Erica Stanford

From November 2027 to February 2028, polar explorer Ben Weber and I are skiing 2,000km across Antarctica via the South Pole, hauling 80kg sledges for up to 120 days in temperatures below −50°C.

Before 2025, I had never cross-country skied or been in a polar environment. When I met Ben in 2024 and heard how he trained for his solo South Pole expedition, I realised polar preparation was a series of learnable steps. In that first conversation, I asked if he wanted to go back—and take me with him.

Since then I’ve learned to ski at −40°C in Arctic Finland, completed survival training in Norway, hauled a pulk through blizzards and whiteouts, and trained in ski technique and crevasse rescue. Next: medical training in Svalbard, a month-long Canadian expedition and, we hope, Greenland—while raising $600,000 in sponsorship.

By day, I work at an international law firm advising on digital-asset, crypto and AI risk, and speak internationally on these subjects. I’m the author of the bestselling Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption, translated into 15 languages and Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards, and the forthcoming Stablecoins: Law, Regulation and Technology (Edward Elgar, December 2026). My TEDx talk is titled Meet Your Scammers: This Is How They Get You.

I can talk about preparing for an Antarctic crossing from scratch; polar survival and expedition training; raising $600,000 in sponsorship; managing risk and uncertainty; and fitting an extreme goal around a full-time career.