Australian explorer chosen for first The North FaceŽ Expedition Grant

Exploration is always costly. That is why The North FaceŽ in Australia has begun inviting submissions from anyone contemplating a particular expedition but in need of some financial assistance. Each year, one proposed expedition is selected, and The North FaceŽ helps to fund it in the form of an AUD5,000, or around US$4,200, grant. In addition, the successful applicant receives The North FaceŽ clothing and equipment, the most technically innovative produced in the world, worth AUD2,000, or around US$1,700.

Response to the scheme has shown that it addresses a real need. A panel of experts considers numerous applications. Aspects considered include the destination, number of participants, proposed dates for the expedition and the motivation for seeking an adventure in the particular location named. Previous experience and expeditions are also taken into account in arriving at a decision.

Chosen as the recipient of the first grant was Australian explorer and freelance travel writer Felicity "Flip" Byrnes. She was thrilled to learn that she had been selected, and the grant will help finance the trek across Greenland she has planned for this year. She will be writing an account of her journey in the form of a column in the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald.

Flip Byrnes is the great granddaughter of Frank Hurley, who was known to earlier generations as an Antarctic explorer and photographer. For the last seven years Flip has contributed reports recounting her explorations to both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian in the UK, as well as other publications.

Flip's earlier adventures have seen her snowboarding in Kashmir, trekking in Mongolia, climbing Mont Blanc or sledding down mountains in Chile, Argentina, Kashmir, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She has walked the 1,500 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) in northern Spain. It seems Flip is rarely still, and she has visited most of the world's continents - she never stops exploring.

Entries for the next grant, for expeditions planned for 2008, can be submitted up until 31 December 2007.