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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Polar Explorer Caroline Hamilton

Aired June 15, 2002 - 12:49   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A feat to beat all others. Two women enter the history books early this month by becoming the first all women team to trek to both the North and South Poles.

Joining me now in London to talk about that incredible accomplishment is one half of the team, Caroline Hamilton. Thanks for joining us.

CAROLINE HAMILTON, POLAR EXPLORER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: OK, so 81 days, 400 miles, how are you feeling at this juncture. And that was just a few weeks ago that you completed that task.

HAMILTON: That's right. Two weeks ago we were at the North Pole. The mixture of elation and excitement and exhaustion, I think, I feel very tired, it is great to be home but I just feel tired. It was a long, long journey.

WHITFIELD: Now, how in the world did you and your partner, Ann Daniels, and there were others I understand that were part of that group. Set out for such a colossal goal to not only traverse the North Pole but the South Pole as well?

HAMILTON: Well, it all began about five years ago when a friend of mine was dating a real life polar explorer. And we talked about it together and launched a relay to the North Pole. That was in '97. And from there it just grew and five of us became the first British all-women's team to go to the South Pole in 2000. And from there, three out of that five, we then carried on. I went to the North Pole this year.

WHITFIELD: Now a second ago we were looking at the videotape. In addition to simply withstanding extreme temperatures, you've got a pretty heavy load that you've got to keep up with or make sure that it keeps up with you. What is in that load? What are your supplies and tools you have to carry along with you?

HAMILTON: Well, you're right. It is a huge sled, weighed about 100 kilos each when we set off. We had everything in there: a tent, all our food. We worked really hard to keep the weight to the minimum, make sure we didn't take anything we didn't absolutely need: tent, food, we had some special suits which we wore to swim across some of the open water. WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.

HAMILTON: Cookers, fuel for the cookers, just everything that we needed.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh and so each day did you wake up and kind of set goals for yourself about the distance that you wanted to traverse?

HAMILTON: Well, the North Pole, unlike the South Pole, is in the middle of a frozen ocean. And so actually the terrain changes hugely. At the start of the expedition it was extremely cold, about minus 50 degrees centigrade for about three weeks.

And the ice conditions are much worse there. And you literally are lucky if you're traveling one or two miles a day.

WHITFIELD: No kidding.

HAMILTON: Which is absolutely soul destroying. And then by the end, we had to -- by the end we did 300 miles in the last 30 days which was kind of a sprint, just up in the morning and off we went again. So that, you know, you're constantly changing your targets.

WHITFIELD: So were there ever moments where you thought to yourself: What in the world am I doing? I am not enjoying this one bit. It's not quite what I thought it was going to be.

Or you started missing some of those creature comforts from home.

HAMILTON: I think that there were -- I didn't miss much. I missed warmth. I missed warmth and I missed a chair to sit on. And I missed -- I principally missed a warm bed, I think. Our sleeping bags got very wet and completely frozen. It used to take 20, 25 minutes to literally break away through the ice to get in and that was just awful.

None of us enjoyed that at all. So certainly there were moments when I didn't enjoy it. And I never wanted to give up but there were moments when I didn't enjoy it.

WHITFIELD: Now what about for your partner, Ann Daniels. I understand she's a mother of triplets. I'm sure there were times she was thinking of, you know, back home, getting a little homesick. How did you pull each other through all of this?

HAMILTON: Well, I think that -- I think you hit the nail on the head, I think that's what it is all about, working together and be aware of what each other's moods are. And yes, there were certainly times when she missed the children.

And we had a satellite phone and she phoned them a few times which I think made a lot of difference. And it was all a question of luckily we weren't both depressed at the same time and we could lift each other up. And I think that's what it is all about. WHITFIED: Wow. All right, well, if you were in Hawaii and carrying out the iron-woman, you know, competition they would be calling you an iron-woman. We're going to have to come up something else for you on this one because you all are truly superwomen out there.

Caroline Hamilton, thanks very much for joining us and Ann Daniels, you partner. And congratulations for an incredible journey and thanks for sharing it with us.

HAMILTON: Thank you very much indeed.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much. Of course, if they were in Hawaii, they wouldn't be complaining would they?

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