Myrtle Simpson – trailblazer, pioneer, adventurer, mountain climber, polar explorer, writer, wife and mother. In 2017, over 50 years after becoming the first woman to cross the polar ice cap of Greenland on foot she was awarded the Polar Medal for services in the Arctic. Named by National Geographic as one of four women who “defied expectations and explored the world”, Simpson’s life has taken her around the globe from Spitsbergen to Greenland, from the Scottish Highlands to New Zealand, from the high Arctic to Peru. Myrtle Simpson has blazed her own, unique trail as an explorer and mother of four, all while writing 13 books and collecting specimens for botanical collections around the world. Today, at the age of 89 she still continues to explore the world around her.