Adrian Hayes[1] is a British record-breaking polar explorer & adventurer, motivational speaker, corporate coach and sustainability ambassador.
He is best known for setting a Guinness World Record for speed in completing the Three Poles Challenge--walking all the way to the North Pole, South Pole, and summiting Mt. Everest--between 25 May 2006 and 28 December 2007.
Along with Canadians Devon McDiarmid and Derek Crowe, he set a second Guinness World record in 2009 for the longest unsupported snowkiting journey in Arctic history, the 3,120 kilometres (1,940 mi) vertical crossing of the Greenland ice cap.
A former British Army Gurkha officer and Airbus Sales Director, he is a motivational speaker and corporate coach, specialising in leadership and team coaching and is an ambassador and speaker on economic, social and environmental sustainability.
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The middle of three sons, Adrian Hayes grew up in his family run hotel in the New Forest, Hampshire and was educated at St Mary’s College in Southampton. Leaving school at 16, he spent six years in numerous outdoor jobs including refuse collection, builder’s labourer and bricklayer in the UK, farming in Norway and New Zealand and travelling the World in between on mountaineering and other adventures.
Following two years British Army service as a trooper in 21 SAS, he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served for eight years as an officer in the Brigade of Gurkhas in Hong Kong, Brunei and Oman, the latter a two year secondment to the Royal Army of Oman in Salalah. After leaving the Army, he studied for an MBA at the University of Nottingham and worked as a Regional Sales Manager for BICC Cables before joining Airbus as a Regional Sales Director Middle East and West Asia from 2000-2006.
Having studied personal development since his MBA and qualifying as a professional coach in 2005, he set up his own company in 2007 becoming a full time adventurer,[2] speaker and corporate coach. A father of two, Hayes is an accomplished all-round athlete, ironman triathlete and fitness challenge champion. He has lived and worked in nine countries, visited over 100 and is a member of the Travelers Century Club. He currently lives in Dubai, UAE.
Hayes summited Mt Everest on 25 May 2006 by the South East ridge/South Col route from Nepal on his first attempt, as part of the 10 man Ice8000 2006 Everest summit expedition, led by HenryTodd.
On 25 April 2007 Hayes reached the Geographic North Pole after a 50 day expedition covering 775 kilometres (482 mi) (straight line) across the Arctic Ocean from Ward Hunt Island, Canada as part of a three man team led by Canadian Polar[3] Explorer Richard Weber.
Hayes reached the Geographic South Pole on on 28 December 2007 after a 50 day expedition covering 1,136 kilometres (706 mi) from Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf of the antarctic coastlineas part of a five man international team. In doing so he became the 15th person ever to conquer the extremes of latitude and altitude on Earth – the Three Poles Challenge- and set a record, recognized by Guinness World Records in 2008, for completing all three in the then shortest period of time in history, 19 months and three days.
In 2009, along with Canadian team mates Devon McDiarmid and Derek Crowe, Hayes set out to complete an unsupported vertical crossing of the Greenland[4] ice Cap from Narsaq on the Atlantic Ocean to JP Kocks Fjord in Peary Land on the Arctic Ocean and then onto Qaanaaq on the Baffin Sea in North-West Greenland. The trio completed the never before undertaken journey in 67 days, covering 3,120 kilometres (1,940 mi) (point to point) and achieving the longest unsupported snowkiting expedition in the Arctic to date. Guinness World Records also recognized the journey in 2010.
Between October–December 2011 Hayes is due to lead an expedition re-inacting the travels of British Explorer Wilfred Thesiger across the Arabian Desert, otherwise known as the Rub Al Khali or “Empty Quarter”. Travelling with two Beduin team members, Hayes, an Arabic speaker, will journey by camel and foot from Salalah, Oman to Abu Dhabi in means as close as culture, heritage and changing lives of the Bedu of Oman, and the UAE.
Working alongside and promoting the concepts of such organizations as the New Economics Foundation (NEF), Population Matters, Action for Happiness, and BioRegional, Hayes is an ambassador, leader and speaker on economic, social and environmental sustainability. “Sustainability has become the most over-used and misunderstood word in the English Language the past few years” he says. “I am passionate about both awakening consciousness in the World and ripping apart the huge denials and taboos of what is very much an ‘uncomfortable truth’.