Chat transcript with explorer Ann Bancroft

You can listen live now, Ann Bancroft is talking about her "teachable moment" where she thought about doing something beyond herself.

What is a good way to gain wilderness experience on a very tight budget? Also, what is a good way to make connections with teachers who will be guides for building experience/knowledge base? Can you recommend any reading?

This is great -- I am not able to listen into the stream right now, but wanted to ask what advice you'd pass along to young girls (and their parents) who are interested in exploration, innovation and adventure, but may be a little hesitant or shy about pursuing it?

Ann has joined the chat. We'll start answering the questions now!

Jeanette M. asked a three-part question. First question: What is a good way to gain wilderness experience on a very tight budget?

Ann replied:
Hmm. I started in the backyard. So those were my first expeditions, in the orchard. There are different day camps, nature centers that offer things for free. There are some great urban programs that operate all year. There's one near my house that has snowshoeing, birdwatching, all sorts of things.

Jeanette's second question:
Also, what is a good way to make connections with teachers who will be guides for building experience/knowledge base?

Ann replied:
Teachers and guides are sometimes two different populations. Sometimes the outdoor stores REI, etc Some teachers moonlight there. And there are the outdoor programs. You have to express your interest and see where it leads you.

Jeanette also asked:
Can you recommend any reading?

Ann replied:
My book *laughs* There's so much to read, that's so great... For polar, the thing that nurtured me was Endurance. Everyone knows that... *pauses* but now there are so many books no matter what kind of issues you're interested in, environmental, adventure. If you google adventure there's so much. Its become more accessible. I love travel writing, it doesn't have to be an area that I'm interested in going, I love to read that kind of stuff.

Caryn D. asked:
This is great -- I am not able to listen into the stream right now, but wanted to ask what advice you'd pass along to young girls (and their parents) who are interested in exploration, innovation and adventure, but may be a little hesitant or shy about pursuing it?

Ann replied:
Every expedition starts out with a small step. That's usually deciding what it is you want to do and it doesn't have to be this huge thing. The things that I get publicized for are the big ones, but there's lots of little things that happen that are just juicy. I live on a river, on the St. Croix River, so it could be an afternoon adventure in the canoe or a hiking trip in Montana. But they're fun, they're challenging and they're wonderful each time.

For the parent the advice is its providing a collection of experiences, related and unrelated. That creates the base for a young person to find their way, whatever that is. And interests change!

What are you reading now?

Eleanor B. wrote:
I want to start out by saying that you have been one of my role models as long as I can remember! Listening to your segment on Midmorning was really a pleasure. As an aspiring female polar researcher, I have encountered many obstacles in the male-dominated world of science research. I wonder if you have advice for a young woman on overcoming prejudice against women in the world of science and polar work.

Ann replied:
Whew. Keep a cluster of believers always nearby, so when you're in the field bring something that keeps those believers close to you. And when come home from the field go get surrounded by them and fill your coffers up yet again. Do whatever it is that you need to do to stay your course, and eventually minds will change and things will feel better. And in the end you might actually feel privileged to participate in the change of that attitude.

Joanne S. asked:
What are you reading now?

Ann replied:
Three Cups of Tea

A sent question from C:
After you make it to the North Pole, doesn't everything seem sort of... boring?

Ann replied:
Hardly! Life is an adventure! All aspects of life. Most people think going to the pole is boring, same thing every day.

A sent question from Dave:
How is exploring changed by extreme sports?

Ann replied:
Well, whether its there's a delineation between extreme sports and exploring, but there are a lot more people doing both. The consequence of that is that we start to minimize the elements of what those require. Sometimes the lexicon changes. It can be dangerous for those that start to think about attempting certain things that they may not have an understanding [of} because we're so used to seeing it. And it can just be blase for those that listen to it, because they hear about it. "Oh, you're climbing Everest, everyone is climbing Everest." You hear about it much more prevalently.

Ann- My question has to do with climate change. We argue about that quite a bit here on Gather. I hold out for the notion that warming in the arctic has actually been more pronounced than here in the temperate regions, while others say no, it is actually getting colder in the arctic. Can you settle that argument as someone who has been there?

I posed a question:
Can you describe how a leader can assemble a great team and cultivate a great team dynamic?

Ann replied:
I think you have to be courageous right out of the blocks about finding the best people for the job, and all that that encompasses. Which means you might be finding people that are better than you. I think we sometimes tend to downplay that a bit so that we feel comfortable about our own skills. Every project has to look at its goals and its mission, and from there, you look at what jobs, what positions need to be filled. That's sort of the hardskill piece. But within that you also have to look at personalities, and I really try and find people who are willing to learn, continue to learn, people who are interested in being collaborative, people who are willing to wear many different hats - to have that ability to flex and bend. We tend to get into "that's my job" Expeditions tend to get into those things.

And a sense of humor!

Ann will close by answering Chris' question.

Chris W. wrote:
Ann- My question has to do with climate change. We argue about that quite a bit here on Gather. I hold out for the notion that warming in the arctic has actually been more pronounced than here in the temperate regions, while others say no, it is actually getting colder in the arctic. Can you settle that argument as someone who has been there?

Ann replied:
Well, from an anecdotal standpoint I can tell you that a yhear ago when we were up there it was brutally cold and people made fun on the play on words on "global warming and 75 below zero" We were less concerned with air temperature - that's what it is supposed to be in early March with no sunlight than we were the water temperature. The arctic ocean is significantly warmer, the ice is sign. thinner and or receding, which of course accelerates the warming. Combined with all the rivers that feed into the arctic ocean around the circumference of the globe and scientists tell us that that is having a significant change here, closer to home. Its just less pronounced in a dramatic sense. But you can't have weather change and temperature change issues in one part of the globe and not in others. Hence we're seeing Virginia getting hit with unprecendented tornadoes, and huge national disasters.

I'd say you're both right, in a way. The polar regions are very dramatic right now, that's why I 'm focusing on them. I love them and the drama is so evident that you're able to articulate that to people. Human nature is we tend not to get alarmed until things are big in our backyard. So I'm trying to bring home images and stories as a non-scientist so I can say "This is what I see. This is what I've seen for two decades."

We do have to continually find new ways to articulate, so we have to always expound on the issues. For me, and I talked about this with Kerri, for me these issues are incredibly related and what we're seeing in Minnesota - the challenges we have - we're seeing the rising price of food and its alarming. It affects us in MN not as dramatically as people in extreme poverty. We have ways to counter it. For now. So for like the polar regions compared to Minnesota - it doesn't mean it is NOT happening.

The Fuel issue: Fuel is 3.50 today, but our tolerance won't be until 6.00. But for people who don't have resources, there's huge complications. So when we talk about global warming we have to be willing to talk about poverty, about immigration. I think the reason we have to talk about all these issues is therein lies the solution. It challenges us to find solutions. I know we can do it, the brain trust is there, but its got be collaborative. We have to be invested in the solution, in the outcome.

So I'm hopeful.

Thanks everyone! And Thanks to Ann for joining us. This is now a chat transcript.

Sorry to have missed this, but I did listen to some of the interview in the car. It's good to know that I can go to the mpr website and catch the rest of it.

This looks like a great discussion, I will link to the above
Thanks

Just got back from the links, really good discussion