This Is Just Too Cool

Daughter, 15, beats Arctic explorer dad

Fri Apr 15,11:50 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A 15-year-old girl has trekked across an Arctic island quicker than her father - one of Britain's top explorers.

Alicia Hempleman-Adams took 10 days to walk and ski 150 miles across Baffin Island in north-east Canada.

Her father, David, 48, who won fame by reaching both the South and North Poles on foot, setting a series of air-balloon records and climbing the highest mountain on every continent, had previously taken 11 days.

"It's a double-edged sword," he said. "I'm immensely proud of what she has achieved, but a bit miffed she has beaten my time," he told Reuters from a hotel in Canada.

Alicia and her three companions had to battle a wind chill factor of minus 40C, thin ice and open water along the trek.

But this will not necessarily mean the start of a career in exploration, she said. "I want to try other things first."