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Thursday, December 5, 2024

Adventurous Women 3 - Sue Carter, Frida Waara

 This is a book that is special to me. Actually, if I had known about this expedition ahead of time, I might have applied to participate. Yes, seriously. This quest was completed on my birthday in 2001!

I met Sue in maybe 2003 when she came to Ludington to speak about their adventure, and Frida in maybe 2005. Frida and I more or less stay in touch.

Ordinary Women

Sue was the leader of the expedition. Her book is Ordinary Women. Their adventure is that they were the first group of women to ski to the North Pole from the Russian side of the world. These were not professional explorers, but a group of adventurous women who planned and trained and made it happen.

Persistence and endurance were the qualities that led to their success. Of course, they had done a lot of advance work to know what they needed to do. Each member of the team had an important role.

Sue Carter


Sue taught at Michigan State University.

Frida Waara and Joan Young

Here are Frida and I in 2010. (I'm wearing her polar pack with her boots hanging off it.)

We initially met at a Becoming an Outdoorswoman weekend where I was a speaker. It was pretty exciting!

Frida says, "If you love snow, the places you can go!" She's an avid skier and bicyclist. She's also an outdoor writer. We find that we have quite a bit in common. The extra link below is from a couple of days I spent at her home.

She has now been to both poles, becoming one of the few women to do so. She claims she is certifiablly bi-polar!

In other news, I edited and formatted, washed dishes and shoveled snow. That is all.

See Adventurous Women
See Swimming with Duke, Dreaming with Frida

4 comments:

Ann said...

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I can't imagine doing something like that even in my younger years.

Sharkbytes said...

Ann- I know! They were an amazing group.

The Oceanside Animals said...

Lulu: "I love snow! Probably!"

Sharkbytes said...

Lulu! I know you would love snow. You have the furs for it