Preet Chandi began her polar career in 2021 when she skied solo to the South Pole while hauling a 192 pound sled across Antarctica. At just 37 years old, Preet has already become one of the most accomplished polar explorers of our generation, completing three expeditions to Antarctica and setting a new Guinness World Record each time. She is currently training for a groundbreaking trip to the North Pole, which she hopes to set off for this spring.
Preet Chandi began her polar career in 2021 when she skied solo to the South Pole while hauling a 192 pound sled across Antarctica. At just 37 years old, Preet has already become one of the most accomplished polar explorers of our generation, completing three expeditions to Antarctica and setting a new Guinness World Record each time. She is currently training for a groundbreaking trip to the North Pole, which she hopes to set off for this spring.
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Shelby Stanger:
In 2021, adventurer, Preet Chandi, traveled to Antarctica for the first time. Her goal, to ski to the South Pole. A small plane dropped her off, and she was left on the ice alone with a 192-pound sled.
Preet Chandi:
I 100% remember that plane going, just like watching it go off. And then you do a 360, and there's nothing. And it's this huge white desert, you can see for miles ahead, it's amazing. You feel tiny, very, very tiny.
Shelby Stanger:
Preet's first expedition to the South Pole kick started her career as a polar explorer. For many years, she served as a medical officer in the British military. The skills she learned in her work carried over to adventures on the ice.
At just 37 years old, Preet has already become one of the most accomplished polar explorers of our generation. She's completed three expeditions to Antarctica, and each time she set a new Guinness world record.
Currently, Preet is training for a groundbreaking trip to the North Pole, which she hopes to set off for this spring.
Preet Chandi, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Our team is so excited to have you on. I mean, they even said, "This girl is the definition of badass."
Preet Chandi:
Thank you so much for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. For people who don't know who you are, could you just tell us a little bit about how you introduce yourself?
Preet Chandi:
That's funny actually. So I left the British Army about a year ago, and now when people ask me what I do, sometimes I'm like, "Oh, I'm not working too much at the moment," but I am. And I guess I'm an adventurer. It's just getting used to saying it. So yes, I'm an adventurer, and I have managed to put my foot into a world that I really didn't know much about when I was younger, which is pretty incredible.
Shelby Stanger:
So what made you get interested in this extreme Arctic adventure?
Preet Chandi:
Yeah. So I ran my first half-marathon when I was at university, and then I decided to do a full marathon. And then I found this ultra marathon, and it was 50 miles overnight on Halloween. And I remember having this big backpack with sandwiches and things. And I walk into the check-in room, and I felt so unprepared because everyone's got these tiny little backpacks, and I quickly threw some of my sandwiches out, did the event. I was pretty much the last person in. I was sick on route a couple of times, but I just did 50 miles. And that feeling, those rewards have never left me.
And I think I was looking for something, if I'm honest, but I was looking for something big. I wanted something big that would not just push my own boundaries, but inspire other people to push theirs too. So I was speaking to one of my old bosses one day, and he said, "What about Antarctica?" And I said, "Not a chance." He's just mentioned a place that I know absolutely nothing about genuinely. Other than the fact that it's cold, I don't think I could have told you anything about Antarctica, but it stayed in my mind for about a year, just at the back of my mind.
And I then entered this other event called Marathon des Sables. It's 156 miles in the Sahara Desert, and it was labeled one of the toughest races in the world. And in my mind, for some reason, I thought, "If I can do that, if I can do MDS, I'm going to go to Antarctica." Now bear in mind, they're both deserts, obviously very different temperature, but both deserts. So I literally went onto Google and typed in how do you get to Antarctica? And found the logistics company, decided that I wanted to do a solo trip, and started doing some research, and decided that I wanted to be the first woman ever to ski solo and unsupported across the landmass of Antarctica, because why not dream big, right? And it started from there.
Shelby Stanger:
I just want to tell you that my team makes so much fun of me because every time we have to record a script with Antarctica, I cannot say it. It's not an easy word to say. Okay. So what year was it that you decided to actually type into Google how do you get to Antarctica?
Preet Chandi:
End of 2019.
Shelby Stanger:
It's one thing to decide to go to the South Pole, but you decide to do it and be the first woman to do it unsupported and solo. Why?
Preet Chandi:
I'm an ambitious person, I am. And I think I wanted to prove something, if I'm honest with you. I have been told a lot that I couldn't do a lot of things, and I went and did them anyway. I was told I wasn't smart enough to get into university. I actually went and graduated. So I think part of it was I wanted to push my own boundaries, I want to inspire people, but I also, I think I had something to prove, if I'm honest. I think I wanted to prove to myself and others that if I can go and do something like this, then anyone can go and do anything.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. So step one was typing into Google how to do this. Step two, what did that look like?
Preet Chandi:
Step two is where can I train? Well, find money and train. So I have put it on my website, on social media that I want to be the first female to do a solo unsupported land-crossing in Antarctica, and then I need to train. So I was sent these training courses, and it was called a polar expedition training course in Norway, which is perfect. I took two weeks of annual leave from work. I borrowed a load of kit from anybody I could. So I went on this course, and I thought, "Great, this is a really good baseline for me," because I wanted to learn what kind of clothing do you wear, putting a tent up in the snow, being able to navigate in the snow.
Shelby Stanger:
Before Preet could trek across Antarctica, the logistics company she hired needed proof that she was ready for the expedition. In order to build experience, she signed up to cross Greenland. Preet hired a guide and spent her life savings to make this trip happen. Ultimately, due to bad weather, she and her guide failed to complete the crossing. Preet returned to the UK defeated, massively in debt, and feeling like her dream might never become a reality.
I can't imagine spending my life savings and then failing. That would be absolutely brutal. I'm curious, how much did that trip to Greenland cost? Would you mind being transparent about that? Because I think people are clueless.
Preet Chandi:
So no, no, of course not. Yeah. So overall, this trip ... Well, not the extraction. So it was about 15,000 pounds that I had to pay. And then we got stuck on the ice and then had to be extracted by helicopter. And I didn't realize that I had to then pay that extraction cost. And it just, honestly, it got worse and worse.
So I get back to the UK, and I remember feeling quite empty, if I'm honest with you. And I was actually supposed to do the London Marathon virtually the next day. And I remember my partner saying to me, "You know you don't have to do it." And I actually did the next day, and I did it walking/hobbling/very slowly jogging. It took like over seven hours. And I think the reason that I did it is I wanted to show myself when I was feeling like this, could I give more? And the answer was yes, because I wasn't feeling good. I was feeling like I didn't have much left in me, but I could give more. And that, it helped a little bit, if I'm honest with you. Also after that, so this is August 2020, it took me over a year to pay off the helicopter cost, the extraction cost.
Shelby Stanger:
I just really appreciate you speaking about the money part, because I think people have no idea how much this kind of stuff costs. We know that Everest is absurdly expensive, but it's often rich guys that are doing it. But if you're someone like you or I that has a regular job or you were just in the Army and you're just making kind of regular pay, it's really expensive. And then there are these unexpected costs of extraction and emergency. I've been on a surf trip where someone had to get extracted, and it was so expensive.
Preet Chandi:
It was a lot of money, and it really hurt. And that wasn't something I even told family or friends really at the time, because I didn't really want anyone to say, "Well, why did you even ..." You know what I mean? "What a silly idea." But I would say looking back, those lows and those failures taught me quite a lot about myself, and they helped me, I think, more than actually any of my successes did.
Shelby Stanger:
Once she returned from the Greenland expedition, Preet applied to make a thousand-mile land crossing of Antarctica, but the logistics company rejected it, saying she still didn't have enough experience. So she settled for a slightly shorter trip, a 700-mile trek to the South Pole. After more than a year of preparation and fundraising, Preet flew to Chile and then to a base camp in Antarctica. On November 7th, 2021, she took a small plane to the edge of the landmass and set off on her first solo Antarctic expedition.
What was it like the very first day, just hearing all that silence, I'm guessing?
Preet Chandi:
Yes, I 100% remember that plane going, just like watching it go off. And then you do a 360, and there's nothing. I remember the first five or six days, I had decent weather, and that helps because it's stunning, it really is beautiful.
And it's funny because before that, the longest I've ever been alone was probably less than 48 hours. So this is already the longest time I've ever been just alone, but I've got good weather, so it's calm, it's not too windy, the sun was out. And I remember thinking, "Oh, this is pretty amazing."
And then after about five days, the weather turns. And I think when anything gets physically harder, it gets mentally harder as well. And then all of a sudden, it's a bit more of a struggle and you're having a little bit of a mental battle as well as physical because yes, you're dragging a sled and it's hard, but mentally, it's just something else. There's nothing really on the horizon. So it's not like you're climbing up a mountain and you're like, "Oh, that's my summit," or you can see a point where you're like, "I'm going to go to that point," because often it just looks the same.
Shelby Stanger:
Do you have any really memorable days, either beautiful or awe-evoking or just terrible that you can share on that first journey?
Preet Chandi:
Yes, yeah, I do. So I am a couple of days away from the pole, and I wasn't very sensible with my hours. I wasn't that far away from something called the female speed record, and that wasn't a goal of mine at the start of this trip, but because I was close, I started pushing it a little bit more and more.
And then I get to this day, and I see the sun has this halo effect, which is beautiful. And I see people coming out of the sun, and I thought, "Nobody told me that this happens." And I thought it's an effect of the sun, right? Like this is something that happens. And for some reason, for me, it looked like it was old school, maybe they were on in Victorian dress. And I remember sticking my pole out to see if anybody would grab it, and they didn't.
And then suddenly, there was this little old lady and this dog with me, and they kept trying to get me to climb up this mountain, and no matter what we did, I just couldn't get to the top. And eventually, I thought to myself, "I must be dreaming and I just can't wake up." And I remember tapping myself and saying, "It's not me. I'm not the problem."
And eventually, I put the tent up, and I got my satellite phone out, and I called my partner, and then I called the logistics company. And that day, I'd done like 18 hours, I'd hardly moved. I think I was going backwards on myself, and I don't know, doing loops and basically I was so sleep-deprived, I started hallucinating.
And then the next day, so I then slept, and the next day I was going into the pole, and I couldn't ski for probably 10 minutes without having to have a break. And I felt like I just used everything I had. And I was really annoyed at myself then because I'd pushed myself so hard that I didn't have anything left. And yeah, eventually, I get to the South Pole, but that last day was a really, really long day. But I always remember just seeing people come out of the sun and thinking, "Oh, nobody told me this happens," thinking that this is what everybody sees and it's an effect of the sun and I'm not hallucinating.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow, that's kind of scary. I'm glad you were able to sleep. What were some of the most stunning moments that really made you excited to actually keep going?
Preet Chandi:
When I started that trip, it was just unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. It's just, like I said, when the sun is out, it's beautiful. And in the morning, one of the first things I do when I wake up is just quickly open up the zipper of the tent to see what it looks like outside. And, like I said, you feel tiny in this huge, huge, vast place where you cannot see anybody at all. It's really incredible.
Shelby Stanger:
In December of 2021, Preet Chandi became the first woman of color to complete a solo unsupported expedition to the South Pole. After 40 days, seven hours, and three minutes alone on the ice, she was exhausted and hungry, but she also felt empowered, and she wondered what else was possible.
Did you feel like a badass once you'd done it? Were you like, "Okay, I just did this thing"?
Preet Chandi:
I think it took me a while to feel that way, because you get in, and I think my first trip, one person met me at the end who worked for the company who has the role of South Pole manager, which is a pretty cool title to have.
And don't get me wrong, it's amazing, right? But there's also a tiny bit of an anti-climax. So I remember feeling more emotional the day before, thinking about it, like thinking about what that moment means as a British Punjabi woman, as a British Indian woman, as somebody who didn't know anything about this, didn't believe in herself, all of those things, that was emotional. And then when I got there, and it would've been about 2:30, 3:30 in the morning, 24 hours of daylight, so it's still light, I think I was like, "Okay, cool."
So you get there, I touched the pole, I stood around, I had some photos, and then I went back to the camp, the smaller camp where I had some hot food, and I was definitely [inaudible 00:16:08], I'm talking loads. And then I stayed up until probably like 5:30, 6:30, and then went to sleep in the tent, and then would've got up for breakfast.
And I remember getting a message on my inReach device from my partner on the 5th of January telling me that I was on the front page of the times. And I was like, "Whoa." And then I flew from there to the main camp, and my partner said people want to do some interviews. And I ended up doing like 10 interviews a day. And I remember saying to him that you need to give me some time off because I wanted to sit down and chill out and have lunch and dinner and stuff.
And then after the week, I flew back into Punta Arenas, Chile, and I remember getting internet for the first time as well, and that was overwhelming, having internet and getting sucked into scrolling and social media and things again, and then coming back home and actually in debt as well. So in debt and then coming back home, I was doing a lot of interviews, and then the Army had organized for me to do four months of school talks in the UK, and I was doing four or five talks a day in different regions of the UK.
And don't get me wrong, I love talking to young people, but I remember thinking there's something wrong with me and I didn't know what it was. And I think the combination of being in debt from the trip and just not having, I felt, like a minute to breathe, I was really struggling.
Shelby Stanger:
Reentering society after 40 days alone on the ice was a shock to Preet's system. The interviews and speaking engagements were constant. Beyond the public excitement, she also had to return to her full-time job on top of trying to recover physically and manage the financial strain of the expedition. But there were some bright moments during this time. The British military gave Preet a medal for her expedition, and she married her longtime partner.
Over time, she stabilized financially and once again felt the pull of the ice. For her second expedition, Preet set an even more ambitious goal to become the first woman to complete a solo unsupported land crossing of the continent, trekking from one coast of Antarctica to the other, passing the South Pole along the way. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan.
So that second trip, you do it in 2022?
Preet Chandi:
Second trip is 2022, yes.
Shelby Stanger:
And was that any different?
Preet Chandi:
That was a nightmare.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, no.
Preet Chandi:
So this trip, this is the one I've been planning, right? I know. So this is the crossing. So this is the one, from the beginning, that I wanted to do, so the solo unsupported crossing of a land mass. And I thought, "You're in a good position here." I've been to Antarctica, I've done 700 mile solo, and I hadn't picked the biggest trip ever. I'd picked something that I thought was achievable, that I thought I could achieve. Off the back of the first trip, there was a reasonable amount of media for this trip, I would say, and then I managed to get enough sponsorship to do the trip. And this logistics company, it works for the summer season, so that's November to January. So I was very keen to get started because I didn't have that much time to do the trip.
We get to Antarctica. Again, I've been there before, had a quick turnaround because I wanted to get started. They dropped me at my start point and my fuel had leaked. And I remember thinking, "Oh, what are you doing?" So I quickly emptied that bag. And what I should have done is then put my tent up, just sorted my life out, started the next day, but I didn't. And I think the reason I didn't is I was terrified of failing on this trip. I was like, "No, you have to start. You do not have much time." So I started.
This trip from the get go, not like the first trip, which I had good weather at the start. I had some rough weather at the start of this trip, but again, I know, I know better. I'm a physiotherapist. I know that I should have a certain amount of sleep a night, I know that I can't push so hard at the start of these trips because it's too much, it'll exhaust you, but that's exactly what I did. I was skiing 13 hours, sleeping five hours, skiing 12 hours, sleeping three hours. It was so silly.
And I actually injured my neck a couple of days in because I was pushing through some pretty rough weather, winds were at me, and it was a strain, so like a musculoskeletal strain. And one thing that would probably help something like that is to rest. And obviously, I can't rest because I only have so much time, so I didn't rest, and that neck pain became quite a problem. So I started taking ... I only take so much pain relief, but I started taking the pain relief early on in the trip. So then I had to start rationing my pain relief. Again, not an issue I thought I'd have.
A couple of weeks in, I then noticed a bruise on my left calf, and I started to get an injury called polar thigh. So the cold and the wind has got through my layers and started to break down my skin, so then I had to manage that as well. So I still have the scar on my leg, and I'm not hitting the mileage on this trip at all. And I said to myself, eventually I'd get back into the routine of doing like 12 hours and eight hour sleep, but I never did.
It took me how many days? I think about over 50 days to get to the South Pole, which is when I then take the turn that I didn't take the year before to keep going, and I'm not in a good way. I started doing 24 hours of skiing a day. I would ski for 24 hours, then I'd sleep 24 hours. My neck was so bad that I was having to use my ski poles to physically lift it up, and it just got worse and worse. The whole trip, I have this voice in my head telling me that I'm failing and terrified of what other people are saying.
And then the mistakes were unreal. My stove was running so low, but I was so exhausted. I just didn't fix it. I didn't take it apart, put it back together. The last like 12 hours, I was looking for my Shewee to go for a wee, and obviously, it's so much easier to stand and go for a wee, and I just couldn't find it in the same zip pocket where it always is. And eventually, I had to unzip and squat, which was so much harder. And I remember looking for it when I'd finished, and it was there in the same pocket it always is. There were so many things.
I had this message inside my tent saying remember to enjoy it. And I can tell you right now, I did not enjoy any of those 70 days. It is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And it was hard from the start, and it just got worse every single day of it.
And then about a week before the end, they called me on the sat phone, and they said to me that obviously they're watching my pace and where I am, that I'm not going to make the end. So they will get the plane to a point where they think I can make, but I was broken at the end of that trip and probably for a little while afterwards.
Shelby Stanger:
On that expedition, Preet lost 45 pounds over 70 days. Although she didn't complete her original goal of crossing the continent, she still set a world record for the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski expedition. The achievement brought a wave of positive press, but one article cut through all the praise. A journalist dismissed her as arrogant and obsessed with chasing records. The words landed harder than she expected. She left her Guinness plaques boxed up for months, unable to look at them.
Eventually, Preet underwent surgery for her leg injury, and she took medical leave, an unexpected pause that became a welcome reset. She told herself she wouldn't return to Antarctica the following season, but her resolve didn't last long. Just a few months later, she set her sights on the record for being the fastest woman to ski to the South Pole.
Preet Chandi:
I remember thinking to myself, "I wonder if I could get this speed record." I decided to take a career break from the Army, which I applied for, so I'm on a sabbatical. I didn't tell many people. My social media just went quiet, and I went and I got the speed record.
And I think the thing that I was ... So I got it in 31 days, so I beat it by over a day. And the thing that I was really proud of is I did it in the same year. So I finished my trip that I failed on the 23rd of January 2023, and I got the record, the speed record on the 28th of December 2023. And I stood there at the South Pole knowing I got the record with one or two people knowing, not many people knowing it's not end of the world, and it was beautiful, it really was. And I think the only reason I got that was because of the failure of my second trip.
Shelby Stanger:
After breaking the speed record, Preet came up with a new wild idea, which she's preparing for right now. This spring, Preet will attempt to become the first woman to trek solo from Canada to the North Pole.
Okay, so now you've done these amazing things, you have these records. Now you decide you want to go to the North Pole, which is your next big wild ideas. You've already done these wild ideas, you've crushed it. You don't have to do anything else in your life. You're amazing. Why do you want to go to the North Pole? And just for those of us who don't know the landscape of the North Pole versus Antarctica and the South Pole, tell me a little bit about the difference and why you want to do this.
Preet Chandi:
Yeah, of course. So I didn't really know the difference. I thought, "Oh, I've been to South. I wonder if I could go to the North Pole," thinking they might be quite similar, but actually quite different. So Antarctica's on land. The North Pole is in the middle of the sea, the geographic North Pole, so it's shifting, is moving. And when I do my expedition, I will be on sea ice.
Now, my aim is to start from Canada, and the sea ice has basically been shifting that way. So the first hundred or so miles, I'll be climbing over big blocks of ice with my two sleds. So I'll have one sled go back to the other one. It'll be about 130 kilos in total. And once I'm past those sections, there will literally be sections of open water where I have to put on an immersion suit, get into the water, swim across to the other side, get out using ice picks, and then drag my sleds, which float after me. On top of that, I have to carry a firearm because there are polar bears.
And this is just ... I started looking into it. I was like, "Whoa, it is ... Antarctica seems like a walk in the park in comparison. It's unbelievable." Nobody's done a solo trip for 10 years. The logistics are insanely complicated. It's really hard for me to try to find someone even to drop me off at the start line, nevermind someone to be able to get me however far I make it. No female has ever done it solo. So if I am successful, I'd be the first woman in history to ski solo to the North and South Poles.
Now, I do want to say that there's probably a 5% chance of me actually making it. This trip is so, so challenging, not just physically, mentally, all of that, even just getting to the start line, and it's way more expensive than my Antarctic trip. Everybody I've spoken to has told me that there's nowhere else in the world that compares to the start of that trip. I've been told the first two weeks of that trip is harder than anything I think I'll ever face in my life, if I'm honest with you, but you cannot fail unless you try.
Shelby Stanger:
You're the most badass person I've ever interviewed. Can you explain to me what it's like when you fall in the water and then you try to get back out?
Preet Chandi:
Yeah. So I have an immersion suit, which is buoyant. So the aim is I'll go in, and I won't be getting cold, the water won't be getting through, but it's never going to be the same. So before I get into the water, I have to look to make sure, one, I can see an exit and make sure I'm confident I can get out. If I look at a bit of water and it looks like I can't get out the other side, I do not get into the water. And what I probably will do is travel east and west to see if I can find a better crossing. Or the other thing I can do is camp my tent overnight on the edge and hope it changes in the morning, because you have to remember, I'm on sea ice, so it's shifting, it's moving, it's changing every day. And also, it's not going to be just water, there could be blocks of ice in my way, so it's not as simple as, "Oh, I'll just swim across."
Shelby Stanger:
Preet, you are an incredible woman. So when are you planning to start this expedition?
Preet Chandi:
Early March, touching all the woods that I get enough funding to start. And yeah, like I said, logistics is complicated. So really, I'm really working hard on trying to get somebody to agree to drop me off at the start point. But you know what, I won't give up, so hopefully, we'll get there.
Shelby Stanger:
Preet's hoping to depart for the North Pole this March. She's currently raising funds for her trip. You can find the link to her GoFundMe on her Instagram profile, PolarPreet. That's P-O-L-A-R-P-R-E-E-T. You can also connect with her there and keep up with her latest adventures.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. Thanks again to our partner, Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard.
As always, we love when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.