Douglas Stoup is one of the world’s leading polar adventurers and an international polar and ski mountaineering guide. He has skied to both the North and South Poles more than anyone else on the planet. He owns and operates Ice Axe Expeditions, a world class ski touring company that leads skiers and boarders to remote destinations including Antarctica, Spitsbergen, Morocco, Greenland, Iceland, Kamchatka, Alaska and Canada.
His first Antarctic expedition came in 1999 — and every year since, he has returned to lead ski-touring expeditions along the Peninsula, amounting to 60+ expeditions. The work has been less about firsts than about who else can be brought along. He has pioneered backcountry skiing around the planet and guided disabled adventurers across the polar world for causes far larger than themselves. One project included a 314-mile journey to 90° South with Aron Anderson—the first paraplegic to reach the Geographic South Pole—which raised $840,000 for childhood cancer. In 2017, Oliver Stone presented him with the Global Green People Award. Through the Ice Axe Impact School, he has brought thousands of students—virtually—into the planet’s most remote environments making the wildest places on Earth feel close enough to protect.
Douglas is an explorer, environmentalist, humanitarian, father and husband.