Rigato Rob (Australia)

Rigato Rob

59 years old (in 2010), Rob Rigato is an Australian who's passionate about the great outdoors and a life of adventure. For 30 years, he has been running a school in Melbourne that educates young people about contact with nature. In the spring of 2010, he successfully completed the Ward Hunt > North Pole trek.

2010: in company of his wife Linda Beilharz (50) and the young Canadian guide Sarah McNair Landry (23), Rob Rigato reached the North Pole on 26 April after a route made more than difficult because of the particularly trying conditions for making headway, and in particular the violent headwinds and a constant negative drift that bedevilled them throughout. They had remained on the ice for 55 days and were resupplied twice. Rob lost 10 kilos in the course of the adventure.

Rob has completed an east west crossing of the Greenland Icecap in 2007 and recently attempted a crossing of the South Patagonia Icecap.

Rob Rigato has been leading the Outdoor Education Program at Trinity Grammar School, Kew (Melbourne) for over 25 years.

He is highly respected for the integrated program he has developed for students in years 7 to 10 and for his involvement in the Leader's Training Course' which is highly regarded by older students.

During the 5 years he worked at the Australian Outward Bound School, he traveled to and worked in a wide variety of wilderness locations within Australia.

For several years Rob has been an Instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in the USA. He works for NOLS once a year, instructing on backpacking courses in Wyoming or Alaska.

In his work Rob draws on his Arts degree and Diploma of Education, as well as his interest in geology and love of the outdoors. Rob often has a camera in his hand and has a great interest in capturing the story of an expedition in pictures.