Born 1944,
Richfield, Minnesota

Will Steger is an American adventurer who is fascinated with two of the most inhospitable places on Earth: the North Pole and the South Pole. He led the first overland expedition to have reached the North Pole without air support since 1909; he later headed an international expedition across Antarctica over an 800-mile expanse that had never before been crossed on foot. A self-described former hippie, Steger carries on in the tradition of Arctic explorers such as Robert Edwin Peary and Richard Evelyn Byrd (see separate entries). However, since Steger is not officially sponsored by the United States, his costly expeditions are funded by numerous television and radio appearances and by private businesses that supply him with goods and services.

Shows early interest in adventure

Steger was born one of eight children in Richfield, Minnesota, near Minneapolis in 1944. From early childhood he was encouraged...