First women to ski across Antarctica to speak at American Mountaineering Center

“No Horizon Is So Far” will be presented by Norwegian Liv Arnesen and American Ann Bancroft on October 3, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. in the Foss Auditorium. There is no charge for admission.

In November of 2000, facing dangers known and unknown, the women set off on an unsupported expedition that would take them 1,700 miles across Antarctica. Both former school teachers and world-renowned polar explorers at the top of their game, Ann and Liv were eager for the next challenge, one that would not only test their endurance and their courage but would also inspire children everywhere.

Against all odds and with 250-pound sleds harnessed to their waists, they ski-sailed and walked across the frozen tundra for nearly three long months, braving the bitter cold, the blinding snow and wind, the risk of falling into crevasses, and many gut-wrenching setbacks. Haunted by the failures of those who had attempted the crossing before them, they hoped desperately for wind to propel their ice-sails while racing to complete the journey before the harsh Antarctic winter set in and twenty-four-hours of daylight became twenty-four-hours of impenetrable dark--ness. Though modern technology could not ensure rescue should they need it, website transmissions and satellite phone calls enabled more than three million children from sixty-five countries to witness the journey. With a website (yourexpedition.com) that tracked their progress, the expedition became an educational event in classrooms all over the world. By accomplishing the seemingly impossible, Ann and Liv touched the lives of children around the world, teaching them both a living geography lesson and a story of courage like no other.

Chronicling the dramatic details of this historic expedition for the first time, “No Horizon Is So Far” explores what drove Ann and Liv across the ice and ultimately into our hearts and into history. It traces the birth of their dream, its re-emergence when they were adults, their doubt-defying work to assemble the necessary money and gear, and their brutally taxing trek from the Norwegian sector to the American base at McMurdo. About journeys both literal and figurative-—each marked with suspense, danger, ingenuity, and incredible endurance—“No Horizon Is So Far” celebrates two modern-day heroines and that which is heroic in all of us.

About the Authors  Ann Bancroft is the first woman in history to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles. She has been featured in the books Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century and Women of Courage; inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame; and named Ms. magazine’s “Woman of the Year.” She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1994, Liv Arnesen made international headlines by becoming the first woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole, a fifty-day expedition of 745 miles. She wrote a book about that solo expedition that was a bestseller in her native Norway. She lives outside of Oslo.

For more information, please call (303) 279-3080 or (800) 633-4417. P

Comedy play The Foreigner
in Foss  auditorium

The Colorado Mountain Club will host the production of Larry Shue’s farce, The Foreigner, which is the winner of two Obie awards and two Outer Critics Circle awards as Best New A-mer--i-can Play and Best Off-Broadway Production. The Foreigner will be the first live stage theater produed in the Foss Auditorium since Golden Junior High School students walked the halls of the building.

Imagine a fishing lodge in rural Georgia that is often visited by “Froggy” LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time, “Frog-gy” has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So “Froggy,” before departing, tells all the assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Once alone, the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should—the evil plans of a sinister, two-faced minister and his redneck associate; the fact that the minister’s pretty fiancée is pregnant; and many other damaging revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn’t understand a word being said. That he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play, and sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry for the “bad guys” while the “good guys” emerge triumphant.

Opening night is Friday, May 30, and the production will run through June 22. Curtain Fridays and Saturdays is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinee is 2 p.m. Reserved seat tickets are $17.50 and $25. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the CMC office at (303) 279-3080. P

Shining Mountains
announces social

The Shining Mountains group plans to spend the day May 17 having a spring social that includes a hike, and potluck dinner, and a program.

At 4 p.m., CMC member Kurt Wib---ben--meyer will make a pictorial/narration entitled “My Mountainous Dreams.” Wibbenmeyer is or has been a Wilderness Trekking School Instructor, a CMC leader, an assistant Basic Mountaineering School instructor, and a senior High Altitude Mountaineering School instructor. He has led or participated in climbs to Mt. Ranier and Pico de Orizaba, and he led the expedition that summitted Denali by the West Rib route in 2002.

The program will be preceded that morning at nine by an easy A hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, followed by the pot luck at 2 p.m. Contact Madeline Framson for information about meeting times and places at (970) 586-6623. P