Contemporary Travelers

  • Mostly travel writing by and about western women artists and scientists.
  • Not at all comprehensive for the Arctic, especially by and about native circumpolar peoples
Contemporary Travelers
Pole Year Title Author
S 1980 Antarctica, a traveller's tale Jean McLennan Bailey
S 1981 The New Explorers, Women in Antarctica Barbara Land
S 1982 Teaching a Stone to Talk (ch 2 `An Expedition to the Poles)' Anne Dillard
S 1987 Women on the Ice: A History of Women in the Far South Elizabeth Chipman
S 1990 South to the Pole by Ski - Nine Men and Two Women Pioneer a New Route to the South Pole Joseph E. Murphy
N 1994 Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole Helen Thayer
N/S 1995 Frost Bytes: a Story of Two Women at Opposite Ends of the Earth Pene Greet and Gina Price
N 1997 Skating to Antarctica: A Journey to the End of the World Jenny Diski
S 1998 Women in the Antarctic ed. by E. D. Rothblum, J. S. Weinstock, J. Morris
S 1999 Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica Sara Wheeler
S 1999 Time on Ice: A Winter Voyage to Antarctica Deborah Shapiro, Rolf Bjelke
N 1999 Thin Ice: A Women's Journey to the North Pole Matty McNair
S 2000 The South Pole 2000 (pbk title 'To the Pole') Caroline Hamilton (5 women skied 700 miles to the South Pole))
N 2000 Frigid Women Sue Riches (woman and daughter go to North Pole). Reissued in 2010.
S 2001 Just Tell Them I Survived!: Women in Antarctica Robin Burns
S 2001 Four to the Pole!: The American Women's Expedition to Antarctica 1992-1993 Ann Bancroft, Nancy Loewen
N 2001 Alone Across the Arctic: One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog Team Pam Flowers, Ann Dixon
S 2001 Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole Jerri Nielsen
N/S 2002 To the Poles Without a Beard Catharine Hartley (women walk to both Poles)
S 2003 No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women and Their Historic Journey Across Antarctica Liv Arnesen, Ann Bancroft and Cheryl Dahle
S 2004 Swimming to Antarctica Lynn Cox
N 2005 Ordinary Women: An Arctic Adventure Sue Carter (12 women ski to N Pole)
S 2005 Rentasan/ Into the Ice Sharifah Mazlina (Malaysian woman explorer is the first Asian woman to travel to the South Pole)
S 2005 Southern Exposure Alia Sorensen (year at Mcmurdo)
S 2005 On the Ice Gretchen Legler (NSF artist in residence finds love in Antarctica)
S 2005 If Antarctica Were a Women Lucy Jane Bledsoe
S 2005 Into the Ice Bernice Chauly (About Sarifah Mazlina, the first Malaysian and first Asian woman to traverse Antarctica)
N 2006 The Ice Museum Joanna Kavenna (author travels though Greenland, Iceland, etc to learn about Thule)
N/S 2006 Wings Around The World: The Exhilarating Story of One Woman's Voyage from the North Pole to Antarctica Polly Vacher
N 2006 The Explorers Daughter: A Young Englishwoman Rediscovers Her Arctic Childhood Kari Herbert (daughter of Wally Herbert)
S 2006 The Ice Cave: A Woman's Adventures from the Mojave to the Antarctic Lucy Jane Bledsoe
S 2006-- Homeless Heidi Heidi blogs about her 4th and 5th Winters at the South Pole
N 2007 Barbara Hillary, 75, skis to North Pole first African American women to get there. Interview in Sept/Oct 2007 Women's Adventure Magazine
N/S 2008 The Scholar & Feminist Online Gender on Ice Issue 7.1, Fall 2008
S 2008 Polar First Jennifer Murray, (first to fly a helicopter around the world via the Poles)s
S 2010 The Ice Beneath My Feet: My Year in Antarctica Diana Patterson; (first women to be in charge of the Australian Mawson Antarctic base)
S 2010 Cold Hands, Warm Heart Tess Burrows; (grandmother joins recent South Pole Race to promote world peace)
S 2011 Call of the White Felicity Aston; (British adventurer leads an expedition of Commomwealth women to the South Pole)
S 2014 Alone in Antarctica Felicity Aston; The First Woman To Ski Solo Across The Southern Ice
N/S 2016 Ice Diaries: An Antarctic Memoir Jean McNeil (Novelist's travels to Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, & Svalbard)
S 2017 Cycling to the South Pole Maria Leijerstam (First person to cycle to the South Pole)
S 2017 Knitting in Antarctica Lynn Hamann (Patterns and stoties from Antarctic knotters)
N 2018 The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change Sheila Watt-Cloutier (Inuk woman growing up in northern Quebec)
N 2019 Polar Explorer Jade Hameister (14 year old girl skied to the North Pole pulling a sled)
S 2019 Antarctica Becomes Her Melissa Haeffner (76 women, mostly scientists, together visited research stations in the Antarctic peninsula in 2016)
S 2019 Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver Jill Heinerth (“first person to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg”)
S 2021 The Impulsive Explorer Karen Espley (author leaves corporate world to live on a Russian base in Antarctica)
S 2021 Facing Fear: One Woman's Solo Voyage Around Antarctica Lisa Blair
N 2021 Hudson Bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic Natalie Warren (“first two women to canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay”)
N 2022 Polar Exposure: An All-Women's Expedition to the North Pole Felicity Aston
N 2022 Ukuaq: A Woman's Arctic Memoir Dorothee Komangapik