Liv Ragnheim Arnesen (born June 1, 1953) is a Norwegian educator,

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

adventurer An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Expl ...

, and

motivational speaker A motivational speaker is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep talk. Motivational speakers ca ...

. Arnesen led the first unsupported women’s crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap in 1992. In 1994, she made international headlines becoming the first woman in the world to ski solo and unsupported to the

South pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

.. – a 50-day expedition of 745 miles (1,200 km).

Early life

Arnesen grew up in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

on the outskirts of Oslo where at an early age, her parents immersed her in their passions: cross-country skiing and polar history. At an early age, Arnesen acquired her taste for the great wide open spaces while spending winters and Easter holidays in the Norwegian mountains.. Her love of athletics and the outdoors eventually led Arnesen to compete in orienteering and cross-country skiing, as well as to coach high school students in advanced-level cross-country skiing. At the age of 9, Liv read about

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

’s expedition to the South Pole.

Expeditions

Greenland 1992

In 1992, Liv took part in a team which became the first all-woman team to make an unsupported crossing of the Greenland icecap.

South Pole 1994

In her book ''Good Girls do not Ski to the South Pole'', Liv details her first solo-encounter with the Antarctic. Without support, Liv skied 745 miles and reached the South Pole in 50 days.

Mount Everest, North Ridge 1996

In 1996, Arnesen attempted to reach the top of Mount Everest but had to retreat as she developed incipient

high altitude cerebral edema High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) is a medical condition in which the brain swells with fluid because of the physiological effects of traveling to a high altitude. It generally appears in patients who have acute mountain sickness and involves di ...

Antarctica 2001

Arnesen and American polar explorer

Ann Bancroft Ann Bancroft (born September 29, 1955) is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fa ...

become the first women in history to sail and ski across

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

’s landmass — completing a 94-day, 1,717-mile (2,747 km) trek..

Arctic Ocean 2005

In 2005, following 2 years of preparation, Arnesen and Bancroft embarked on an attempt to make history as the first women to ski across the Arctic Ocean. Due to bureaucracy, all Arctic expeditions of 2005 were forced to evacuate the Arctic Ocean and forgo their efforts.

Arctic Ocean 2007

On March 12, the BAE team was forced to abandon Arctic Ocean 2007, a 530-mile (853-kilometer) unsupported trek to the North Pole. Bancroft and Arnesen hoped to use their expedition to teach children around the world about climate change, but spring temperatures stymied the effort..

Proposed South Pole expedition

In 2010, Arnesen and Bancroft were planning an international expedition of women to the South Pole.. One of the goals of the expedition was to reach the global audience of millions of schoolchildren, already following their exploits thanks to past expeditions, with insight and awareness about the freshwater crisis.

Motivational speaker

Arnesen is a motivational speaker for corporations, schools, and non-profit organizations.

Awards

* Women of Discovery Courage Award - 2008 - WINGS. * “Women of the Year”, 2001 by

Glamour (magazine) ''Glamour'' is today an online women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. For many years a traditional hard-copy magazine, it was founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States. It was originally called ' ...

* “Trailblazer”, 2001 by Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame * “Achievement Award”, 2001 by the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce * "Diploma of Honor", 1999 by The Russian Geographic Society * In 2004, Arnesen signed the American Geographical Society's Flier's and Explorer's Globe.

Other information

* Liv Arnesen co-owns an exploration company,. with Ann Bancroft. * Arnesen is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

.. * Liv is an ambassador to the

Norwegian Refugee Council The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC, no, Flyktninghjelpen) is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement. This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnesen, Liv 1953 births Living people Norwegian female cross-country skiers Female polar explorers Norwegian polar explorers