Expedition Teams on board MS Midnatsol

Tudor Morgan
From: Wales
Expedition Leader

Jim Mayer
From: Wales
Expedition Leader

Tomas Zadrozny
From: Poland
Assistant Expedition Leader

Tudor has always had a passion for polar places. After many Arctic and Alpine expeditions while studying Geology at Manchester University he first went South with British Antarctic Survey wintered as a Field Guide before becoming became Field Operations Manager. After six years he moved on to work for the Antarctic Heritage Trust managing the operation at Port Lockroy and overseeing the conservation of other historic sites. Before joining the full time staff at Hurtigruten he was Operations Manager at IAATO. He has been awarded the Queens Polar Medal for outstanding service to Antarctic science and Heritage.

Jim is a veteran polar explorer, having travelled in the Arctic and Antarctic for more than 20 years. His polar adventuress began as a student on an expedition to round up Barnacle Geese in Svalbard. He has led expeditions to Iceland, Greenland, Jan Mayen and Svalbard. Jim’s attempt to ski the entire length of Svalbard from south to north was thwarted when polar bears ate all his food. In 2000, he made the mistake of skiing 560km across Greenland’s ice cap with a man he met in the pub. In Antarctica, he has led voyages to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, to Scott and Shackleton’s huts in the Ross Sea and of course, to the Antarctic Peninsula. Jim’s area of special interest is polar history. His first book, a new biography on Ernest Shackleton, has been described as the “Polar Book of the Year” by descendent and historian Jonathan Shackleton. He is currently researching and writing about secret war-time weather stations in the Arctic.

Tomas obtained Master of Science degree and Engineering degree in Animal Science at the Agricultural University of Warsaw/Poland. He overwintered twice in Antarctica where he worked as biologist and base commander of the Polish Antarctic Station - Arctowski. From 1999, he works on board of Passengers Expedition Vessels. His favourite Earth’s “corners” are the areas around the Poles - the Polar Regions. There he shares with the guests his personal experience and presents lectures about wildlife of the Arctic and the Antarctic. One of his highlights has been the discovery of a previously unknown channel in Melchior Islands Archipelago on Feb. 2, 2003.

Steinar Aknes
From: Norway
Assistant Expedition Leader

Regina Gehmlich
From: Germany
Lecturer Geology

Cathrine Moen
From: Norway
Expedition Coordinator

Steinar grew up in the mountains of Norway, close to Bergen, and moved to Svalbard in 1996. For the firs 9 years he worked within tourism on different ships in the summer and on snowmobile in the winter seasons. He then moved on to work for the film industry, and mainly within natural history filmmaking. Steinar did field work for films like, BBC "Natures Great Events", BBC “Frozen Planet”, BBC Life and IMAX "To the Arctic". After this he had a five year period were he worked for The Norwegian Polar Institute as a logistical engineer, helping scientist with their fieldwork. Now, Steinar is taking on a new challenge as Assistant Expedition leader on Hurtigruten's Explorer voyages.

As an educated mineralogist (geochemist) Regina has comprehensive knowledge about geological processes and geoscientific research. She has always been interested in wildlife and environmental protection, gathering a deep insight into the functionality of ecosystems and the interdependencies of living and non living nature. Every stay in fascinating nature has always been a source of power and recreation for Regina, and she likes sharing this fascination with others. For the past years, Regina has written texts on nature impressions from different places of the earth and presented them on small stage performances.Thus, she is able to provide the passengers with a balanced mixture of information and divertisement and would love to contribute in making their journey the great experience they are looking for.

Cathrine is born and raised in Bardu a place not far away from Tromsø in the Northern Norway. She has always had a passion for the polar areas. And have spent a lot of time in the Arctic – Greenland is an absolute favorite. She lived at Svalbard from 2011 to 2013. Cathrine is educated a teacher from the University in Tromsø, Arctic Nature Guide where she studied in Spitsbergen and she also holds a master of tourism from the Arctic University where she studied expedition tourism as a phenomenon. One of her passions is expeditions on skis and with pulkas. In 2013 she crossed Greenland on skis in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen and in 2016 she skied in the Northwest Passage from Cambridge Bay to Gjoa Haven in the historical footsteps of Roald Amundsen.

Andrea Klaussner
From: Germany
Photographer

Dominic Barrington
From: Australia
Photographer

Andrea comes from Germany and loves nature, traveling and photography. She is as inspired by small unimposing flowers and wildlife as by majestic landscapes around the globe and very much enjoys discovering new places and meeting people from different countries and cultures. Besides being an enthusiastic photographer, Andrea also very much enjoys sharing her photography knowledge in workshops. Andrea is fascinated by the idea that with photography she can capture her view of something and allow others to take a glimpse at the world "through her eyes”.

Dom is a first generation Aussie of English heritage, who was born in Canberra and grew up in Sydney. With a degree in Geology, Dom started his career in the exploration and mining industry, working initially in the nickel and gold fields of Western Australia. After further study in London, Dom gained his Masters in Exploration Geology. There followed a move into Legal Commercial Management that led to a globe-spanning career. Some may say he was a professional seagull. His true passion is for photography and exploration, and he now runs a boutique Fine Art Studio in his home town of Mollymook. Dom undertakes several expeditions a year to capture the beauty and wonder of the natural environment, from both above and below the water (Dom is an avid scuba diver and instructor). His images have been published and Highly Commended in the Csiro ANZANG ‘Nature Photographer of the Year’ awards for the past four years and he has been a finalist in the ‘Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ awards for the past two years. Dom is more than happy to assist you with your photography as you document your own expedition to Antarctic.