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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Team No Boundaries
Aired May 11, 2002 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some visitors dropping in. The team "No Boundaries." That's what five amazing women call themselves, but you can also call them Wonder Women. Maybe. We'll ask them if that's OK. They've already overcome tremendous health issues and other issues and now they're pretty much at the ceiling of the world. The team's captain, Alison Levine and member Midge Cross, Lynn Prebble, Jody Thompson, all joining us live via videophone -- they were there and just as I said "videophone," it went black. I think you saw that.
Well, in any case, as soon as we up -- there, they're back. They're back. They put a new battery on. Ladies, welcome to the program. Where are you, how are things going? Midge, you go first.
MIDGE CROSS, TEAM NO BOUNDARIES: We are at Everest Base Camp; the elevation here is 17,600 feet. We are planning our summit bid in a couple of days, and we're all feeling really ready to go for the mountain.
O'BRIEN: All right, now, when you say you're at 17,600 feet, how far away are you, by altitude and distance and travel, to the actual summit? Is it a day's trip?
CROSS: Oh, no, it's way more than a day's trip. The summit is over 29,000 feet. So when we head up, and we're hoping to head up on Tuesday, we will spend a day going to Camp One, and that's traveling through the Khumbu Ice Falls, and another day to Camp Two; yet another day to Camp Three; and a fourth day to Camp Four, which is at the south (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of Everett. And we'll spend a few hours at Camp Four...
O'BRIEN: All right. And...
CROSS: Go ahead...
O'BRIEN: And how is the weather, and how is everybody feeling so far?
CROSS: The weather is mixed. We're kind of waiting for a spell of good weather, which is why we're waiting until Tuesday to go, but everybody is feeling very good. We're all healthy, we're fit, we're strong, and we're raring to go.
O'BRIEN: All right, pass it -- I tell you what, could you pass it behind you to Alison Levine who is the captain of the team here, Midge, if you don't mind?
CROSS: I sure could.
O'BRIEN: All right, I apologize -- I know that's a cumbersome pass.
CROSS: I will, I'll pass it to Alison right now.
O'BRIEN: OK.
ALISON LEVINE, TEAM CAPTAIN, NO BOUNDARIES: Hi there.
O'BRIEN: Hi, Alison, welcome to CNN; you're on live. You're the captain of the No Boundaries team. Just -- if you could just tell us why you're doing it, and, you're not allowed to say, "Because it's there."
LEVINE: OK. Why we're doing it. Well, there's a lot of reasons of why we're doing this.
One is, we really just wanted to send a very strong message about stepping outside of your boundaries, pushing your limits, and just getting out of your comfort zone. Not to mention getting off the couch.
And we thought that as a team of five American women, it was just a great time to show that the American spirit is strong, the power of women is strong, and together with Ford and their "No Boundaries" campaign, we thought we could send a great message about getting out there and going for it.
And, we're not totally focused on the summit, we just want to get out there and really perform as a team and send a strong message about -- you know, team work and pushing limits, and that's what we're here to do.
O'BRIEN: Alison, are you scared at all? Is there anything that's sort of taken you aback? I know you still have a long way to go, and you probably haven't hit the most precipitous points, but -- have there been some moments where you thought, maybe I shouldn't be here?
LEVINE: Absolutely. We have, as a team, been as high as 24,000 feet and we all had pretty strong banging headaches at that point. And that was uncomfortable, not scary.
I think that a couple of scary points were going through the ice falls for the first time, crossing the ladders, and being a little sidetracked by an avalanche off to the left of us. That was scary.
And, then, unfortunately, a British man fell down the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) about a week and a half ago. He fell to his death, and we were at the bottom of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that advanced stage camp, and that was kind of a scary moment for us. And I think we all did have thoughts of, oh my gosh, what are we doing here?
You know, we want to motivate people, we want to inspire people, but maybe we should be doing it on a beach somewhere.
(LAUGHTER)
But we -- at this point, we have no second thoughts and we're glad to be here, and we're going to push really strong for the top, hopefully we'll get there -- and you know, if we make it all the way to 29,035 feet we make it. And, if we don't, we don't, and we're still going to be really proud of ourselves for just getting out there and trying.
O'BRIEN: All right. Do us a favor. When you get a chance at your various stops along the way, set up that videophone, give us a call, we'll put you right on TV. It's great to hear from you. It's kind of exciting to see you there. And, we wish you well on your ascent.
LEVINE: Thanks for checking in with us.
O'BRIEN: Please be safe. It really is our pleasure. You're welcome.
LEVINE: Thank you for checking in with us.
O'BRIEN: Boy, that's kind of neat to be able to talk to them that way. That's technology. A couple of suitcases and they're live from the top of the world.
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