Dr Charles W M Swithinbank is an eminent glaciologist who has played a prominent role in polar research throughout the past forty-five years. With his experience of British, Scandinavian, Russian, and Canadian expeditions, he brings a powerful perspective to this narrative of years spent as a lead scientist with the US Antarctic Program. Swithinbank holds degrees from Oxford University and has held research posts at the universities of Michigan and Cambridge. His expedition record includes over 20 visits to the Antarctic, three winters spent at isolated scientific stations, and several Arctic expeditions. His accomplishments have been recognised through the awarding of an honorary degree and medals, three of which were handed to him by reigning monarchs, and by naming one mountain range, two glaciers, and three other geographic features after him.