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Editorial Review Product Description
This riveting true-life adventure of suspense, danger, and endurance chronicles the extraordinary journey of American Ann Bancroft and Norwegian Liv Arnesen, two former schoolteachers, as they set out to become the first women to cross the continent of Antarctica on foot. With their 250-pound supply sleds in tow, they walk, ski, and ski- sail for ninety-four days, over 1,700 miles of crevasse-ridden ice, where any exposed skin would freeze in less than a minute, all while three million children from sixty- five countries tune in to their adventure via satellite phones and the Web. A record of Arnesen and Bancroft’s astounding adventure, No Horizon Is So Far is a stirring testament to two modern-day heroes. ... Read more Customer Reviews (15) 
"The joy is in the journey "
Norwegian Liv Arneson and American Ann Bancroft had a dream -- a strange dream. Each was called to the frozen continent of Antarctica. Liv (they use their given names throughout the book) had already made her mark as the first woman to ski solo to the South Pole, and Ann had skiied to the South Pole with three other women in a continent-crossing attempt that failed due to lack of funds. These two found each other and began to organize a ski trip from edge to edge, across the ice-covered continent.
Do you wonder why? Liv writes that everyone does, and her answer is that "an expedition is a work of art expressed on a canvas of snow, air, and time." She was inspired by Roald Amundsen's conquest of the South Pole, but both women were fascinated by Shackleton's Endurance expediton and the courage with which he gave up his mission to save his crew. Win or lose, they felt, the joy was in the journey.
Both Liv and Ann were former schoolteachers, and a big part of their dream was enlightening and inspiring school children around the world. Their first challenge was to build a support team and secure the huge corporate sponsorship needed to cover the expenses of their expedition. As they got to know each other and trained for the grueling trip, their company, yourexpedition, went on the sponsorship quest; the first part of the book covers the trials and triumphs of this two-year preparation phase. Major sponsorship was won from Volvo, Pfizer, Motorola, Apple Computers, and Continuum Control. During this phase a curriculum was developed and translated into many languages, and plans were made for communicating with school children during the trip. The logistics and expense of this journey were huge.
Liv and Ann took the ice in the Norwegian territory of Queen Maud Land, flying there from Capetown in November 2000. They had roughly 100 days before the Southern winter would close their "window" of traveling weather. With more than 2,000 miles to cover, their plan was to ski-sail across the continent to the Ross Ice Shelf; they were dependent on the wind, the weather, their equipment, and the state of the ice surface. They used satellite phones to communicate with their team and with some of the three million school children who followed their journey using the "Dare to Dream" curriculum.
No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women And Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica details the hardships that arose during the grueling trip. Injuries and equipment failure inevitably occurred in the intense cold and high altitude, but their greatest hardship was the erratic nature of the wind. Dragging heavy sleds and skiing behind sails in gusty wind is dangerous and difficult, but many days they had no wind and had to pull with crampons on their skis -- always in danger of falling into one of the many crevasses that thread through the ice.
Did Ann and Liv's mission succeed? Did they make it across the frozen beauty of Antarctica before winter closed their bolt-hole? It would be a spoiler to reveal the answer to these questions, but every reader will be touched by the magic generated among the children who shared their journey with them. This is a thoughtful and inspiring story of a mission that most of us would never dream of; but we all want to make a difference in the world and I thoroughly enjoyed Ann and Liv's story of their chosen journey. I've taken one star off because I thought the book might have been organized differently, with the expedition infrastructure spread throughout rather than concentrated in the first section. However the drama of the continent crossing more than made up for that organizational issue. Highly recommended.
Linda Bulger, 2008
Average, but enjoyable
I agree with other reviewers that this is only an average read. But the story of this Antarctic adventure is still remarkable and anyone interested in women's outdoor adventures will find this book enjoyable.
Great story poorly told
My bookclub chose this book this month and we were very excited by the subject matter.What a disappointment!I've never read such a poorly, blandly and simply written book about such an expansive, exciting and complicated subject!I felt like I was reading a book written for 4th graders, being talked down to to make it simple.I found no difference between the 2 voices of Ann and Liv and would have prefered a much more detailed account of their expedition.I have no doubt that their trip was fascinating in so many ways, unfortunately, they weren't able to translate that into their book.Maybe as educators of children they forgot that adults like a good story on a more sophisticated level.
Too bad.
Inspirational
Now I know what women can do, and it's great.These women seem just like me and yet they did this extraordinary thing.They're probably mad, but good on them.
History In the Making.
These intrepid modern-day explorers dare to go where only penguins march on the ice-encrused terrain.Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and highest altitude continent, with spectacular views but dangerous to traverse.These two women from opposite ends of the earth, Minnesota in USA and Norway, used to the extreme cold climates, tell their individual stories in this one book with the held of a professional writer, Cheryl Dahle, to piece the diaries together as a journey of their dreams.
The photo sections show them as they looked in their youth and on the various sections of their explorations.They give details of how they trained for this difficult adventure, and of the problems they endured getting the monetary sponsorships.Apple would not donate cash, but did provide $150,000 in computer equipment, phones, and technical support.One photo shows Liv making her regularly scheduled call to CNN out in the middle of nowhere with snow and ice everywhere.
From November 13 to February 18, the summer season when the sun shines twenty-four hours each day, they treked from the northernmost point about Queen Maud land to McMurdo, an American research base.It was quite a four-month feat, but they did it not just for the record but to show youth everywhere what can be accomplished.They were physically in their prime and had trained for years for this extraordinary walkand and skiing ordeal.Liv Arnesen and Ann Brancroft are to be commended; Ann was the first woman in history to cross the ice to both the North and South poles.Liv was the first woman to ski 745 miles to the South Pole solo during a fifty-day expedition.Together, they achieve the dreams both have held onto since young girls playing in the snow in their native homelands.
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