Sue Riches - Frigid Women

P RAISE FOR F RIGID W OMEN

an uplifting story

Ice is now a fixture on bookshop travel shelves. One or two frozen beards made an appearance in 1998, but it was a pair of female polar travellers who stood out. Frigid Women by Sue and Victoria Riches, is the story of a mother and daughter who participated in the first all-female relay to the North Pole. It is an uplifting story especially as the mother had just conquered breast cancer and simply told. Men like to conquer, fight or subdue the Arctic, writes Sue Riches, while we had a different attitude. We felt that we had to go along with what we were faced with We tried to have the Arctic on our side instead of confronting it.

The Daily Telegraph

compelling

With its provocative title and foreword by Dawn French, one wonders if there is substance beyond this books packaging. The answer is undoubtedly yes. The subject matter the first all female expedition to the North Pole is compelling. In addition, the intimate style of this account by the mother and daughter members of the expedition certainly adds another dimension to the I may be some time stiff-upper-lip school of polar adventure writing that has long been a male preserve. The authors render their often life-threatening experiences with humility, honesty and a vital sense of humour. Simply, the narrative is unique and gratifying in that it reveals the human side of an inhuman challenge. Nearing the end of the expedition, Victoria writes Mum had a major wobbly when I led two pulks over a crack and they fell in the water you stupid child! I think Mum was having a very bad day. Perhaps an equally impressive feat is that a mother and a grown-up daughter could spend weeks in an icy wilderness and remain friends.

The Independent

This Eye Classics edition first published in Great Britain in 2010, by:

Eye Books

29 Barrow Street

Much Wenlock

Shropshire

TF13 6EN

www.eye-books.com

First published in Great Britain in 1998

Copyright Sue Riches & Victoria Riches

Cover design by Emily Atkins/Jim Shannon

Text layout by Helen Steer

The moral right of the Author to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-903070-64-2

To Jeremy/Dad, Philip and Edward
Without your support we could not have done it.
Sue & Victoria

To Jeremy and Ben
Thanks for everything and a special hug to my little polar adventurer.
Victoria

A relay expedition to the North Pole? Discomfort, pain and cold? No thanks! I am one of the 99.9% of women who, faced with this sort of prospect, makes another cup of hot chocolate and settles down in front of the telly as a sort of slothful protest. I cant think of a much worse scenario than joining this adventure. HOWEVER, I am also someone who wishes that I did have the courage, determination and sheer bloody mindedness to leap at an opportunity like this.

Imagine how utterly delighted I was, then, to meet up with Caroline Hamilton who wanted me to be the Patron-come-Mascot for the whole shebang, thereby giving me the chance to go on the expedition vicariously through these remarkable women. I pledged my support there and then, since it was impossible to resist Caroline Hamiltons irrepressible spirit, and I vowed to make it my duty to satisfy the men folk whilst they were away. (To this day none of the men folk have taken advantage of this offer which, let me tell you, was a huge disappointment!)

At the beginning I thought it was going to be a cinch. Nothing much was required of me, except to jolly some people along and encourage a few sponsors to invest at a big launch party. Not a problem.

However, once the expedition started I was kept in touch with the progress of all the teams, via the Internet, faxes and phone calls. I found myself getting more involved and more worried as the fascinating tales of mishaps, weather problems, victories and failures was conquered and I rested slightly easier! Imagine the joy and relief when the final team, Echo, made it safely and stood on the very top of the world in all their girlie glory! What a huge, collaborative triumph. I leapt about my house like a mad thing and celebrated with much chocolate and shouting.

I went to meet Echo as they arrived back on the tarmac at Heathrow and believe me, I never want to smell anything like them again. I mean I love them, but boy they were high!

This book, lovingly written by Sue & Victoria Riches is an account of their wonderful experience and their vital contribution to this historic and remarkable journey. A journey that they went on physically, mentally and spiritually; inside and out. I am so proud to have been associated with them.

This story is a fantastic celebration of adventure, courage, friendship and love. Enjoy it all you would be adventurers and dream on!

~ Dawn French

T o have been privileged enough to take part in the first All Womens Expedition to the North Pole was something that I am still benefiting from. Victoria and I started off not really understanding the Arctic, or even what we would achieve from the expedition, and now, a decade plus on, we are still learning from our experiences there.

We approached the expedition from very different angles. I had just recovered from breast cancer I was lucky and had a full recovery, and so for me the expedition was a reaffirmation of life and a new beginning. I would like to inspire those who are suffering from breast cancer and show how cancer helped me to find a goal, which may at the time have been seen as unachievable. However, with enthusiasm and work these goals can become possible. For me, positive thought helped, as I knew, deep down, that I would get better. However, I am aware that positive thought is not necessarily the way forward for everyone. Not everyone has the luck that I had, but I do believe that our expedition helped in my healing process.

Without doubt our lives changed. Who could come back from this kind of expedition without feeling a huge sense of achievement? To suddenly realise that by going out and talking about our experiences to other people we could perhaps inspire and encourage them to push themselves a tiny bit further, and to take on some project which had been lurking in their minds for some time.

W hen we were first asked to write the story of our expedition, over a decade ago now, my life was very different to how it is now. I was young, free and single, living in Oxford and training to be a Primary school teacher. Being a part of the first all womens expedition to the North Pole had given me an inner confidence, a self-belief, the courage to give up my career in London and pursue a dream to work with children.

Since then my life has seen many more changes; I am now married, living near Bath, have a five year old son and a new career in educational publishing. However, where I am today has, again, been totally shaped by my experiences in the Arctic. If Ive faced a challenge during the last decade, and have, many times, I have been safe in the knowledge that I can work around a problem and that I do have the necessary willpower. While in the Arctic we were tested to our limits and beyond, yet somehow we found an inner strength that we didnt know we had and carried on.