Polar trailblazer who wants to inspire people
Preet Chandi reached the South Pole in 2022 and now wants to be the first woman to travel solo and unsupported to the North Pole.
Trailblazing British explorer Preet Chandi is hoping to inspire people to chase their dreams as she makes another bid to make polar history.
Success in confronting the frozen lands of the South Pole entirely alone has earned her the nickname of Polar Preet and praise from the Princess of Wales for her “incredible” achievements.
Ms Chandi reached the South Pole for the first time in January 2022 and is now in training to try and become the first woman to travel solo and unsupported to the North Pole.
The married 36-year-old from Derby jokes that when she first told her “proud and supportive” Indian family of her polar plans “some of them thought I was talking about Southall rather than the South Pole”.
In 2022, she became the first woman of colour to do a solo expedition in Antarctica after travelling 702 miles in 40 days.
She has also completed the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey for a female by covering 922 miles in 70 days.
Ms Chandi beat the previous world record of 907 miles (1,459km) set in 2015 by Henry Worsley, a retired lieutenant colonel.
She skied for up to 15 hours a day on as little as five hours of sleep, pulling her kit and supplies – which weighed around 19 stone (120kg) – through winds of up to 60mph and in temperatures as low as minus 30C.
Just days after she returned to the UK from this trip, Ms Chandi was joined by Kate at a visit to Landau Forte College in her home city.
The princess, who was a patron of the challenge, had said: “I just think it’s incredible, what you’ve been able to achieve.
“Being by yourself… as humans we are meant to connect and be with each other, and being on your own all that time is really challenging.”
Then in December 2023, Ms Chandi set a female speed record from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole by covering 702 miles in 31 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes.
All of this was achieved as she balanced her adventure work with a career as a physiotherapist and a captain in the British Army, where she served for 16 years.
After she collected her MBE in 2023 she said “wherever we start from, we can go and achieve anything”.
She is currently in training, and in fundraising mode, for her latest record attempt.
Weather permitting, her trek to the North Pole should start in March.
On her Go Fund Me page, she points out that Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest and windiest continent on Earth and nobody lives there permanently.
She stresses that inspiring others is important to her, adding: “When I reached the South Pole the first time (January 2022), I said on my blog post: ‘I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces.’
“I was told no on so many occasions, called stubborn or rebellious because I wanted to do things that were out of the norm and push my boundaries.
“I want to encourage others to push their boundaries, it is amazing how much your world opens up when you start to do so. No boundary or barrier is too small and I want to continue to smash that glass ceiling.”