ST. PAUL - Minnesota-based explorer Ann Bancroft and her polar trekking partner Liv Arnesen of Norway will be hitting the ice again, leading a 2012 expedition with six other women from six continents to the South Pole.
The 800-mile, 80-day ski trek, scheduled to begin in November 2012, will include team members from India, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile and China. Two of them, Bachendri Pal of India and Wang Jing of China, have climbed Mount Everest.
The aim of the expedition, Bancroft and Arnesen announced last week, is to draw attention to global water-access issues and to educate young people.
In 2001, Bancroft and Arnesen successfully skied 1,700 miles across the Antarctic. In 2002, they boated 2,000 miles though the Great Lakes. The pair tried a 1,240-mile trek across the frozen Arctic Ocean in 2005 that ended early because of a logistical conflict. Frostbite ended a 2007 attempt to cross the Arctic on skis to draw attention to global warming.
"I think this will be sort of the last extreme expedition," Arnesen, 58, said of her partnership with Bancroft, 56.
ADVERTISEMENT
Arnesen said organizing the latest trip -- which they are calling Access Water 2012 -- is more complicated because more people are involved, and she and Bancroft wanted to find team members who were interested in clean water access issues as opposed to participants who just wanted to be part of an athletic endeavor.
Thanks to advances in technology, Arnesen said, the expedition seeks to educate 50 million young people worldwide compared with 3 million during the 2001 expedition.
Bancroft said the expedition will cost $3 million to $4 million and sponsors are still being sought.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
