ANN BANCROFT

Film critics said I gave a voice to the fear we all have: that we'll reach a certain point in our lives, look around and realize that all the things we said we'd do and become will never come to be - and that we're ordinary.

My brother Bill, who is a year older, is a climber, and when I was in the seventh grade, he taught me how to rappel off the frozen waterfall in our backyard.

I had no doubts I could go to the pole. I may not be as strong, but I make up for physical strength in other areas, like steadiness and not panicking under stress.

Growing up in a rural setting in Minnesota, I was raised with the outdoors and a sense of adventure.

Skydiving is something I've never done! And I am very excited to take the leap with a community of like-minded courageous women.

The voices of women need to be heard. The volume needs to be turned up.

For me, exploration is about that journey to the interior, into your own heart. I'm always wondering, how will I act at my moment of truth? Will I rise up and do what's right, even if every fiber of my being is telling me otherwise?

I do not think about being beautiful. What I devote most of my time to is being healthy.

I get stubborn and dig in when people tell me I can't do something and I think I can. It goes back to my childhood when I had problems in school because I have a learning disability.

A life lesson for me is, how do you muster the courage to take on a new risk? Whether it's starting up a business or taking on a new project or expedition. I think the risks that we take are all relative to the risk-taker.

Water links us all as human beings. Everyone needs water, and we all have challenges about it, no matter where we live. Yet even in the U.S., people aren't aware of problems facing water.

I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.

This journey is not over. Our education initiatives have so much momentum, and we're committed to sharing even more stories from the Arctic when we return.

And then there's also this element of - some people would describe it as spirits or a presence that appears when things are very difficult, physically and emotionally. You know, when you're really putting out. So the third man aura is sort of an appearance. It's the yeti.

My first expedition was at about the age of eight.

The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it.

I have a whole, you know, pocket full of dreams I want to achieve. I don't know in which order they're going to fall.

Running is my bedrock activity.

I'm sort of a strange bird.

I give a tremendous amount of weight to the mental aspect of physical activity and what it does for me.

Everyone in my family is a risk taker in his or her own way.

I have an opportunity now with some of the projects I've done, i.e. the North Pole and the South Pole, to speak to a larger audience and talk about things that have nothing to do with physical education or special ed.

I love that place where you get in running where you're just never out of breath and you just feel like you could go forever. I love that. I love feeling strong.

To push behind the dog sled and run in front of the dog sled. That was always an interesting job.

I wanted to be a teacher, but I was a lousy student, one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.