In 2017, Martin joined a North Pole expedition to collect snow depth measurements for the European Space Agency’s CryoSat programme, which is being conducted in concert with NASA’s Operation IceBridge mission. Martin's next expedition is set for 2020, when he will collate research data and photograph the impact of climate change on multi-year ice, an element of the frozen north that is key to our planet’s survival. The Last Ice Sentinel Project, taking place in February & March 2023, will see Martin and his team depart from the most northerly point of Canada and ski 300-400 miles across an ice bridge to the most northerly point of land on earth. Once there, they will photograph, document, analyse and map the last of the multi-year ice. Multi-year ice forms huge ice cathedrals (known as sentinels) growing up to 20m tall, which are key to our planet’s protection from solar radiation.
Guests on Martin's Svalbard Polar Explorer trip, departing in May 2023, will be able to learn first-hand from Martin regarding The Last Ice Sentinel Project. Throughout the expedition Martin will be on hand to host a number of seminars on his past works, expeditions, and the effects of climate change that he has seen over a period of 25+ years working within the Polar Regions. Martin‘s passion for using his hard-won expedition and photographic expertise to benefit the future of our planet has also taken him beyond the Polar Regions to desert, jungle, mountain and oceanic environments. There are few explorers or photographers with more established credentials.
“I have experienced the polar world in all its ferocity, when it is a challenge just to stay alive, let alone pull out a camera and take a photograph. Martin Hartley’s ability to take beautiful and powerful photographs, in the most difficult places to survive on our planet, is inspirational.”
– Sir Ranulph Fiennes