Helen Thayer A New Zealand Explorer, Photographer Author.
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When was she born? Helen Thayer was born in 1937 Whangarei, New
Zealand. She grew up on a large hilly NZ farm where sheep and cows
were raised. Her parents were mountain climbers and liked to go
climbing a lot.
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How did she develop a passion for exploring? When she was 9,
she climbed up Mount Egmont. After that it became her hobby to
climb. As she got older she travelled to different countries so
that she could climb to the top of more peeks. She went to Alaska,
Lenin, China, South America, Mexico and the Western United
States.
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How many adventures did she go on? Helen Thayer has done so
many things in her life time and not all of them were adventures.
Her passion has always been climbing and most of her achievements
have something to do with trekking and going solo. Surprisingly, 50
is the age that she started her major challenges and literally, she
went uphill from there. Helen has done 12 adventures since she was
50.
Slide 6
How did she inspire us all? Helen is that amazing sort of woman
who never gives up. Her achievements are amazing and the photos she
has taken are great. I myself have not read her books but have seen
comments and 7 out of 10 think they are extremely good books. What
have we learnt from her? We have learnt that if you want to reach a
goal you have to have a plan and to achieve it you have to stick by
it and never give up.
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What did she achieve? Time line 1988 Helen Thayer was the first
woman to ever go solo to the worlds Poles. She walked alone to the
magnetic North Pole, pulled her own sled and she went without the
help of anybody and only the company of her pet Eskimo dog
Charlie.
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What did she achieve? 1990 American leader of the first
Russian- USA womens Arctic expedition to Siberia and Soviet Polar
Islands.
Slide 9
What did she achieve? 1992 Helen and Bill (her husband) were
the first married couple to walk to the Magnetic North Pole. They
pulled their own sleds and walked without resupply.
Slide 10
What did she achieve? 1994 Helen and bill spent over a year
with Charlie, Helens Eskimo dog in the Canadian Yukon and in the
Northwest territories studying three wild wolf families at their
den site. There is more about this in 1 of Helens books, three
among wolfs.
Slide 11
What did she achieve? 1995 She walked 1,500 miles through the
Death Valley, Mojave and the American and Mexican Sonoran Deserts
because she was studying the high and low altitude deserts.
Slide 12
What did she achieve? 1996 First woman to walk across the
Sahara Desert following an ancient camel trade route of 4,000 miles
from Morocco to the River Nile.
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What did she achieve? 1997 Helen walked alone for 625 miles in
Antarctica, pulling her own sled, without resupply. During the
expedition she had her 60 th birthday alone on the polar ice cap
with a frozen cup cake that only had one candle.
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What did she achieve? 1998 With her husband Bill, Helen trekked
with the largest North American deer herd in the world of half a
million animals and followed the animals old tradition of migrating
from their wintering grounds in southern Alaska to the North Slope
calving grounds. Helen and her family walked 600 miles, documenting
the entire migration for educational--scientific programs.
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What did she achieve? 1999 Helen walked 1,200 miles throughout
New Zealand studying the Maori culture.
Slide 16
What did she achieve? 2000 Helen was the first non-Indian to
kayak 1,200 miles along two rivers in a remote area of the Amazon
rain forest. She lived with indigenous Indians and explored an area
very little seen by outsiders. It was a study of a rain forest's
original inhabitants.
Slide 17
What did she achieve? 2000 She also trekked 400 miles from the
northern Canadian Yukon Territories to the Arctic National Wildlife
Reserve in Alaska to see the annual migration of 240,000 caribou of
the Porcupine herd from their wintering grounds to their summer
calving grounds and to record the Gwich'n indigenous people's
dependence on the herd for sustenance.
Slide 18
What did she achieve? 2001 Helen and bill were the first to go
foot across the entire length of the Mongolian Gobi Desert west to
east at the age of 63 trekked a distance of 1,600 miles. They
suffered through 126 degree heat, sand storms, life threatening
thirst and scorpions as they walked the longest route across the
desert to discover the lifestyle of desert nomads who have lived in
the Gobi for hundreds of years and still follow the ancient
lifestyle of their ancestors.
Slide 19
What did she write about? Helen has written 3 books. These
books are of three different things she has done. Her fist book is
called Polar Dream her second, Three among wolves and most
recently, Walking The Gobi.
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What kinds of things did she photograph?
Slide 21
What was her major achievement? Helens biggest achievement was
her first expedition, when she went to the north pole and 3 polar
bears blocked her way. She burst into tears and her eyelids froze
shut but she still kept on going. She also went the without
resupply.
Slide 22
Bibliography These are the websites that helped me with this
project: www.helenthayer.com/achevements.htm
www.helenthayer.com/charlie.htm
www.bookrags.com/research/helen-thayer-ued/
www.helennthayer.com/pfd/brochure_2007.pfd
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQwRBES6Mcc
www.helenthayer.com/achevements.htm www.helenthayer.com/charlie.htm
www.bookrags.com/research/helen-thayer-ued/
www.helennthayer.com/pfd/brochure_2007.pfd
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQwRBES6Mcc
