Woman Polar Explorer Sunniva Sorby on Healing Nature: Ep 5 L4

L4: Living Loud Living Long

• As a young girl, Sunniva was fascinated by exploring places few people have seen. Her passion for learning about nature and the farthest reaches of our world despite the challenges continues to grow and motivate her make a positive impact as a teacher, explorer, and voice for change.
• Sunniva tells L4 about the physical and mental challenges faced when exploring in the Polar regions, especially the Antarctic, how she continues to explore as a 50up woman and how we can all use these lessons in our lives to be resilient.
• We explore how getting outside the noise of our technology filled lives into the silence of nature can refocus and heal us.
• Sunniva and Dr. Hughes discuss how being a female explorer has challenges, but how woman can help each other.
• We talk about her new project in Canadian Arctic supporting the climate and collaborating with the Inuit people. We explore how together, regardless of who we are, what age we are or where we live, we can support nature through teaching, citizen science or as advocates.
• Where and what adventures do we discuss?
  • On January 14th, 1993, Sunniva Sørby made history as one of the four-team members of the American Women’s Antarctic Expedition. They reached the South Pole following a grueling 700-mile trip across the snow and ice of Antarctica.
  • In May 1999, Sunniva led a team of three across the Greenland icecap from the East to West side, 33-day crossing that was over 350 miles in length. She became the first Canadian woman to complete the Greenland crossing and the first Canadian woman to ski to the South Pole.
  • In May 2020, Sunniva Sørby and Hilde Fålun Strøm made history as the first women to overwinter solo in the Arctic. They spent 19 months in the remote trapper’s cabin collecting climate data and teaching kids and adults about the Polar region.

About: Sunniva Sorby has multiple historic firsts as a woman explorer including team member for first all- woman group reaching the South Pole, first Canadian woman to ski to South Pole and first all-woman team to overwinter in the Arctic. Before becoming an explorer, she led and managed outdoor travel programs and taught outdoors skills. In multiple roles, she has been an advocate and teacher for women, and diversity as well as the climate. She was born in Tønsberg, Norway and raised in Montreal where she graduated from Trafalgar School for Girls and went on to pursue Economics at Champlain College & Bishops University, where she majored in Economics. Learn more about her: https://www.heartsintheice.com