You are in: Museum of History Hall of Women Ann Bancroft
Citation: Website address (ie benjaminfranklin.org ), edited by Stanley L. Klos and volunteer editor's name, if any, listed at bottom - Carnegie, PA 1999-2006. We rely on volunteers to edit the sites on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this site please submit edits and biographies in text form Ann Bancroft Breaking more than ice, Ann Bancroft shattered the notion that women were too weak to endure polar exploration. Along with Norwegian Liv Arnesen, Ann and she became the first women to sail and ski across Antarctica which encompassed a 94 day, 1,717 mile journey in February 2001. Working up to the Antarctica trek, in 1993 Ann led an all-women team to the South Pole covering 660 miles in 67 days on skis with three other women. After this trip she became the first women to cross the North and South Poles. Earlier, in 1992, Bancroft led another all- woman expedition crossing Greenland, and in 1986 she used dogsleds to travel 1,000 miles from the Northwest Territories in Canada to the North Pole as the only female of the Steger International Polar Expedition. During that trip she earned the distinction of becoming the first female to cross the North Pole.
Growing up in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, Ann loved to be outdoors. Her father took her camping and canoeing in northern Minnesota. When she was eight years she began leading backyard winter camping trips with her cousins. Following her love of the outdoors, Ann earned a B.S. in physical education from the University of Oregon, and began teaching physical and special education in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Presently she is an instructor for Wilderness Inquiry, a group dedicated to helping disabled as well as healthy individuals to experience the wilderness. | |
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