Teachers arrive in Antarctica for record-breaking trek

QUEEN MAUD LAND, Antarctica - An American polar adventurer and her Norwegian partner arrived in Antarctica yesterday, hoping to become the first women to ski unaided across the frozen continent.

When their Russian-built Ilyushin 76 airplane skidded to a halt on an ice runway, American Ann Bancroft and Norwegian Liv Arnesen immediately called their support base in Minnesota by a satellite phone.

Arriving was an accomplishment in itself. The expedition had been scheduled to start Nov. 1, but high winds and low clouds grounded the plane and forced them to wait 12 days in Cape Town, South Africa.

"It's fabulous to be here," Bancroft, of Scania, Minn., said after landing in Queen Maud Land, a breathtaking expanse of snow and blue ice 125 miles south of the Antarctic coastline.

Bancroft and Arnesen want to be the first women to ski across Antarctica with no outside assistance. Towing a heavy sled, they plan to ski 2,400 miles across a barren expanse, where winds blast up to 100 miles per hour and summertime temperatures average 30 degrees below zero.

The weather yesterday was nearly perfect, windless and relatively warm at 14 degrees.

"I think it's the warmest we have ever seen it," Arnesen said.

Bancroft and Arnesen had planned to set off immediately, but decided to get a good night's sleep first and start skiing this morning.

The delay in reaching the continent means a race against time. The two had planned make the trek in 100 days but will have to pick up the pace to complete it before mid-February, when plunging temperatures begin to freeze the ocean, preventing a boat from collecting them on the other side of the continent.

If it goes as planned, the journey will take Bancroft, 45, and Arnesen, 47, from Queen Maud Land across the South Pole to the McMurdo station on the Ross ice shelf.