Explorer does some globe-trotting to reach Harrah

HARRAH, Wash. -- Add the Great Harrah Trek to Helen Thayer's long list of adventures.

The noted author and explorer covered more than 9,000 miles in less than 24 hours in order to keep speaking engagements at Harrah Elementary School and White Swan High School.

Crowded into the high school gym, students listened attentively as a bleary-eyed Thayer recounted how she crossed paths with hungry polar bears, was literally caught on thin ice and saw a week's food supply dwindle to a handful of walnuts as she journeyed to the magnetic North Pole in 1988.

Her only companion was Charlie, a Canadian Eskimo Husky.

Her stories of overcoming obstacles en route to the North Pole as well as during other feats -- such as walking across the Gobi Desert -- came with a message to students: Believe in yourself and never give up.

"You don't have to walk across deserts -- there're goals right here in school," she told the more than 200 students. "And that's the key to all of you -- every single one of you -- your education."

Goals are something she knows about. She is a former U.S. national luge champion, hiker, kayaker and writer.

When she was 50, she skied solo to the magnetic North Pole. Eight years later she became the first woman to walk 4,000 miles across the Sahara Desert following an ancient camel trade route. At age 60, she became the first American to walk across Antarctica.

In 2002, Thayer was named "One of the Great Explorers of the 20th Century" by National Geographic.

Her presentations Wednesday focused on her journey to the North Pole.

She recalled how a bear tossed her 160-pound sled as if it were a toothpick, and how her dog fended off the animal, which was more the four times his size.

Another time, a bear with two cubs circled her tent for four hours.

"I kept my eyes on her the entire time," she said. "I was so exhausted."

Finally, the bears left.

"I was never so happy to see the neighbors leave in my entire life," she said, drawing laughs from students.

Once, while setting up her tent and preparing to eat, she heard a loud cracking. It was the ice, cracking around her. A storm hit the area and kept her there.

She showed slides of a once solid landscape breaking into pieces of floating ice.

"I realized that my tent now sat on a piece of ice 20 by 20 feet," she said.

After the storm blew over, she walked from ice patch to ice patch until reaching more solid ground, she said.

During the storm she lost her food supply and had just 35 walnuts left to carry through the next seven days, she said.

She said she began counting her steps to keep her mind off her tired, weakening body.

"Every time I counted my steps, I could see myself standing at the pole," she said.

Once she made it to the pole, she had to scout out a place for a plane to land to pick her up. Weary and hungry, she then learned that she would have to stay another day because the storm kept the plane from leaving its hangar.

"So now I had to learn about patience," she quipped.

In addition to her North Pole trek, she's also kayaked through the Amazon jungle in South America and trekked with about 500,000 caribou from southern Alas-ka to their calving grounds on the North Slope of the Brooks Mountain Range.

She has authored three books -- "Walking the Gobi: Desert of Hope and Despair," "Three Among the Wolves: A Year of Friendship with Wolves in the Wild," and the national best-seller "Polar Dream: The First Solo Trek to the Magnetic North Pole."

Now 72, she lives in Snohomish, Wash., and travels the country speaking to schools, parent groups and companies both large and small.

She and her husband, Bill,
own "Adventure Classroom,"
an online children's resource based on their adventures. She bases most of her speeches to children on setting and striving for goals.

Thayer's mother, Margaret Nicholson, said her daughter grew up in New Zealand climbing mountains and "things like that" from the time she was 9 years old.

"She was very active and adventurous sort of girl," Nicholson, who lives with the Thayers in Snohomish,
said in a phone interview Tuesday.

She and Thayer's father, Ray Nicholson, encouraged it.

While hardly as treacherous as reaching the North Pole, her journey to the Yakima Valley provided a minor adventure of its own.

She was scheduled to speak at Harrah Elementary's family literacy night on Tuesday before her visits to the schools on Wednesday.

But she was in Tanzania, studying tribal cultures with her husband, when their flight home was delayed by 19 hours because of mechanical problems.

She landed at Sea-Tac late Tuesday afternoon, sped over the Cascades to Yakima, but still arrived too late for the literacy night. However, there was still more than enough time to visit the Mt. Adams School District's elementary and high schools Wednesday morning.

The Mt. Adams School District booked her for $1,000, including travel costs.

Thayer's visit was organized by Cheryl Jetton, the district librarian, and Jim Kistner, a district technical assistant coordinator contracted by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

"Harrah deserves it, don't you think?" Kistner said.

Kistner, a retired teacher and principal, had heard Thayer speak at a principals association meeting and was attracted to her message of clear goals and planning.

"That's a really good message for educators and that's a good message for all of us," Kistner said.

* For more information about Thayer, visit www.helenthayer.com.