: Sue Riches, Victoria Riches
: Frigid Women
: Eye Press
: 9781908646064
: Eye Classics
: 1
: CHF 8.60
:
: Reiseführer
: English
: 256
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
In 1997, a group of twenty women set out to become the world's first all female expedition to the North Pole. Sue and Victoria were surprised to find themselves amongst them. En route to the most isolated and forbidding regions of the globe and facing the bitterest hardships, both were seeking a new beginning. For Sue these were the first steps following treatment for breast cancer. For Victoria, abandoning the security of her career was the sole way to test her self-belief. This is mother and daughter, Sue and Victoria's personal account of their trials and survival in the Arctic. Honest, shocking, but never too serious, Frigid Women is a celebration of the positive, 'anything is possible' attitude which can transform life's tribulations into its most rewarding experiences.

THE REASONS WHY


SUE


I crawled through the tent doorway at midnight, in full sunlight, the shadows long, the ice crystals shimmering in the air, a stunning view in front of me, and wearing just a set of Damart thermal underwear, a pair of socks and my water bottle insulators as slippers and I wondered to myself, is this the Arctic as I had imagined it? Why was I even going through the door at this time of night? There are no loos in the Arctic.

Was it really as Apsley Cherry-Garrard described it in his book,The Worst Journey In The World: “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised”? That description was enough to put anyone off!

Why did I want to go there? I have never had the burning desire to see the polar wastes since the age of six, or wanted to pull a sledge over rough sea ice that is likely to split open in front of you, or indeed to revel in temperatures of –40°C or less. I like my comforts, my electric blanket, warm fires and delicious food. So why go to the Arctic Ocean for a six-week holiday on ice?

For the answers to these questions we have to go back nearly two years….

VICTORIA


August 1995. Mid-summer in London. The tube was packed with workers and tourists all on their way somewhere and all in their own little world. As usual I was reading the paper, hanging onto the handrails and trying to avoid various smelly armpits all at the same time. Why was I here? I loved my job as a recruitment consultant for Angela Mortimer plc, but hated living in London. There must be more to life than this. Having come to the normal conclusion that I could not think of an alternative career which did not involve commuting, I went back to reading my paper.

Then I saw it:

“Adventurers are being sought for the first attempt by an all woman team to walk to the North Pole.”

For some reason this opening line caught my eye. This must have been fate; here was my alternative to commuting. I read on:

“Prospective candidates will have to pass an SAS based selection test before they will get anywhere near putting on a pair of ice boots. Applications are invited from women of any age, background and occupation, but they will have to prove fitness and commitment. They will have to put up with real pain and discomfort. They will wonder every ten steps what they are doing but they have the oppo