David Rootes has nearly 30 years experience of conducting field operations in difficult areas and founded Poles Apart after a 10-year career with the British Antarctic Survey. He has managed a variety of high profile projects and has been responsible for the field safety of a number of well-known personalities. A biologist by background, he has conducted a variety of environmental studies of marine and land-based operations. He has written manuals on all aspects of field safety and is a registered commercial diver.

Nick Lewis looks after many of the environmental projects at Poles Apart. A geologist and environmental scientist by training, he is also an extremely experienced mountaineer and field guide. His environmental expertise was developed in the oil industry, where he has conducted numerous environmental assessments and contaminated land investigations. He has climbed all over the world with expeditions to Alaska, the Yukon, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Patagonia. He has guided parties in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Dr Liz Pasteur is an independent environmental consultant, whose academic background is in ice-coring and climate change. She nowadays applies her skills to environmental impact assessment, waste management and environmental legislation reviews, and she has been instrumental in the development of Polar Updates. She is an experienced mountaineer having climbed throughout Europe, Africa and the Himalaya and has been a field guide for the British Antarctic Survey.

Paul Ramsden, of Paul Ramsden Associates, specialises in health & safety in high-risk industries and activities. His main areas of interest are health & safety risk assessment, industrial roped access, occupational hygiene and compliance auditing. His interest in risk is reinforced by his 20 years of mountaineering throughout the world including expeditions to China, Nepal, India, Patagonia and Alaska. He has guided parties in the Himalaya and the Antarctic.

Simon Abrahams, of Simon Abrahams Guiding, is an IFMGA Mountain Guide who has worked in the polar regions for nearly 15 years. He has climbed extensively throughout the world, making first ascents in Alaska, the Andes and Antarctica. He is renowned for being a highly capable field operator and has conducted many extensive overland traverses in Antarctica and Greenland. A natural teacher, he has managed much of the technical safety training Poles Apart has conducted.

POLES APART contracts Dr Martin Rhodes, of Ixtatan Ltd, to provide medical advice and support. He is an expedition and mountain rescue doctor with over 20 years of experience in polar, offshore and mountain situations. Martin is trained in both Accident & Emergency and General Practice, and is also an Advanced Trauma Life Support and Advanced Life Support Instructor. He has climbed, trekked and skied extensively throughout the Andes and Himalaya and has been medical officer to the Everest Marathon.

Ben Cooper is an Accident and Emergency Charge Nurse and Emergency Nurse Practitioner who completes the Poles Apart medical support team. Having worked in A&E for over 9 years he co-ordinates and teaches on pre-hospital care course and major incident training. He is a member of one of Britain's busiest mountain rescue teams regularly teaching medical care, extrication and evacuation. He has provided rescue and medical cover on projects in Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica.

Mike Sharp is one of the most experienced polar travellers of his generation. He has skied, dog-sledged and sailed throughout the high latitudes of the world. He guided the first private overland expedition to the South Pole and has made traverses of Baffin and Ellesmere Islands in the Canadian Arctic. His main specialities are base camp management, satellite communications and air traffic management. He has been responsible for the coordination of many aerial filming operations.

Hans Christian Florian is Poles Apart's representative in Greenland. A doctor at Tasiilaq hospital, he is a specialist in mountain medicine and advanced life support. He has made four crossings of the Greenland ice cap with dog teams and has spent nearly 20 years climbing and skiing in the mountains of East Greenland. He has also climbed in the US, the Alps, Alaska, Argentina and Norway and in addition is a competent sailor and boat driver.

Andy Kirkpatrick, of PsychoVertical, is one of Britain's most prominent mountaineers, specialising in cold-weather and big wall climbing. He has made winter ascents in Alaska and Patagonia and recently completed an unsupported crossing of Greenland with a disabled person. A film-maker, he has shot footage under very arduous conditions and understands the constraints of filming in remote settings. He has been involved in a number of Poles Apart's film and television projects and has also proved himself a very adept trainer.

Jenny Pinder is a caver and climber with extensive vertical experience, both above and below ground in Europe, Canada, the US, Mexico, the Pacific and Latin America. She brings invaluable experience to those projects which require complicated rigging systems to secure the safety of camera teams. As a certified teacher, she is a natural choice when it comes to training.