Meet the 14-Year-Old Girl Who Plans to Complete the 'Polar Hat Trick'

Most 14-year-olds are focused on tasks like mastering algebra. Jade Hameister, a teenager from Melbourne, Australia, dreams of conquering the Arctic and Antarctica. According to the BBC, Hameister hopes to become the youngest person ever to cross the North Pole, South Pole, and the Greenland Crossing—a feat called the “Polar Hat Trick.”

Hameister will embark on three separate trips over the next two years. Next week, she will leave for Oslo for four days of preparation and training, Mashable reports. Then, she’ll be flown to a temporary base, where she’ll begin her trip to the North Pole. Hameister will ski across more than 140 miles of frozen Arctic Ocean to reach her final destination, dragging a sled the entire way. The entire excursion is expected to take about three weeks.

In April 2017, Hameister will attempt the Greenland crossing, and in the summer of 2017 she’ll tackle the South Pole. If Hameister completes each leg of the journey, she will have covered 1243 miles.

But the active teen is no stranger to high-intensity endurance sports. She competed in triathalons and hiked Mt. Kosciuszko—Australia’s highest peak—all by the age of 6. However, Hameister's inspiration to complete the Polar Hat Trick came from the time she trekked the Everest Camp when she was 12. There, Hameister met an Icelandic woman who had skied the South Pole alone, as well as the first woman to summit Everest without oxygen. Inspired, Hameister began planning her own journey.

Hameister has spent the past year preparing for the polar hat trick, attending a survival skill training camp in New Zealand and learning how to ski. However, she won’t attempt the grueling trips alone. She will be accompanied by her father, Paul, the 12th Australian to climb the Seven Summits (including Everest) as well as Eric Phillips Oam, the Australian polar explorer who, along with his partner, was the first Aussie to ski both the North and South Poles, and Petter Nyquist, a cinematographer who will film Hameister’s journey for a National Geographic documentary. The documentary will air in July as part of a series on adventurous young women around the world, The Herald Sun says.

Feeling inspired? Learn more about the Hameister in the video above, follow Hameister’s journey on Instagram, or visit her website for more information.

[h/t BBC]

All images courtesy of Vimeo.