Michael Bates
I am married to Kate and live with our three children in Hampstead, London. I am a partner at Clifford Chance LLP and in recent years have lived a fairly sedentary lawyer's life behind a desk / in a car etc. with an annual ski-ing trip to France being the closest thing to the Arctic.
I am unfit and am a smoker. You may have thought this does not constitute the best basis for deciding to walk to the North Pole however you are wrong. One of the first things Alan Chambers said about the trip is "you do not have to be that fit". This was soon followed by an explanation that over training and excessive weight loss are a bad thing. Apparently a layer of fat is required to keep you warm and to provide energy reserves. This trip started to sound right up my street - there was even a suggestion that I could continue as a smoker!
Why am I doing this trip? Well I am not entirely sure how to answer that question other than "it seemed like a good idea at the time". It has however resulted in me quitting the fags, changing my diet and getting fitter. Up to the first training weekend in Dartmoor (November 2005) I was sure I would enjoy the sense of achievement in walking to the North Pole but I was unsure whether I would enjoy the journey. During that first training weekend I started to look forward to the journey with growing excitement and increasing apprehension. Only time will tell whether we will experience the sense of achievement.
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