ML137960
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Media notes
Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Helen Thayer. Timecode In: 00:00:33. Timecode out: 00:32:24. Notes: Adventure; Mountain climbing; Polar expeditions. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. RADIO EXPEDITIONS HELEN THAYER WITH PETER BRESLOW 3/28/97 LOG DAT QUALITY=VERY GOOD PB 00:50 (asks HT to explain what she does when a polar bear attacks and to describe a polar bear attack) HT 1:05 (says she learned polar bear survival from Inuit; she had 7 encounters in all; talks about her dog charging the polar bear; talks about having to circle around her tent for 4 hrs. while being stalked by a polar bear) 4:14 PB (asks HT to talk abt. Her solo journeys and being so far removed from everyone) HT 4:29 (talks abt. Walking to the magnetic north pole alone and doing most expeditions alone or w/ her husband) 4:55 but being alone out there, I realized when I walked to the magnetic north pole that I was really no more important Out there than the tiniest flake of snow. And if you were to go out there w/ a giant ego it would soon be crushed b/c it's a very humbling experience in that huge, vast expanse of silence where even the sound of your own breathing sounds too loud sometimes and here you are in this great place w/ just his tiny little human being, scurrying along, trying to go somewhere and sometimes I would stop and think just how tiny I was in the order of things. 5:30 PB (asks if she is whistling a happy tune along the way) HT 5:35 (says no b/c always watching for bears and navigating, keeping heads up always) 6:01 PB (asks if there is one moment that stands out as the greatest moment or the perfect moment in the wilderness) HT 6:19 (tells a story about finding a wolf family and returning 2 yrs. later to find the family still there and 2 pups were there also) 7:22 00:06:43"Kids can see the four corners of the world through my eyes and the lens of my camera so they can know that there is a world out there beyond their own city street and city block and that there is hope for them, so that's why we go on all these expeditions¿"00:06:58 PB (asks where spirit of what you do comes from) HT 7:41 (says hers b/g at age 9 b/c her parents were mountain climbers and she then climbed her 1st mountain)8:51 00:08:06 "When I stood on top of that mountain I knew that one day I was going to be a high altitude mountain climber and I was going to do all sorts of things I figured." PB (comments that the places she goes seem like really stark places) HT 9:07 (she sees them as living places) 9:41 00:09:09 They're really living places even the silence, that vacuum of silence that you experience in those places it's a living silence it's part of that environment and I consider it a real privilege to be able to go into these places where their are no roads no people¿they're not empty and they're not stark. PB (asks what separates people who read about adventures from people who go out on adventures) HT 9:55 (says she enjoys the challenge and the planning but to other people don't want to do that but live vicariously) 10:37 There are those of us who like to meet a challenge head on, like full tilt into a challenge feels good and solving the problems as you go, and I enjoy the planning I would really miss that if I couldn't do that.. to me that's a great challenge¿ PB (asks what it does for those people to hear abt. Her exploits) HT 10:49 (says if putting her on a pedestal for kids and others is for their own good, then that's good) 11:24 PB (comments that education is a big part of her expeditions) HT 11:39 (personal challenge is biggest reason for expeditions and then education; she describes going into classrooms) 12:51 PB (asks if on a tough trip the physical endurance part does not become an issue but is mental) HT 13:47 That's right. ... (Notes truncated)
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Archival information
- Cataloged
- 16 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 16 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 16 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman