INTO THE UNKNOWN

The all-female team of the Before it’s Gone (BIG) Expedition who skied across three Arctic locations to collect crucial sea ice data that will contribute to our understanding of climate and environmental change in the Arctic. The team pull sledges loaded with equipment including tents, food, scientific equipment and sleeping bags. — Rolex/Stefan Walter

For almost a century, Rolex has steadfastly supported trailblazing explorers across the globe in their quests for discovery as well as conservation endeavours.

From equipping the first adventurers to reach the summit of Mount Everest to enabling vital discoveries in the Amazon rainforest, Rolex is committed to supporting this invaluable work for the sake of the planet and the future of humankind.

Spread across the world, the explorers and researchers are showing both how fundamentally linked the earth’s myriad landscapes are, and how vulnerable they have become.

Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative supports a diverse variety of projects aimed at protecting the planet, establishing key Moments throughout the year.

Alison Criscitiello, ice core scientist and National Geographic Explorer, holds a length of ice core, part of her research for the Rolex and National Geographic Perpetual Planet Mount Logan Expedition. — Leo Hoorn/National Geographic

The Poles, Mountains and Forests Moment is a chance to shine a light on its partners, Testimonees and Rolex Awards Laureates – all pioneers leading the charge in preserving some of the Earth’s most striking yet vulnerable landscapes and those that inhabit them.

Sky’s the limit

The first triumphant climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay demonstrated to the world that anything is possible.

While this paved the way for further adventures into the farthest reaches of the terrestrial world, today, exploration continues to be more crucial than ever.

The peaks of the Himalayas, the underground ice caves of Greenland and the depths of the Amazon rainforest still have many secrets to share.

By studying under-threat environments, pioneering explorers are alerting us to the fragility of the planet, uncovering the climate change challenges we are facing, and remaining at the forefront of campaigns for protection.

Accion Andina is a Latin American-led reforestation initiative co-founded by Rolex Awards Laureate Constantino Aucca Chutas. It was created to respond to the pressing needs of Andean communities by protecting their forests, restoring watersheds and supporting local livelihoods affected by the climate crisis. — Rolex/Sofia Lopez Manan

Through the Perpetual Planet Initiative, Rolex is supporting explorers, scientists and conservationists working to preserve our poles, mountains and forests, and their inextricable interconnectedness.

Among the explorers in this field that Rolex supports is renowned South African conservationist Steve Boyes, who is documenting Africa’s waterways along what he calls “the Great Spine of Africa”.

This includes the Angolan highlands, where he found what is arguably Africa’s largest water source.

Groundbreaking expeditions

One of the most significant projects spearheaded by the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative and its partner, the National Geo-graphic Society, is a two-year study of one of the earth’s most critical ecosystems: The Amazon.

With 1,100 tributaries, the Amazon River Basin can be considered the lifeblood of our planet.

Led by National Geographic Explorers, scientists, storytellers and local community members, seven teams are travelling all the way from the water source on the Andes to the rushing river mouth at the Atlantic to evaluate the health of the river basin’s entire water system.

From installing the highest weather station in the tropical Andes, to sampling microbes in the waters of deforested areas, their work is crucial in understanding the impact mankind has had on the Amazon and the consequences it will have for us as a worldwide population.

Living laboratories

Rolex’s dedication to protecting our poles, mountains and forests has reached far and wide, supporting 55 expeditions across 28 countries – from the North Pole to the heart of the Amazon.

Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureate Francesco Sauro and a team of scientists and members of the local indigenous Monochoa community led an expedition deep into the unexplored caves in the Colombian Amazon.

Climate scientists Baker Perry, Tom Matthews and a team of Sherpa guides build an automated weather station on the South Col on Mount Everest at 7,945 metres as part ofthe National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition. — National Geographic Image Collection/Eric Daft

They navigated white-water rapids and dense jungle to reach caves that have not been explored in living memory.

Sauro, who also collaborates with the European Space Agency on exploring caves on the Moon, believes that the bacteria they found thriving in the total darkness of the caves could tell us more about the potential existence of extra-terrestrial life.

“Underground, without light, in a very quiet environment over very long geological times, with very low nutrients – those are exactly the conditions we would expect to find on the subsurface of Mars,” he explains. “The caves are like a small planet.”

These caves also offer up a living laboratory to which he brings the latest scientific field equipment to analyse data crucial for understanding the planet’s future climate, and the impact it will have on every ecosystem.

Rewilding Chile is working to protect Chile’s landscapes, amongst which is the iconic Patagonia National Park. They are an offspring organisation of Tompkins Conservation, who have become a driving force in curbing the worldwide climate emergency and biodiversity crisis through rewilding and creating national parks. — Rolex/Sofia Lopez Manan

Over 8,000 km away lies Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada, one of only a handful of places outside the polar regions where the ice does not melt in the summer months, due to its altitude and unique weather conditions.

These thereby ensuring a long climate record is preserved in the ice.

Climate scientist Alison Criscitiello and her team of world-leading specialists recently led the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Mount Logan Expedition, a 10-day expedition to the mountain’s ice-covered plateau 6,000 m above sea level.There, they collected ice cores down to 327 m, a record depth for a high-altitude mountain glacier core, which may contain as much as 30,000 years of climate history – such data had previously only been collected in the polar regions.

More latitudes are being examined thanks to Criscitiello’s expedition, and once the ice cores have been analysed and the data collected, the data will help to paint a more complete picture of the planet’s global climate through time.

Almost a century from equipping some of the first trailblazing expeditions of the time, Rolex continues to support and encourage those venturing into the unknown for the sake of our planet’s uncertain future.