Our story

Adventure and extreme challenges are in Denise's DNA. With years of cold weather guiding in Northern Canada, the high Arctic and Antarctica, Denise is one of the original polar guides. Proudly wearing the badge of first Canadian women to ski to the North and South Geographic Poles, helping people realise their dreams remains a fundamental reason why Denise loves this job.

IPGA endorsed Polar Expedition Guide https://polarguides.org/guides/denise-martin 

A diamond amongst polar gems, a legend before his time, Are is simply the most authentic polar guide you will find. Are has worked with the best, inspired many, exemplifies true leadership and always has a good time doing this. He has clocked more South Pole expeditions and Greenland crossing than most other polar guides. He is the guy to be with for pure adventure.

Chris is a vascular/renal transplant surgeon who has a sustained interest in austere environments. Chris is a member of both the Alpine and Climbers Club and sits on the Mount Everest Screening Committee. Recently, he completed a 30-year odyssey by climbing the Seven Summits. He is a world expert in cold injuries and has run the UK telemedicine frostbite service for the British Mountaineering Council for over twenty year and has recently set up the UK Frostbite Service.

In 2017, he co-founded the Global Polar and Altitude Metabolic Research Registry with Claire Grogan to help better understand the challenges of extreme environmental travel.  Chris is a co-author of The Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, and although he has published extensively on altitude medicine, cold injury, vascular and renal transplantation surgery (with over 215 peer review publications), he remains an active mountaineer, back country skier, polar traveller and altitude/cold researcher.

 George is a warm teddy bear of a man with the instincts of a hard core sniper. Polar Guides is fortunate to have George on board. 

A native to Scotland, George has preferred being outside his entire life. A former Sergeant with the Royal Marines, he specialised as a Mountain Leader and accrued a decade of experience planning and running training exercises, and leading operations in mountainous and cold weather environments around the world.

Carving out a successful career as a freelance mountaineer, George is a certified wilderness medic, a qualified Winter & Summer Mountain Leader, a Rock Climbing Instructor and a Nordic Ski Coach.

A real advocate for the physical and cerebral benefits of the great outdoors, George has a genuine passion for supporting people who wish to venture out of their comfort zones. He’s a real confidence builder, and holds the ability to effectively share knowledge and identify where individual’s skill sets can be honed, in order to safely explore the wilderness. 

 Rob Smith is a renowned polar expedition leader and mountaineer. He has been guiding in Antarctica since 2000, has climbed   Everest seven times, K2, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Manaslu, Denali and Vinson Massif to name a few of the known highest. He is a fantastic guide, teacher and expedition companion juggling the life of guide and a loving father to two young children. 

Mark Reed is a polar expedition leader and mountain guide whose work blends modern exploration with a deep commitment to Antarctic history. Based between the Scottish Highlands and the Polar Plateau, Mark specialises in remote field operations, heritage-focused expeditions, and guiding teams safely through some of the world’s most demanding environments.

He is currently leading The Last Cache a major Antarctic expedition aiming to locate the furthest-south depot laid by Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party in 1915. With years of guiding experience in Scotland’s mountains, Mark brings a calm, people-centred leadership style to every expedition. He is known for his thoughtful approach to risk and his ability to inspire confidence in challenging conditions.

Since 2020, Kev has worked as an outdoor professional in the fields of mountain leading, sea kayaking, whitewater canoeing, mountain biking and canyoning— embracing the outdoors in every season and weather is his motto.

His love for polar travel was ignited during a nine-week expedition to Svalbard, where he worked alongside scientists collecting data on the impact of global warming. The Arctic’s vastness, serenity, and challenge left a lasting impression.

Alongside expedition ambitions, Kev has applied to join the Scottish Mountain Rescue team, a role that reflects a dedication to safety, teamwork, and service within the outdoor community.

 We are lucky to have Richard as part of our guiding team. His wealth of experience working in extreme conditions , in extreme settings with absolute attention to detail, describes this natural leader. A fantastic person to travel with and a teacher to the core.

Richard Smith, PhD, studied as an astrophysicist, moved into Information Technology and served with the Royal Marines Reserve and the Special Boat Service. Having brushed shoulders with cancer in 2000 and 2005, he made a couple of re calculations on the track his life was heading, and decided to jump the corporate ‘rat race’ ship he was at that time sailing, and disappeared around the world for half a year to have a ‘wee’ think about what to do next.