Beyond the Book

You Don't Have To Go It Alone
Not all adventurers seek solitude. In December 2009, seven women from the Commonwealth countries of Cyprus, India, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, skied together over 800 kilometres across Antarctica to the South Pole "to demonstrate the potential of greater intercultural understanding and exchange, while at the same time highlighting the achievements of women across the world." You can meet the team members and view clips from their heartwarming, but face-freezing journey on the project's website. Team leader Felicity Aston has also led a number of other amazing, creative, and challenging expeditions.


More Women Who've Dared
Biography.com presents an interesting list of the top-ten female adventurers:

• Deborah Sampson who fought as a man in the Revolutionary War
• Mary Jemison, captured by Shawnee Indians and French soldiers 1758, and sold to the Senecas where she remained by choice
• Sacajawea, peacemaker and guide to Lewis and Clark
• Nelly Bly, journalist and circumnavigator
• photographer Osa Johnson
• Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim the English Channel
• Louise Arner Boyd, Antarctic explorer
• the all-female mountaineering team that scaled the Himalayan peak, Annapurna 1
• Iditarod winner Susan Butcher
• Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich who took low-paying jobs as research for her book, Nickel and Dimed.

This article was originally published in April 2009, and has been updated for the April 2010 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.

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