BLADE RUNNER
The youngest female ever to complete a polar trifecta, Jade Hameister is determined to send a message of empowerment to young women. By Cushla Chauhan.
The youngest female ever to complete a polar trifecta, Jade Hameister is determined to send a message of empowerment to young women.
There are few people in this world who have or will ever travel to the remote, startlingly beautiful but treacherous Arctic region and Antarctica, yet at just 16, Jade Hameister can lay claim to having trekked through both. On January 10 this year, the young adventurer completed the last leg of her Polar Quest, a challenge she set herself three years ago to become the youngest person ever to complete the polar hat-trick, which includes three separate excursions to the North Pole, Greenland Crossing and South Pole as part of a team that includes her dad.
During her combined trips – covering more than 1,000 kilometres on skis – Hameister has had to contend with sub-zero temperatures, 24 hours’ daylight, the threat of polar bears, perilous crevasses and the extreme fatigue and physical pain that comes with dragging a sled of supplies weighing more than her own body weight for up to 12 hours a day.
But having conquered, she’s actually feeling a little deflated. “I have a big hole in my life, to be completely honest,” she says. “I loved having something big to work towards and try to achieve. As much as I am super-pumped to have completed my almost three-year goal and go home and see family and friends, it’s really sad.”
Hameister acknowledges that while her mixed emotions on leaving the South Pole and the period of adjustment to normal life are natural, it was thoughts of home that spurred her on during the final and longest expedition – traversing from the edge of the frozen Antarctic continent to the geographic South Pole while chartering a new route of 605 kilometres through an environment that is as hostile as it is spectacular.
On day 24 of the 37-day journey, she reported: “We have battled our way for around two weeks, constantly slipping, sliding, being jerked to a stop by the sled catching on an immovable chunk of ice. We’ve also encountered superwindy weather that drops the temperature, including two days of -50° Celsius. One of these brutally cold days was Christmas Day! I’ve lost the feeling in the tips of my fingers and toes and my body aches everywhere … I would do anything for a bath and a home-cooked meal.”
Compounding the discomfort was the fact that 10 days into the trip, she couldn’t log on to Spotify. “I’ve had way too much time with my voice in my head while skiing and trying to block out negative talk when I’m in pain,”
she said of having to spend monotonous hours each day without music to stimulate and distract. “I’m going a bit crazy and running out of things to think about.”
On completing the trifecta, the Melbourne student has set new records: becoming the youngest person to ski to the North Pole from anywhere outside the last degree, the youngest woman in history to cross Greenland coast-to-coast, and the youngest person ever to ski from the coast to the South Pole. And while that’s an achievement she’s proud of, her motivation runs far deeper.
“Something super-close to my heart that I’ve been trying to spread along the way is a message about young women and shifting the focus from our appearance to the possibilities of what our bodies and minds can do, and also choosing bravery over perfection,” she explains.
It’s a perspective that comes into even sharper focus when life is stripped down to survival and the artifice of consumerist society stands in stark contrast.
“On expedition I am reminded of how little we need to survive, and we waste nothing. Being immersed in nature for such a long time with no external stimulation, not even music, I spent over 300
“I AM DETERMINED TO SHOW THAT YOUNG WOMEN ARE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE”
hours with my own thoughts; everything slows down. Back in civilisation, there is so much excess, waste and fakeness. We are bombarded with commercial messages and pressure to want more or look different.”
The fragility of Earth too, becomes glaringly apparent. “The other aspect that I’ve discovered along the way is climate change and the effect it’s having on polar regions. It wasn’t really a big issue for me before these trips, but then when you see it first-hand and experience it, you get really annoyed when people try and tell you it’s not happening.”
Promoting her message hasn’t come without sacrifice, though. While her friends were talking excitedly about summer school holidays late last year, Hameister was pulling tyres across parks and beaches as part of her intensive training six days a week and preparing for weeks of extreme cold, constant pain, no showers and a limited diet of dehydrated meals.
But aside from her obvious drive to achieve, Hameister is fuelled by the reward of feeling like she just might be making a difference. As well as the significant media coverage her story has garnered, she has presented two TEDx Talks and was featured in a National
Geographic documentary about inspiring young women.
“I’ve had messages from people to say they’ve heard me speak or seen me online and that they’re super-inspired, and that’s really nice,” she says in her characteristically unassuming way. “But with my friends it’s not really something I talk about … to them I’m just Jade, otherwise it would be a bit weird.”
Right now, she is savouring the simple luxuries of having a shower in her own bathroom, sleeping in her own bed, enjoying her mum’s meals and being reunited with her dog, Ava. Yet there’s still a part of the teen that remains attached to that icy, alien landscape she’s just visited. “Now that I’m clean and back in normal life, the only thing I want to do is to be back on the ice (which is always the case) and everything about normal life just seems weird,” she says.
Of her quest, she remarks: “It is definitely not glamorous and it is extremely hard as a woman, especially when you’re in a team with four grown men, but I am determined to show that young women are capable of so much more than what was ever thought possible.” To find out more about Jade Hameister’s epic expedition, go to www.jadehameister.com.