Miroslav Jakeš

Miroslav Jakeš (29 March 1951 – 2 April 2026) was a Czech polar explorer, mountaineer and expedition guide. In May 1993, he became the first Czech to reach the North Pole on skis, and he subsequently led or accompanied around twenty expeditions to the pole, working closely with Russian polar staff at the Barneo ice camp.

Jakeš died on 2 April 2026 after falling into a crevasse on the Skilfonna glacier on Svalbard during a solo ski expedition. His body was recovered four days later from a depth of approximately 20 metres.

Early life Jakeš was born on 29 March 1951 in Havlíčkův Brod, in what was then Czechoslovakia, and studied mechanical engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. A 2008 expedition with the filmmaker and traveller Petr Horký covered around 170 kilometres on the polar pack ice and was described in the Czech media as the longest Czech polar expedition.

A number of documentary films were produced from his expeditions, and he wrote and lectured widely about his experiences in Czech magazines, on radio, and on television.

Death In early March 2026, Jakeš travelled to Longyearbyen on Svalbard for a solo ski expedition through the archipelago's icefields and valleys. He last made contact, by satellite phone, on 30 March 2026, and stopped reporting on 1 April; on 6 April the office of the Governor of Svalbard received a missing-person report and a helicopter search began the same day. Searchers found one of his ski poles at the edge of a crevasse on the Skilfonna glacier on Edgeøya, and on 9 April his body was recovered from a depth of about 20 metres in the same crevasse. The Governor's office confirmed his identity publicly the following day, after consultation with his family.