A tragic avalanche, a failed job interview and a letter from one of the world’s greatest explorers, were events that changed the course of Dr Adrian McCallum’s life.
Now the University of the Sunshine Coast’s sometimes Engineering Lead, sometimes polar adventurer, is hoping he can be ‘a catalyst for change in others’.
What is Dr Adrian McCallum’s job? It really depends on when you run into him.
When we last spoke, he’d just finished exploring an abandoned Cold War base while on a 580km trek on foot, collecting scientific data across the Greenland Ice Sheet.
This time he’s up his eyeballs in engineering assignments that need to be marked.
So which one is it – explorer or engineering teacher?
“I’d like to think I’m a lot more than an adventurer, engineer or lecturer at UniSC,” Dr McCallum said.
“I’ve got a lot to offer this world. And I’m not prepared to just sit here quietly.”
Sitting idly is an accusation seldom levelled at Adrian.
Even when he was 21 years-old and training to be a pilot with the RAAF, he was juggling competing interests.
“I should have been studying the flight manual for the PC-9 aircraft. Instead, I was writing to Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world's greatest living explorer, asking him how I could become one as well,” Dr McCallum said.
Sir Ranulph wrote back, “Just go for it”.
“So I did.”
Adrian left the strict confines of the cockpit and set out on a new course – studying navigation and meteorology with the Navy.
It was here, where another opportunity would present itself – an expedition up Mt Everest with the armed forces in 2001.
A trip that would prove life-changing for Adrian, for all the wrong reasons.
“We were in the Himalayas acclimatising, when there was an avalanche off a neighbouring mountain called Hiunchuli that killed five people,” he said.
“Three of them were from our group. One of them was an eight-year-old girl called ‘KC.’ I was giving her piggybacks only a few days before.”
For two days, Adrian and his party searched through the tonnes of fallen ice to find KC and her parents, to no avail.
Eventually a Himalayan rescue team found their bodies, and Adrian returned with the helicopter to retrieve them. He wanted to make sure they made it home.
“After that, some of our climbing group went home, while some of us continued up Everest in an attempt to honour their memories. But it affected us badly,” he said.
“Why on earth were we risking our lives, to climb some snowy rock which just happens to be the highest in the world?”
Adventure for the sake of it had suddenly lost its appeal, while the fragility of life was put into sharp focus.
“It made me rethink why I was doing these things and ask how I could make the most of my time on this earth? And what I could do to help prevent a tragedy like that happening again?
“So I decided then and there, to become an expert in snow and ice strength,” Dr McCallum said.
He left the Navy and joined the Army to study a Bachelor of Engineering, before completing a PhD in glaciology and studying at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
“This led to all the alpine and polar research adventures around the world I’ve had over the years. And weirdly, I now find myself here.”
Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Synonymous with blue water, beaches and perpetual summer.
Less so glaciers, ice shelfs and polar bears.
For a man infatuated with all things high altitude and sub-zero, it’s a strange match.
“My wife and I decided to return to the Coast for family reasons. When I first came to UniSC, I actually applied for a role as a geography lecturer – and I didn’t get the job!” Dr McCallum said.
“But when we spoke about my engineering background, my interviewer asked if I could teach that instead and I accepted.
“That was 14 years ago. Now I’m the Engineering Lead. But I’m very lucky that I still get to go out and conduct my glaciology and meteorology research in these remote locations, between engineering commitments.”
Marrying these two interests to become a specialist in remote area science has taken him to Antarctica, the Arctic and many ice-capped mountains and tundras in between, gathering otherwise impossible to obtain data for scientists around the world.
Now he wants to include his third passion in that mix – his students.
“I love teaching; the process of helping others learn how to problem-solve and understand what tools they can use to address the questions they have about the world around them.
“University isn’t all about learning content. You can find content at your fingertips 24/7. What’s more important is that engineers and others are taught how to think about problems and applying their skillset,” Dr McCallum said.
“I’ve got a few runs on the board now as a polar scientist, which has led to more invites to both the Arctic and Antarctica this year, and I hope they keep coming. But as I get older, I want to introduce these sorts of experiences to students,” Dr McCallum said.
“I want to inspire and support younger scientists to get out there and take on the world. Not purely for the scientific benefits, but so they have the time and space to think about what they want for themselves, their lives and careers.
“That’s the additional rationale for my work these days.”
Adrian’s quietly working to make that a reality and is hoping to establish a program that will afford students the opportunity to join him on more of these adventures.
Among the places he wants to take them, is back to Himalayas where the avalanche tragedy set him on a new direction.
“That’s still an unaddressed issue for me to some extent,” he said.
“A few years ago, some of my students and I were looking at developing a cheap early avalanche detection device, based on the coffee can radars developed at MIT. But technology has moved on to LiDAR, photogrammetry and drones since then.
“It’s probably a good time to re-examine that project and return to Hiunchuli for a comprehensive review and avalanche assessment.”
But it won’t end there. Not a chance.
With Adrian, there’s always another mountain to climb, another glacier to cross, more data to collect and another engineering project to throw himself at.
All those years ago, Sir Ranulph Fiennes told him “Just go for it.” He has been ever since.
“My wife says I enjoy suffering and that’s probably true. High-altitude mountaineering is really just a suffer fest where you’re lugging heavy things up steep hills in limited oxygen.
“But I enjoy pushing myself. I’m always looking forward to the next one.”
And just like Sir Ranulph, Adrian hopes he might help motivate others of all ages to learn and explore.
“I’m currently mentoring a group of primary school students in Florida because they wanted to learn about polar research and work.
“I hope that I’m making some sort of impact, not just in science and engineering, but more broadly in encouraging people to think about who they are, what they want to be and how they can better benefit the world.”
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