Celebrating the Vigur Island Foundation

When I’m not being Felicity the Explorer or Felicity the student scientist, I am Felicity i Vigur, managing a small island in a large fjord in NW Iceland that I own with my husband Gisli and my brother Spencer. Vigur is a pretty special place, famous for its cake (yes, really!), it’s historic structures, as a centre for the traditional harvest of eiderdown but primarily for its birdlife.

We’ve been responsible for Vigur for five years now and have made conservation and research the heart of what we do - be it research that leads to understanding of Vigur’s nature or conservation of the heritage on the island. This year we formalised all our efforts under one banner, the Vigur Island Foundation, a non-profit NGO registered in Iceland.

We are so excited to be a part of this next stage in the history of Vigur, a history that stretches back a thousand years, and to ensure this increasingly rare European Arctic wilderness remains as intact as possible for future generations.

Calling Australia

Some great opportunities to speak to an Australian audience recently with the BIG expedition being featured in Forbes and Remix. Australia, as a nation with deep links to the ocean, is very engaged in the issue of marine microplastic, so I hope that there will be interest in our work with atmospheric microplastic too. Australia is also a nation that might feel itself to be extremely distant from the Arctic (it is!) but due to the very present consequence of environmental issues like the Ozone Hole, I imagine Australians will already be more aware than most of the interconnectedness of our global ecosystem and therefore conscious - as everyone should be - that what happens in the Arctic is very relevant to us all, wherever we spend our time on planet Earth.

https://www.forbes.com.au/life/watches/felicity-astons-race-against-time-in-the-arctic/

https://www.remixmagazine.com/fashion/polar-explorer-felicity-aston-interview/

Dreaming of the desert...

Come celebrate International Women’s Month in the Bedouin Sinai with me in March 2026…!

March is Women’s History Month and the month of International Women’s Day (8th), a time to celebrate all that women have achieved - and to reflect on what still needs to be done. What better time to embark on a meaningful journey with a like-minded group of women to a very special part of the world...

Marni Oostra of 360 Expeditions has spent the last 27 years getting to know the soulful Sinai and has generously lent her knowledge and contacts to craft an all-women’s trekking expedition (rooted in supporting local communities and culture) to celebrate International Women’s Month in March next year:

Soulful Sinai: Summit to Sea, 28th March – 04th April 2026

Supported by a dozen camels carrying our supplies, we will trek some 100km through the jebels, dunes and gorges of the Sinai, led by a team from a local Bedouin community who relish sharing their traditions, music and hospitality. Wild camping in the open wadis around a fire, falling asleep under a canopy of stars, the simple rhythm of days in the desert offer plenty of opportunity to take a restorative moment for ourselves while enjoying some of the most incredible scenery and nature. The journey will begin with a sunset summit on Mount Sinai, a spiritual place for so many global religions, and end in the thriving, colour-filled waters of the Red Sea.

Sound good? Then I double dare you to read Marni’s account of a recent trek in the Sinai ( https://www.360-expeditions.com/timelessbeautyofsinai/ ) and not be immediately booking days off work!

If you would like to be a part of it, the team is open to women over the age of 18, and to both UK and International participants. For costs of joining the trip and detailed information on everything from itinerary to kit to environmental and social responsibility please go to:

https://www.360-expeditions.com/exp.../desert-trek-sinai/...

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me or with 360° Expeditions if you have questions or would like to talk through joining the team. I can’t wait!

Drinking G+T on BBC Radio 4...

Such a giggle to record this episode of BBC Radio 4 ‘s Infinite Monkey Cage. Laughed almost as much listening back to the final show which is now available on BBC Sounds and iPlayer - I would however just like to point out that Robin poured us the most enormous measure of gin to drink live on stage, so it really is no wonder we were laughing so much !

On the REI podcast

A while back I had a wide-wandering chat with Shelby Stanger which has been crafted into a podcast for the REI series Wild Ideas Worth Living. If you’d like a listen you can find it here: pod.link/1183017174, on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@rei or here: https://www.rei.com/.../skiing-solo-across-antarctica...

Feeling proud (if a little exhausted...)

Watching this 5-minute film by ROLEX about The 'Before It's Gone' Expedition left me a little emotional. It has been such a wonderful but relentless project that seeing it in its entirety as one story was a reminder of just what was achieved and how far we’ve come. It was a moment of pride.

Thanks to the team at Proudfoot for the care with the film, it looks amazing. Thanks to all the team members over the evolution of the project and particularly Julie who was responsible for the majority of the epic footage used in the film. Special thanks to my supervisors National Oceanography Centre and thank you to all the sponsors and supporters who have helped us in innumerable ways and especially those at Rolex for their unstinting faith in us.

at Buckingham Palace...

The MOST incredible evening at Buckingham Palace for the State Banquet…seeing masterpieces by Rembrandt and Titian on the walls, being presented to the King, having my dress complimented by Victoria Beckham (!), the most amazing food and wine, the sparkle of the Queen’s staggering tiara, a fabulous serenading of marching bagpipes, the kindness of fellow guests who made us feel so welcome and tottering down magnificent staircases on numb feet after standing too long in my best heels!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the invitation - we are very touched to have been thought of x

The ONE Show!

For those of you in the UK and able to watch BBC iPlayer, here is the link to The One Show episode featuring The 'Before It's Gone' North Pole Expedition:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b007tcw7/the-one-show

Getting Arctic stories, expedition stories or science stories on mainstream prime-time TV is near impossible, so to get all three on The One Show is completely amazing - huge thanks to Barbara and Paul at Screenhouse who put the short film together. This has been years in the making and they championed it all the way x

Chairing Explore 2024

Very honoured to have been trusted with the role of host at this year’s Explore - the annual symposium of fieldwork and expeditions at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

I’ve been attending and benefitting from these weekends for twenty years, so I was very grateful for the opportunity to share some of what I have learned and help to encourage others on their journey towards making journeys with purpose.

So much fun, positivity and enthusiasm - it was the dose of inspiration I needed.

Putting the world to rights with Alex Honnold

Last month I had a very fun conversation with the wonderful Alex Honnold (he of the very scary free solo climb up the big cliff in Yosemite) as part of his ‘Planet Visionaries’ podcast series from ROLEX

We chatted about expeditions, personal challenge, science, the environment and a whole host of other things that were a bit of a surprise - funny where a conversation can take you!!

Have a listen using the link below:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../planet-visionaries/

#PerpetualPlanet

#WashingtonPost

Celebrating the launch of the Ranulph and Ginny Fiennes Award

Me, Sacha Dench and Gina Moseley - all past recipients of a Transglobe Expedition Trust grant

Attended the ‘Ran’s Globe’ event at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) which celebrated the launch of the Ranuloh and Ginny Fiennes Award as well as Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ 80th Birthday and the legacy of the Transglobe Expedition Trust.

Wonderful to hear stories from the Transglobe Expedition team as well as thoughts from Borge Ousland, Erling Kagge, Sacha Dent, Gina Moseley, Steve Jones and other legends.

Loved the screening of the original Transglobe documentary which has aged gloriously with Richard Burton as narrator sauntering around Covent Garden in flares and a cardigan sipping tea - magnificent!

With the whales...

There are many reasons NOT to live on an isolated island in the north west of Iceland but then, the reasons we LOVE living here are far greater…for instance, this moment, returning home with groceries and bumping into a group of more than twenty humpback whales who didn’t seem to care a jot that we had temporarily gatecrashed their cetacean convoy…

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Circumnavigating Iceland

Two very different voyages around Iceland as a guest speaker for Go Hagan and Company - one with unnaturally flat seas, even as we crossed the Arctic Circle to the North, and one with more challenging conditions!

I’ve travelled a lot in Iceland but there are still many places I don’t know well or not at all. It was wonderful to have a chance to visit some of the coastal towns and get to know them a little better.

Bird Ringing

Very excited to be working with scientists from the University of Iceland and Náttúrustofa Suðurlands (South Iceland Nature Research Office) to establish three bird ringing projects on Vigur Island in northwest Iceland. It marks my personal introduction to the skill of bird ringing - applying small non-intrusive metal or plastic rings to the legs of seabirds so that information about their behaviour, interactions and movements can be monitored. So far we have focused on Eider ducks and puffins, with Black Guillemots to be added in July.

Applying the rings is just the start, however. The real value is in observing and recording observations of the ringed birds in the seasons to come. While the eider project relies on recapture of the ringed birds, the puffin and black guillemot projects intend to use the power of citizen science. For example, asking anyone who visits the island and photographs a puffin with a yellow band on its leg to share the image with us so that the observation can be recorded.

We really look forward to finding out what the projects will reveal about the lives of these most iconic seabirds.

On a quick trip to Svalbard...as a tourist!

….well, ok, not completely as a tourist - I did manage to spend a day getting out to Van Mijenfjorden where I have collected snow, ice and water samples with the B.I.G. Expedition in 2022 and 2023 to collect yet more samples for a third year in a row.

Conditions on Svalbard were especially slushy this year so huge thanks to Yann for getting me out to the fjord just in time!

Returned from Nunavut

On 7th April 2024 the B.I.G. Expedition team travelled to Nunavut and set out to traverse the Prince Gustav Adolf Sea by ski to collect snow, ice and water samples as well as an array of other data about this fast-changing environment.The Prince Gustav Adolf Sea is one of two areas within the Arctic Ocean where the oldest sea ice accumulates. Moved around by currents in the ocean and atmosphere, the oldest and thickest rafts of ice from across the Arctic eventually drift to this area in the north of the Canadian high Arctic islands.

In the event, bad weather and the consequent severe logistical delays forced a change of plan. The team were instead dropped by plane on Ellef Rignes Island on the eastern edge of the Prince Gustav Adolf Sea from where they battled yet more bad weather to access Arctic Ocean sea ice. They managed to complete the planned sample collection of snow and ice but within a more limited area than initially intended and almost entirely during just one 17-hour long session!

Ostensibly, the bad weather may seem to be simply bad luck - but on reflection, the team’s experience in Nunavut is one more demonstration of how climate has huge influence and impact on our ability to collect information about, and understand, the Arctic environment, particularly high latitude Arctic Ocean sea ice. Greater climate instability and extreme weather will only make efforts to plug these data gaps more challenging in the future and demonstrate the urgent need for efforts such as ours.

This is to be the last ski journey of what has become a four-year project to collect vital information about Arctic snow and ice. The B.I.G. team have now completed four ski expeditions (two in Iceland, one in Svalbard and one in Canada) and collected more than 200 samples as well as dozens of additional datapoints which will now be used in a range of research studies. The expeditions may be completed but the project will continue for quite some time as analysis of these samples is done, and results compiled.

On a very special shortlist...

Forming sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, Nunavut

Many thanks to those unknown who nominated me for this year’s Shacklton Medal for the protection of the Polar Regions. I’m very grateful for the efforts of me and my teams to be recognised in this way and especially to have been included within a short list that is so personally inspiring - what a group to be listed alongside!

The announcement couldn’t have come at a better moment as I reach the end of a bruising and difficult expedition journey. This fight is tough and encouragement like this that I might be moving in the right direction and doing some good means so much.

Use the link below for a brief video introducing all the wonderful short listed candidates. It feels good to know that there are so many out there turning the tide…

https://fb.watch/rJbh--ltpm/

Getting Interactive

This month I’ll be heading to Nunavut for the fourth and final ski journey of the B.I.G. (Before It’s Gone) Arctic Research Expedition. This time the aim is to get out onto proper Arctic Ocean pack ice to collect samples of snow, ice and water for black carbon, microplastic and heavy metal studies as well as data logging of Arctic Clouds, albedo, and snow depth. Team member Laura will be conducting work around psychology in extreme environments and we’ll also be reporting wildlife sightings.

Anthony at zerosixzero has once again created a fantastic interactive map for us which will display our progress as well as allow us to share voice blogs and images in real time. You can find the map on our website here: https://www.bignorthpole.com/track-expedition

Stepping out the pages of a Wilbur Smith book....!

Thanks for releasing my episode of this podcast series on International Women’s Day - and what an introduction…..no pressure then?!

“For the first episode of a new series of That Wilbur Smith Show, and in honour of International Women’s Day, Tom and Christopher talk to a real life hero who might have stepped out of the pages of a Wilbur Smith book, Felicity Aston, polar explorer and the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone!”

https://shows.acast.com/that-wilbur-smith-show

Antarctica

Very fortunate to have made two fantastic trips to Antarctica this season - one with my family and one with my oldest friend. So special to be able to share this most wonderful part of the world with my nearest and dearest. Thanks to Gohagan and Company for making us so welcome - and to everyone we shared these journeys with, it was a lot of fun!