Wired Women: Antarctic Explorers
March 21 -- Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen just spent 94 days pulling 250-pound sledsacross 1,717 miles of the most inhospitable landscape in the world.
We’re talking the distance from LA to Chicago, dragging somethingthe size of Arnold Schwarzenegger, in average temperatures of -30Fahrenheit. On skis.
But when they were airlifted out of McMurdo Station Feb. 19, Arnesen andBancroft — exhausted and triumphant — had become the firstwomen in history to cross Antarctica on foot.
They did it after two years of intensive training, with major corporatesupport, under the guidance of a savvy marketing team — and with the helpof every high-tech, frost-resistantgizmo and gadget known to modern woman.
Gritty, Gutsy and 21st Century
For while Arnesen and Bancroft may be as gritty and gutsy as their historicpredecessors, they’ve also got a 21st-century advantage: They’re a coupleof wired women.
In addition to food, fuel and clothing, the two women hauled with them acollection of high-powered, lightweight equipmentthat tracked their location and transmitted voicemail.
It included an ApplePowerbook computer, an Iridium satellite telephone (on loan from the U.S. Army), asolar panel, a couple of Motorola TalkAbout radios, and several GlobalPositioning Systemgadgets. Total weight: under 15 pounds. Total value (retail): $25,000.
And well worth it. In 1993, when Bancroft led an expedition to the South Pole, she hauled along a 30-pound radio to keep in touch with her sister, stationed in Chile to receive the transmissions. The system stalled, the messages were garbled, and the inefficiency factor was high.
This time, the two adventurers left daily voicemail — viasatellite — with their support staff in Minnesota, which passed theinformation along to fans in 100 countries, including 3 millionschoolchildren. Photos of the trek were broadcast around the world. The expedition got more than 20,000 e-mail messages.
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