Ann Bancroft | |
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 Bancroft in 2006 | |
| Born | September 29, 1955 |
| Alma mater | University of Oregon |
| Occupation(s) | Explorer, teacher, author, public speaker |
| Known for | First woman to trek to the North Pole |
Ann Bancroft (born September 29, 1955) is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995. [1]
Bancroft was born in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, [2] and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. [3] Bancroft spent two years in Kenya in her fifth and sixth grades. [2] Bancroft began leading wilderness expeditions when she was 8 years old when she convinced her cousins to join her on backyard expeditions. [2] She described her family as one of risk takers. Bancroft struggled with dyslexia from an early age, but she nevertheless graduated from high school and was accepted at the University of Oregon where she graduated with a Physical Education Degree in 1981. [4] [5] Bancroft was a camper and staff member at YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, MN. [6] Bancroft also taught Physical Education and Special Education in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. [2] Bancroft became a wilderness instructor and a gym teacher in Minneapolis (at Clara Barton Open School) and St. Paul.
Bancroft founded the Ann Bancroft Foundation in 1991. [2] The Ann Bancroft foundation supports the Wilderness Inquiry group and Bancroft currently teaches at Wilderness Inquiry. [2] [7] The Wilderness Inquiry group allows individuals and families to go on outdoor adventures, and the adventures are open to people of all ability levels. Bancroft currently co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore, [8] with Liv Arnesen. Bancroft has been on expeditions on the Ganges River in India, crossed Greenland, traveled to the North Pole, and crossed the South Pole.
Bancroft gave up her physical education and special education teaching posts in 1986 in order to participate with the "Will Steger International North Pole Expedition". She arrived at the North Pole together with five other team members after 56 days using dogsleds. [9] This made Bancroft the first woman to reach the North Pole on foot and by sled.
She was also the first woman to cross both polar ice caps to reach the North and South Poles. In 1992–1993, Bancroft led a four-woman expedition to the South Pole on skis; this expedition was the first all-female expedition to cross the ice to the South Pole. [10]
In 2001, Bancroft and Norwegian adventurer Liv Arnesen became the first women to ski across Antarctica. [11]
In March 2007, Bancroft and Liv Arnesen took part in a trek across the Arctic Ocean to draw attention to the problem of global warming. The two explorers were followed be millions of school children. [12] However, according to The Washington Post , the expedition was called off "after Liv Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment." [13]
In 2017, Bancroft led an expedition on the Ganges River as part of the "Access Water Initiative Series." [7] [14] The Ganges River expedition's purpose was to raise awareness of the importance of clean water and that waste will travel downstream. [15] This expedition was a 60-day trip on 1,500 miles of waterway. [16]
Bancroft planned to boat down the Mississippi River in 2018 with Arnesen and other female explorers. [17] Future expeditions will be conducted on every continent. This initiative aims to encourage children to protect their waterways, which is a vital resource. [16] In 2018, Bancroft will paddle down the 2,320 mile Mississippi River. [16] Future trips include Africa in 2019, Oceania in 2021, South America in 2023, Europe in 2025, and Antarctica in 2027. [7]
Bancroft is openly bisexual [18] and in 2006, she publicly campaigned against a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to prohibit any legal recognition of marriages or civil unions between members of the same sex. [19]
Bancroft also supports awareness of Access Water, Winter Warm-Up challenges, and global warming. [17] [20] [21]
Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet, commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records.
Edith Jackie Ronne was an American explorer of Antarctica and the first woman in the world to be a working member of an Antarctic expedition (1947–48). The Ronne Ice Shelf was named by her husband after her.
Ralph Summers Plaisted was an American explorer who, with his three companions, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, are regarded by most polar authorities to be the first to succeed in a surface traverse across the ice to the North Pole on April 19, 1968, making the first confirmed surface conquest of the Pole.
Will Steger is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986, the 1,600-mile south–north traverse of Greenland - the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history at that time in 1988, the historic 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctic Expedition - the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (1989–90), and the International Arctic Project - the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada during 1995.
Helen Thayer is a New Zealand-born explorer who lives in the United States. In 2009, Thayer was named one of the most important explorers of the 20th century by the National Geographic Society.
Rose Cecilia "Rosie" Stancer is a British explorer and polar adventurer.
Liv Ragnheim Arnesen is a Norwegian educator, cross-country skier, adventurer, guide, and motivational speaker. Arnesen led the first unsupported women’s crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap in 1992. In 1994, she made international headlines becoming the first woman in the world to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole. – a 50-day expedition of 745 miles (1,200 km).
Josée Auclair is a Canadian explorer.
Hannah McKeand is an English polar explorer. In 2006 she set the record for the fastest journey to the South Pole a 600-nautical-mile (1,100 km) journey she completed solo and in just 39 days, 9 hours and 33 minutes. The record was broken in 2008 by Todd Carmichael of Spokane, Washington, United States. In March 2008 she attempted to reach the North Pole alone and unsupported but had to abandon the trip after falling through the ice and badly damaging her shoulder and back. McKeand is a public speaker and polar consultant.
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole, at a distance of 20,004 km in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.
Felicity Ann Dawn Aston is a British explorer, author and climate scientist.
There may have been women in Antarctica, exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.
This is a Timeline ofwomen in Antarctica. This article describes many of the firsts and accomplishments that women from various countries have accomplished in different fields of endeavor on the continent of Antarctica.
Jade Hameister is an Australian woman who, at age 16, became the youngest person in history to pull off the "polar hat-trick", ski to the North and South Poles, and cross the second largest polar icecap on the planet: Greenland. Hameister travelled over 1,300 km on these three missions, which totalled almost four months on ice.
Sunniva Sorby is an expeditioner, historian, guide, citizen scientist, and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. She is best known for her membership of the first women's team to reach the south pole in 1993.
The book North to the Pole, written by Will Steger and Paul Schurke, was published in 1986. It is a first-person account of an expedition to the North Pole and illustrates how seven men and one woman set out by dog-sled to accomplish the goal of completing an expedition to the North Pole without resupply and only with the help of traditional navigation techniques. The expedition is successfully completed within 56 days, and the crew is much praised and celebrated for it, especially by the media.
Harpreet Kaur "Preet" Chandi is a British physiotherapist and British Army medical officer who completed a solo expedition across Antarctica to the South Pole, finishing on 3 January 2022. In January 2023, she recorded the longest ever solo and unsupported polar expedition.
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