As part of Women's History Month, MPR News host Angela Davis sat down with Ann Bancroft, one of the world's most respected polar explorers. Davis also interviews Kathy Lantry in this audio as well.

Script of audio:

This hour is all about the snow.

First, Angela Davis checked in with the city of St. Paul on where it's putting the excessive amounts of snow this season.

Then, a conversation with renowned polar explorer Ann Bancroft, the first woman known to have crossed the ice to reach both the North and South poles.

Bancroft started a foundation that has awarded grants totaling more than $1.4 million to more than 4,000 Minnesotan girls who have big ideas.

((“I’m Every Woman by Whitney Houston”))
Ann Bancroft Intro:

As you may know, March is Women’s History Month… a time for us to acknowledge the contributions of phenomenal women. Today I’m excited to talk with a woman who is a living legend and a Minnesota native.

Ann Bancroft is a polar explorer who along with explorer Liv (Leev) Arneson, became the first women in history to sail and ski across Antarctica’s landmass.

Ann is also known for being the first woman to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles.

She’s been named Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine and Ms. magazine, and inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Ann is also the founder of the Ann Bancroft foundation. Its mission is to empower girls to imagine something bigger and help them reach their full potential.

Guest:
This morning Ann Bancroft is joining us live here at MPR News. So nice to see you.

So how are handling all the snow we’ve had the last several weeks? And what about the quick melting of the snow we are about the see this week with rain and temperatures in the 40s.

I know you love snow and cold weather, but do you get why some people don’t enjoy it?

One of the ways you spend your time right now is working as an instructor for Wilderness Inquiry, an organization that helps disabled and able-bodied people enjoy the wilderness year round.

What advice to you have for enduring the long winters here in Minnesota?

You are now in your 60s, and still traveling the world and leading expeditions.
Tell us about Access Water, I mentioned it is your newest venture.

(Highlighting the shortage of access of clean water around the world… she is visiting continents with a team of women from around the world)

((What’s she up to now:
In October 2015, for two months in India she went with a multinational team of seven other women from the Ganges’ source in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. It’s the first leg of an ambitious 11-year, six-continent campaign called Access Water, highlighting the world’s critical shortage of fresh water.

From STRIB: “When I went to the North Pole [in 1986], I found a new platform for speaking, as a woman, as a teacher, as an ordinary citizen. Expeditions have power way beyond my own ambition; power to engage young people to find their own voice. I’d been given this platform, and I thought I’d better not squander it.”
Bancroft and the Access Water crew will spend 2016 on the speaking tour, telling everyone who will listen about what they witnessed in India, and planning for the 2017 expedition through the Oceania region, including Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Island.”))

Your frequent expedition partner Liv (LEEV) Arneson.

Technology has allowed you to share your expeditions with students who want to watch and learn from you. Do you enjoy that?

You started the Ann Bancroft foundation about 25 years ago… it’s all about helping girls and young women...empowering them… so how do you do that?

Why is that work so important to you?

Do you see a difference in girls and young women today compared to the girls and young women of 20 years ago or when you were growing up.

Are we still lacking confidence and questioning our abilities? What’s holding young women back?

You live in Scandia now. With chickens. Your Twitter page describes you as a chicken farmer and a sled puller.

What has kept you in Minnesota?

You were born in Mendota Heights and raised in St. Paul. What were you like as a child, even then were you an outdoor enthusiast?

You have dyslexia.

You are a former school teacher. What drew you to that job? Why did you leave the classroom?

How did you get into becoming an explorer? How does that even happen?

((How she got started in exploration/expeditions:
Ann Bancroft started her professional life as an elementary school teacher, working at a gear shop on the weekends to keep her foot in the outdoor world. Then, she learned of a polar exploration leaving from Minnesota. And she wanted in. When they opened a spot for one woman on the team, she applied. And they offered it to her.

Her first expedition:
In 1986, through her contacts at the store, she learned about Will Steger’s proposed expedition to the North Pole, and after interviewing with Steger earned a place on the team.
The eight explorers in the Steger International Polar Expedition brought three tons of supplies with them and spent 55 days in -70-degree temperatures crossing 1,000 miles of ice. Seven of the eight reached their destination, and in doing so become the first team to reach the North Pole unsupported. Bancroft, as the only woman on the team, made history twice — she was the first known woman to cross the ice to reach the top of the world.))

I want to hear more about your polar expeditions. Tell us what it’s like to be out in the extreme cold for weeks. What do you wear? What do you eat? What is thrilling about it?

Climate change concerns?

I read that you father passed away this past July… He was 90 years old. Do you have some of his qualities?

((Dick Bancroft, the photographer who spent decades documenting the American Indian Movement, never stopped being curious about the world. Bancroft, who would have turned 91 on Saturday, died Monday from complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Polar explorer Ann Bancroft said her father instilled in his five children a quest “to leave a mark for good.”
“He exposed us to a bigger world with his curiosity — sometimes without leaving Mendota Heights — through magazines and books and people who came through the door,” she said. “All five kids are adventuresome, and it’s exhibited in lots of different ways. That love was passed on.))

Toss to Newsbreak: Stay with us, we will continue to talk with polar explorer Ann Bancroft and take more of your calls, but first we want to get to today’s news headlines with MPR’s Steven John. Hi Steven.

Forward Promote:
Coming up next hour on MPR News Presents, you can hear a new debate from the Intelligence Squared series-- about China's ability to be the world's technology and economic superpower. Stay tuned for that at noon.

Re-Intro:

You’re listening to MPR News. I’m Angela Davis. And right now we are talking with polar explorer Ann Bancroft who is also the founder of the Ann Bancroft Foundation, which works to empower girls and young women.

Ann is here with me in the studio this morning as we celebrate women’s history month and learn more about what we can do to empower the girls and young women in our lives.

You are listening to MPR News, 91.1 KNOW Minneapolis-St.Paul, Discovering What Matters. The current temperature in the Twin Cities is.