This 14year-old girl will be the youngest person taking on massive polar expedition.

An Australian teenager is hoping to be the
youngest person to conquer three polar regions.
Jade Hameister, 14, is flying out of her
hometown of Melbourne, Australia on
Wednesday night to head to the North Pole for
an expedition that will see her eventually cover
2,000 kilometres (1243 miles) across three
separate trips: the North Pole, Greenland and
South Pole.

These three treks together, which are being
called the Polar Hat Trick, will be undertaken
separately. The North Pole adventure will take
place across the next 21 days, the Greenland
Crossing in April 2017 and finally, the South Pole
in the summer of 2017.

Hameister got the idea for the epic journey from
an Icelandic woman she met when she trekked
the Everest Base Camp when she was 12 years
old. The woman had done a South Pole solo
mission and Hameister said she it inspired her
to start her own adventure.

"It was a year later, that I decided I really
wanted to do it and I kind of became obsessive,"
Hameister told Mashable Australia . "[Training
started] as soon as we found out it would be
possible for me to do it at my age."

She said her family talked to experts and
adventurers to make sure it would be possible
for her to take on the mission at just 14 years
old. She said the major risk was her not making
it. "I'm a bit excited, a bit nervous. Nervous
about all the challenges we will experience," she
said, before detailing some pretty insane
challenges.

"There is stuff like floating sea ice so we might
fall through the ice of the Arctic Ocean and we
will also be crossing open water lands, where
someone will get on a raft and pull someone
across. Well, get on the sled we are pulling and
turn it into a raft," she explained.

There are also compression zones, which she
said are where the ice collides to create 1 to 2
metre obstacles to ski over. Then there is the
hypothermia, the frost bite and oh, the polar
bears. Hameister sounds like an old pro, while
speaking about the risks like they are just a walk
in the park.

To prepare for the polar journey, Hameister
started training intensively one year ago. Earlier
this year, she attended a training camp in New
Zealand where she learnt survival skills and how
to ski. She has only previously skied once as a
child, but explained the journey is more about
weight balance and walking with the skis so you
don't fall through the ice.

"We did a five day training camp in New Zealand,
learning the basics and how to cross country ski
and the skills we will need to know," she said.
"In terms of training and fitness, we have been
doing lots of crossfit to build strength and
endurance. We have been pulling a tyre on
beaches, and we have been at the Melbourne
Altitude training room once a week."

The massive exploration, which will be
documented by National Geographic, will
see Hameister first head to Oslo for four days of
preparations and training, before she is flown on
Apr. 4 to a temporary base.

From here, the young adventurer will attempt to
ski across more than 225 kilometres (140 miles)
on floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to reach
the North Pole.

Hameister won't be doing it alone. She will have
the support of her father, Paul, who has climbed
Mount Everest, and master polar guide, Eric
Philips, who was the first Australian with his
partner to ski both the North and South Poles.

The three polar regions will see Hameister skiing
on ice for four months in total, dragging a sled
as heavy as her own weight through the
extreme conditions. The North Pole mission will
take Hameister three weeks to complete during
which she will be battling treacherous
conditions, with temperatures dropping as low
as -40 degrees Celsius.

It is not for the light hearted and is an epic
mission for a teenage girl to undertake, but she
said she is ready and prepared for the journey.
"I’m so excited. I’ve trained so hard for this and
it has been such a big build up. I can’t wait to

get on the ice," Hameister said in an emailed
statement. "I’m really hoping my trip will inspire
young women to be more active and chase their
dreams."
The inspiring explorer will be documenting her
wild adventure on Instagram with one photo a
day.
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