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July 2025 – Volume Thirty-One, Number Seven
Celebrating our 31th year!
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects, and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate, and educate.
| | Neil Armstrong, expedition leader Mike Dunn, and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1985. | | |
SONS OF HILLARY AND ARMSTRONG
RETRACE HISTORIC 1985 NORTH POLE EXPEDITION
On July 22, descendants of Neil Armstrong and Sir Edmund Hillary will journey to the Geographic North Pole onboard Ponant's hybrid powered Icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot, to honor a little-known 1985 expedition their famous fathers shared. They landed on April 6, 1985, making Hillary the first to reach both poles and summit Everest.
At Armstrong’s request, the mission stayed out of the spotlight at the time. Now footage of that expedition has resurfaced.
The 2025 commemoration will be recorded in a new documentary film directed by Icelandic filmmakers Orly Orlyson and Rafnar Orri.
The film, titled North Pole ’85, mixes family legacy, polar adventure, and a dash of Icelandic humor, documenting a return to the top of the world 40 years after the original mission.
The 1985 expedition was organized by professional expedition leader Mike Dunn who in 2016 donated the letters and photographs from the expedition to Örlyson’s Exploration Museum in Husavik, located on the northeast coast of Iceland. Earlier this year, a long-lost box of original film footage was rediscovered, finally making it possible to tell this story in a documentary film. That film has now been digitized and donated to the museum as well.
During the 1985 expedition, Sir Edmund Hillary became the first person to have reached both poles and the summit of Mt. Everest, a feat that later became known as the Three Poles Challenge. On the way back from the North Pole, the expedition faced a brutal whiteout, and the explorers were stuck in an arctic hut for three days, sharing stories of their past epic expeditions.
“This is the last great untold story of two of the greatest explorers of the 20th century,” says Orlyson.
“It will be a cinematic expedition through time, memory and a rapidly changing Arctic. A living testament to endurance, climate and the unyielding spirit of exploration.”
| | Mark Armstrong and. Peter Hillary will return to the North Pole with their adult children. Hillary accompanied his father in 1985. | | |
Both Icelandic filmmakers form the team behind Húsavík’s surprise path to the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021. Their video production of the Oscar-nominated song, Husavik (My Hometown) from the film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, was seen by 10.4 million viewers worldwide.
Ponant, the French expedition cruise company, is supporting the production by providing passage aboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s only luxury icebreaker. Guests will witness the making of the documentary, view rare archival footage, and hear stories from the Armstrong and Hillary families while standing at the top of the world. At press time, passage on the 16-day cruise was still available starting at $44,660 per person.
The project is also supported by SONY Group International, the official film gear partner for the North Pole '85 documentary. Additional sponsorship is sought for post-production costs.
Learn more about the Ponant North Pole cruise at:
https://us.ponant.com/the-arctic-the-geographic-north-pole-cc270726-12
Contact Orlyson at: hnefill@lunar.is
EXPEDITION UPDATE
| | SS Terra Nova crew (Photo: Cool Antarctica) | | |
SS Terra Nova Documented
Increasingly, advanced technology is solving many of the mysteries of the heroic age of polar exploration. This month brings news of the first-ever visual survey of the wreck of the historic oak-built polar ship SS Terra Nova, one of the most iconic vessels in history. (see EN, September 2012).
Built in 1884 for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet, the 187-ft. Terra Nova was a robust wooden ship designed to withstand harsh polar conditions. Before gaining worldwide recognition as the expedition ship for Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s final Antarctic journey, Terra Nova had already proven herself in polar service.
In 1903, she was chartered as a relief vessel to resupply and assist in freeing RRS Discovery from the ice in McMurdo Sound during Scott’s first expedition.
Her most renowned role came during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. As the primary expedition ship, Terra Nova transported Scott and his team to Antarctica for their attempt to reach the South Pole. It sank in 1942 off the southwestern coast of Greenland after taking on water. Her master finished the ship off with 23 rounds of gunfire so she did not become a hazard to other shipping, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.
Her final resting place remained unknown until 2012, when the research vessel RV Falkor, operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, discovered the wreck.
Recently in a follow-up mission, MY Legend – a state-of-the-art exploration yacht equipped for deep-sea operations – has completed a detailed visual survey of the site. Using advanced underwater technology and a modern submersible, the expedition captured high-resolution imagery of the wreck, confirming its identity and revealing key structural features. The survey also documented a vibrant marine ecosystem, with cold-water corals, anemones, and fish thriving on the wreck.
“Legend’s work has answered many of the long-standing questions surrounding the condition and final moments of the Terra Nova, and in doing so, it brings closure to a story that has captivated polar historians for over a century,” says Leighton Rolley, Project Lead for the SS Terra Nova discovery.
Learn more about the ship:
https://tinyurl.com/terranovadocumented
Read the full announcement:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/press-release-documentation-famous-polar-exploration-vessel-rolley-d5fde/
EXPEDITION NOTES
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EC50 recipient Tia Clark shares her passion for crabbing.
Nicknamed "The Casual Crabber," she hosts an Airbnb Experience called "Let's Go Crabbing" –
a hands-on and educational way to experience the South Carolina Lowcountry.
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Nominations Sought for EC50 Class of 2026
Nominations are now open for The Explorers Club’s successful EC50 program.
One previous honoree, Tia Clark, who leads a nationally recognized program reconnecting people with water and wellness in Charleston, South Carolina, describes being named to the EC50 as “a moment that made me feel seen, like the work I was doing mattered on a global scale.”
Through crabbing, Clark found her connection to the water, her culture and her community. And now shares this passion and introduces others to crabbing and conservation through Casual Crabbing with Tia.
Applications for the Class of 2026 are due Tuesday, September 30, 2025. Nominations must be made by Explorers Club members, but nominees can be members and non-members alike. The nomination link is:
https://50.explorers.org/nominate/
Watch Clark’s Zoom interview with Club president Richard Wiese:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAbL52zYNtXuCZ8dFKtg5X9FP4WtNA7n/view?usp=sharing
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Ethan Guo photographed in Geneva, Switzerland, last August.
(Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone)
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That’s One Way to Avoid the Drake: Teen Pilot Detained in Antarctica
A teenage pilot, who is attempting to fly all seven continents solo, hit a patch of rough air earlier this month when Chilean authorities detained him for changing his flight plan without their permission and landing in Antarctica. Chilean prosecutors say Asian American influencer Ethan Guo, 19, broke “multiple national and international regulations” by providing no prior notice, landing on a part of Antarctica where the South American country maintains a territorial claim.
He meant well.
Guo, who learned to fly at 13, is trying to raise $1 million for cancer research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and has broadcast his continent-hopping journey since last September to more than 1.3 million Instagram followers.
Chilean authorities say that Guo submitted a false flight plan and took off from Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas as the sole passenger and crew member aboard a Cessna 182Q aircraft, registered as N182WT. At one point during that flight, authorities say he turned off course toward Antarctica.
Guo’s “Flight Against Cancer” has raised more than $105,000 to date.
Learn more:
https://www.ethansflightagainstcancer.com/, https://www.instagram.com/ethanguo.rtw
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Boredom is a matter of choice, not circumstance.”
– Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher.
EXPEDITION FOCUS
| | MSU Denver Anthropology student receives an artifact found in the brothel dig site in Central City. (Photo: Alyson McClaran) | | |
Colorado Archaeology Students Dig Up Some Dirt on Brothels
One way to teach archaeology is to send students out looking for fossils. In Colorado, Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU) students are studying something way more salacious as they dig up some dirt on the notorious brothels of Central City.
Led by Assistant Professor Jade Luiz, students in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology are spending several weeks excavating a historic brothel site in the former gold mining town. The dig is part of a field school that began in June 2023 and has yielded more than 12,000 artifacts.
The excavation focuses on the remnants of a once-thriving red-light district that operated from the 1870s until about 1912.
“One of our students spotted buildings labeled ‘FB’ for ‘female boarding’ on an old map of Central City. That’s when we knew we had something worth digging into,” said Luiz.
Artifacts pulled from five sites include glass bottles, wallpaper fragments, and household items like a gutta-percha hair comb – an early form of plastic used for personal grooming – plus a commemorative spoon from the 1898 Battle of Manila, aluminum and ceramic fragments, shards of glass, a St. Camillus medal and a corset.
| | Studio portrait of famed Madam Lou Bunch (Photo: History Colorado) | | Ocean First Institute’s Dr. Chris Malinowski is jawsome. | | |
All the Sharks
We’re no fan of reality TV (yes, Real Housewives we’re looking at you), but this one streaming now on Netflix promises to do some good.
All the Sharks is a new reality competition that follows four teams of shark experts and enthusiasts as they travel the globe on a quest to document and swim alongside some of the ocean's most elusive and magnificent predators. The top team receives $50,000 to donate to the charity of its choice.
Dr. Chris Malinowski, Director of Research and Conservation at Ocean First Institute (OFI), Boulder, Colorado, has teamed up with renowned expert Dr. Brendan Talwar, Reef Environmental Education Foundation, Key Largo, Florida, to form Team Shark Docs – bringing decades of combined research experience, conservation expertise, and pure passion for these apex predators to the competition.
No matter what you think of reality TV, the exposure could be a win for preserving these ocean predators. It’s an unprecedented opportunity to bring shark conservation and marine biodiversity into living rooms across the globe and motivate the next generation of ocean protectors and marine scientists. Netflix reached 301.6 million paid subscribers globally by the end of 2024.
The diversity of sharks and rays was recorded in six locations – Maldives, Bahamas, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and the Galápagos.
Watch the Hollywood sizzle reel here, complete with dramatic timpani drums and French horn sound effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCemp1-vDjE
Follow the team at @shark_docs
| With all its windows sealed by fixed shutters, the hut on Horseshoe Island remains cloaked in darkness – flashlights are essential to glimpse anything within its dark interior. (Photo: Jett Britnell) | |
Antarctica’s Abandoned “Ghost” Huts
A half-dozen of Antarctica’s so-called ghost huts are documented in Luxe Beat magazine (July 2) by Jett and Kathryn Britnell, professional underwater, wildlife and expedition photographers and explorers.
“When we set off on our polar expedition cruise with Aurora Expeditions last year, our sights were set on the region’s extraordinary wildlife, not forgotten relics of human endeavor. But that plan shifted with a stop at Snow Hill Hut in the remote Weddell Sea region,” write the Britnells in "Frozen in Time: Antarctica’s Abandoned Ghost Huts."
“Our first visit to one of Antarctica's many abandoned ghost huts quickly drew us in. We soon discovered that each abandoned ghost hut we visited held its own compelling narrative, preserved like a time capsule in the white silence. As we explored further, we discovered stories woven with scientific ambition, profound isolation, and even whispers of the paranormal,” they write.
“To cross their threshold is like stepping through a rupture in time, where preserved history lingers in ice-crusted corners and the echoes of past explorers seem to whisper through frosted windowpanes.”
Antarctica’s abandoned research stations are often referred to as “ghost” huts, not just because of their remote, wind-swept locations, but also due to the haunting legacy they represent.
Read the story here:
https://luxebeatmag.com/frozen-in-time-antarcticas-abandoned-ghost-huts/
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Royal Geographical Society’s Global GeoARTBlitz Starts July 19-27, 2025
Imagine a worldwide celebration where art meets science in a frenzy of creativity and exploration. GeoARTBlitz is a fusion of geography and art, inspired by bioblitzes. These events ignite a passion for nature as people across the globe come together to observe and document their natural surroundings using the iNaturalist app.
To participate:
• Download the iNaturalist app and join at:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/global-geoartblitz-2025
• From July 19-27, capture your experiences through journal entries, paintings, poems, music, or any other form of artistic expression that nature inspires in you.
• Share your masterpieces with the world by uploading them to the GeoARTBlitz event on iNaturalist.
• Hosted by the Royal Geographical Society's Art of Exploration Collective, selections of uploaded nature art will be featured during RGS’s Explore Week (Oct. 27 – Nov. 2).
View the 2-min. video recap of the 2024 GeoARTBlitz here:
https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/global-geoartblitz-2025
For more information: Roseann Hanson, the organizer of the GeoARTBlitz, at roseann@exploringoverland.com
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What Does Exploration and The Explorers Club Mean to You?
That was the question posed by @heynonafilms to guests of the Explorers Club 121st annual dinner in April. “We want to be the person that people look to and say, they stand for integrity, they stand for science,” says Club president Richard Wiese.
“In a time when fear of the unknown is guiding so many decisions, exploration is more important than ever,” comments Jimmy Chin, skier, mountain climber, and Academy Award-winning director.
Tory Burch, American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist, also makes a cameo along with other honored explorers.
Watch it here:
https://tinyurl.com/ECAD25sizzle
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The Endurance in 3D
The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust has unveiled the first-ever 3D views of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, alongside a brand-new interactive digital experience that lets the public explore the wreck for themselves.
Created using over 25,000 high-resolution images captured during the Endurance 22 mission (see EN, March 2022), combined with laser scanning and color correction techniques, this project sets a new standard in digital reconstruction. Visitors can now see the wreck as it lies on the seabed and experience it in extraordinary detail, without ever disturbing a single plank.
The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT) is a charity registered in the UK which is dedicated to preserving the rich and varied seafaring history of the Falklands and those who have been associated with them.
See the ship online:
https://fmht.co.uk/shackletons-endurance-revealed/
ON THE HORIZON
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Explorers Gather in Ottawa for GLEX: Canada, Sept. 12-14, 2025
Ticketing is now live for GLEX: Canada, the 2025 Global Exploration Summit, celebrating a gathering of the world’s greatest explorers in Ottawa, Ontario, September 12-14, 2025.
GLEX is hosted in partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and brings together explorers, scientists, and storytellers from around the world to chart the future of exploration and celebrate the shared human pursuit of discovery.
Featured speakers are Professor Brian Cox, British physicist and acclaimed science communicator, and Louise Leakey, Ph.D., a Kenyan paleontologist conducting groundbreaking work on human origins while continuing the legacy of the Leakey family.
Also presenting: Oliver Steeds, Director of the Nekton Ocean Census - discovering, identifying, and classifying marine species on the brink; Hari Budha Magar, double below-the-knee amputee climber and Gurkha veteran completing the Seven Summits; Charles Emogor, pangolin protector and conservationist; Gunjan Menon, The Firefox Guardian filmmaker; and Mensun Bound, David Mearns, and Jonathan Moore who explored iconic shipwrecks such as Erebus, Terror, Quest, and Endurance.
Tickets range from $225 - $525. For more information: https://www.explorers.org/glexcanada/
LISTEN TO EN ON THE GO
Hear this month’s Expedition News Deep Dive courtesy of Google NotebookLM:
https://tinyurl.com/ENJuly2025
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
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Finn & Friends - A Birthday Adventure
Finn (a Great White Shark) is celebrating his birthday with his friends Coco, Doc, Bettie, Lucas and Barb. As they head out on their adventure, they learn about friendship, helping others and the threats of trash and debris that are thrown into the ocean by humans.
Each of the characters have distinct personality traits and human characteristics that make them easy for children to connect with.
All pre-order copies will be signed by author Andrea Clulow and personalized.
The book is printed on recycled paper utilizing soy ink keeping it environmentally friendly. A portion of the net sales in 2025 will go to ocean conservation and shark research through Ocean First Institute.
https://finnandfriends.org/products/pre-order-finn-friends-a-birthday-adventure
| | Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld – Travel has come roaring back and so has voluntourism. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook | | |
Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.(Skyhorse Publishing).
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Sponsored-Explorers-Adventurers-Travelers-ebook/dp/B00H12FLH2
Advertise in Expedition News – For more information: blumassoc@aol.com
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2025 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
Research past issues of Expedition News dating back to May 1995 courtesy of the Utah State University Outdoor Recreation Archive. Access is free at: https://tinyurl.com/ENArchivesUSU
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