Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson lives on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands near Fort William. Most of his working life has been spent in wild places. He studied agriculture at college but chose a career of mountaineering and sailing. After working for Outward Bound for a year in the Lake District of England he was employed by the British Antarctic Survey as a mountaineer/dog driver. Between 1974 and 1977 he worked as a guide with scientific personnel traveling extensively by dog team on the Antarctic Peninsula.

During the late 1970s he worked for three years with Outward Bound in the United States. For the best part of the following 10 years he lived and worked in Alaska and the Yukon, racing sled dogs and running a guiding business in the Brooks Range. He competed in both the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races.

In 1990 Rick returned to Scotland to work for Outward Bound and spent as much time sailing as possible. During these years he was able to return to the Antarctic, to restore the abandoned base at Port Lockroy and later run the base as a museum. Rick now spends most northern winters in Antarctica at Port Lockroy, and his summers as a sailing skipper on the west coast of Scotland and guiding tours in the Arctic.

Last summer Rick was awarded the Polar Medal for his work both in the Arctic and Antarctic by the Queen of Great Britain.