us!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I have so many tips for how to make a journey happen! Be that a physical expedition, or a metaphorical goal.

I would definitely say that you should set a date and work towards it, rather than say ‘oh, I’ll do it when the kids are older’ or ‘I’ll do it when I have a bit more money’ or ‘when work is less busy’. These things rarely tend to come around, but if you draw a line in the sand – and tell people about it – you’re more like to make it happen.

I didn’t have any knowledge of polar journeys; I didn’t know much about the history, or about the technical aspects of surviving in temperatures down to -30. So I set about taking steps towards that. I spoke to as many people I could find who had done what I wanted to do – and they were all very keen to share their stories. And then I started small – I put expedition skis on my feet for the first time in 2018, and just kept putting one foot in front of the other – in every sense!

You need a good dose of optimism when you have funding knock-backs, something goes wrong, or you make a mistake. Being able to reframe those things are learning, and reset and go again was (and is) invaluable, and it’s something you can practise. If I stuck my head out of the tent and it was total whiteout (ground fog where you can’t see further than the end of your ski – like being inside a ping-pong ball), I was certain the next day would be better (it wasn’t always!)

Trying to drown out my internal negative voice was a challenge – I was thinking about all the things that could go wrong. It was a daily struggle to remind myself how much I wanted to do this journey – despite the hardships. I did everything I could think of – power poses, mantras, even marking off the days with a sharpie on the inside of my tent using hearts – to at least pretend I loved each day.

Being able to break a huge journey down into smaller chunks – something a day, or an hour, sometimes another few metres, helped make it not so overwhelming.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

I’m always facing challenges as I’m always looking to improve, practise, study or move on to the next step in whatever it is. I love mountain biking, climbing, open-water swimming and off-road motorbiking. I find some of those things mentally and physically challenging, and for me it’s often a question of confidence over competence. Usually I’m better than I give myself credit for, so my biggest challenge is usually getting over that and aiming high!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://explorerwendy.com
• Instagram: @betweensnowandsky

Image Credits

Pic one: Credit Martin Hartley for Shackleton

All other photos credit: Dr Amelia Wendy Searle