Arctic Trek Inspires Big Dreams

The bleak Michigan winters may be enough to keep some holed up until spring, but ever since Michigan State University (MSU) Professor of Journalism Sue Carter got back from the North Pole, the weather of her 46-year home state hasn’t seemed all that bad to her.

Carter first came across the idea for the trek in a feature story she read about Frida Waara, a video documentarian planning to document the first all-woman trek to the North Pole. The initial trip was later canceled, but Waara had a new team member for the voyage out of the deal; Carter called Waara to get involved with the trek shortly after reading about it.

“I just thought ‘Oh my gosh, I have to go!’ — it just grabbed me,” Carter said.

A new team of 12 women was formed, and two years were spent cross-training to prepare their bodies to carry 25-pound backpacks and 45-pound sleds in extreme temperatures for nearly 100 miles of cross-country skiing. Two January sessions were hosted at Waara’s house so the group could familiarize themselves with the equipment they would need and learn to work together. Experts tested the women to make sure they were physically prepared for the challenges of the journey.

In addition to physical preparations for the trek, the group prepared to fulfill a mission even more important to them than reaching the North Pole; with the creation of the nonprofit organization WomanQuest, Carter and the others raised funds to support the $10,000-per-person trip so they could broadcast video feed to middle school classrooms while they traveled to teach lessons relevant to their trip, answer questions and, most importantly, inspire students to conquer their own larger-than-life dreams, especially young women.

“[WomanQuest] is dedicated to challenging girls and young women to challenge themselves intellectually, physically, emotionally to extend their capacities, particularly in math and science,” Carter said. “The trip was not just for ourselves, but [we hoped it would serve] as a multiplier, especially for middle school girls, to set goals and go after them.”

The journey began in April 2001 and lasted 19 days. In the extreme arctic climate, the women’s bodies burned an exceptional amount of calories. Although they were eating about 4,000 a day to keep them fueled for all the skiing they were doing, many of them still lost about 10 percent of their body weight during the trip.

“We were in 24-hour daylight, but sleeping really wasn’t a problem,” Carter said.

The team averaged 10 hours of skiing each day, alternating about an hour and 20 minutes of skiing with 20 minute breaks, during which they rested, hosted Web casts to Michigan classrooms and tried not to cool down too much in the subfreezing temperatures. Carter also took along supplies to gather air samples for a fellow MSU professor’s study on greenhouse gasses.

At the end of the journey, the women were helicoptered back to their starting point at the Borneo ice station in Russia following one last live Web cast.

“Our goal among ourselves was that each woman would make it to the pole, and each woman did,” Carter said.

The trip’s extreme conditions and grand victory bonded the women closely. Carter said she has kept in touch with many of them, and a reunion is planned for 2011.

Carter continues to live adventurously on every level. Her academic pursuits go above and beyond her MSU classes and include a law degree from Wayne State University and, most recently, attaining priesthood through General Theological Seminary (“Well, you gotta do something when you turn 60,”). She will also join a group of manta ray divers in Hawaii in 2010 for a four to five day, nine dive trip.