Sunniva Sorby: Expeditioner & Citizen Scientist

We have to stop living the way we’re living. Now is a perfect time to start experimenting with living differently, living a little bit more in harmony with nature and with others. Doing more giving and less taking.
Sunniva Sorby

Sunniva Sorby has been on more than 100 expeditions to Antarctica. In 1993 she made history, as part of the team of the first women to reach the South Pole. She’s a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Her most recent project is called Hearts in the Ice, which she co-founded with adventurer Hilde Strøm.

When I spoke with her, in the summer of 2020, she was just back from spending a year in the Arctic, in a small cabin called Bamsebu. She and Hilde Strøm went back to Bamsebu in the fall of 2020 staying until June of 2021 – having spent a total of 18 months in the high Arctic collecting data. A new book about their time in Bamsebu will be out later this summer.

It’s not every day you get to talk with an explorer, and Sunniva was incredibly generous with her time, telling me about growing up in Canada and how she went from being an outdoor guide in California, to making history at the South Pole. And perhaps more importantly, she shares her thoughts on what we can all do to help the planet.