Patrick Woodhead

Having been part of the youngest and fastest team to ever reach the South Pole in 2002, Patrick went on to lead the first ever East to West traverse of Antarctica, covering 1850km in a total of 75 days.

For the last 18 years, Patrick and White Desert have been pioneering luxury tourism in the interior of Antarctica, allowing travellers to immerse themselves in the awe-inspiring remoteness and isolation without enduring a series of gruelling treks. The company has also been Carbon Neutral since 2007.

”To see this wilderness with a small group of people gives you that sense of discovery and serendipity. It’s magical to see a penguin when you’re virtually standing alone.”

White Desert’s flagship camp, Whichaway, was so named as when Patrick was at the site, he and his team didn’t know ‘whichaway’ to go to get back to their base. In 2022 the company opened its second client camp, Echo which is the third camp overall for the business, the other, Wolf’s Fang servicing mainly scientists and expeditioners. A multi-award winning luxury adventure business, White Desert employs over 130 staff from 18 different nationalities.

Outside of the Polar World, he has been on many successful expeditions, summiting unclimbed mountains in Tibet and Kyrgyzstan, kayaking down uncharted rivers in the Amazon and being part of the team to set the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. In 2015 he broke the record for the fastest traverse of Greenland.

Author of 4 bestselling books published in 11 different languages, Patrick is also a Prince’s Trust ambassador and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He holds a private plane licence and when not working, enjoys discovering the lesser-trodden areas of South Africa with his family.