Todd Carmichael

Who is Todd Carmichael?

Todd Carmichael was the first American explorer to cross Antarctica to the South Pole alone, on foot and with no assistance. He arrived at the pole on December 21, 2008, after a total travel time of 39 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes.

Carmichael set the record for the fastest solo journey to the South Pole, surpassing the record set by Hannah McKeand in 2006. He averaged 18 miles per day on skis and foot. Born in Spokane, Washington August 30, 1963, Carmichael claims to have crossed the majority of all world's deserts in solo. Contributor to the Huffington Post, Carmichael is a passionate crusader for social and ecological causes and has a decade-long history of undertaking self-supported treks into challenging environments. His expeditions have taken him to locations are varied as Namibia to Zambia, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In keeping with his unwavering ethic of low-carbon, self-sufficient travel, Carmichael only brings what he can carry on his back, or, in the case of Antarctica, pull behind him on a sled.

Carmichael kept a video log of his progress across Antarctica, and the footage has since been made into a documentary, Race to the Bottom of the Earth, as seen on the National Geographic Channel.