Erica Stanford — training to cross Antarctica via the South Pole

Erica Stanford is an award-winning bestselling author, international keynote speaker and technology-risk adviser, and one half of the Polar Dogs Antarctica Expedition — training to ski 2,000km across Antarctica via the South Pole in November 2027. She has had a lifelong obsession with deserts and remote places, and had always wanted to go to Antarctica — but had assumed that polar explorers were a different kind of person.

She began polar training in 2025, having skied a handful of times as a child and never cross-country. Since then she has completed six days of hut-to-hut ski touring in the Polar Night in Arctic Finland at −40°C; two weeks of polar survival and expedition training in Norway with ALE’s Guinness World Record-holding guide Hannah McKeand, ending in a seven-day expedition; eight days hauling a pulk across the Hardangervidda through whiteouts, a blizzard and a hailstorm; ski technique training in Oslo; and three days of crevasse rescue training below Mont Blanc with ALE’s crevasse expert Simon Abrahams. Wilderness First Responder training in Svalbard and a four-week unguided polar expedition follow in 2027.

Her endurance background is cycling and long-distance walking: Land’s End to John O’Groats and Scotland’s North Coast 500 in 2022, and the 780km Camino de Santiago on foot in 20 days.

Erica Stanford at the John O’Groats signpost after cycling Land’s End to John O’Groats

Erica Stanford on a gravel cycling route in the British countryside

She is the author of Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption, which received Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards 2022 and has been translated into 15 languages, and of Stablecoins: Law, Regulation and Technology, published by Edward Elgar in December 2026. She speaks internationally on fraud, scams and digital-asset risk, including the TEDx talk “Meet your scammers: this is how they get you”. She works at the international law firm CMS and advises global technology companies on digital asset and AI risk. She is also an advisor to a fast-growth sports startup. In 2026 she completed an MSc in Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, studying throughout her polar training.

Erica Stanford in a polar down jacket with frost on her face in Halti National Park in Arctic Finland at minus 40C during the Polar Night

A polar explorer in a down jacket hood in cloud and snow during winter training, as part of a winter mountain skills course

A polar explorer wearing a buff and beanie against the cold on a winter training day, as part of a winter mountain skills course

Ice axe and crampon training on a steep snow slope during polar expedition training, as part of a winter mountain skills course

Erica Stanford on the summit of Ben Nevis in 2021, standing above a sea of cloud

Erica Stanford hiking in the mountains above Chamonix, where the Polar Dogs did their crevasse rescue training

Erica Stanford climbing a steel bridge girder in a climbing harness above a river

Erica Stanford on the quayside in Stockholm with tall ships moored behind her

Erica Stanford on LinkedIn.