From Widjiwagan to the ends of the earth

“Everything about camp was empowering, and I feel like it had a lot to do with where I went later in life.”

Unpack some of the code in that quote with us, dear reader.

• “Camp” = YMCA Camp Widjiwagan.
• “I” = Ann Bancroft.
• “Where I went” = the North Pole (and beyond).

Famous for becoming the first woman to reach the North Pole, Minnesotan Ann Bancroft blazed trails few had gone before. The North Pole. She walked across Antarctica. On foot. The list goes on. Widely known in some circles, yet a revelation to others: Ann got her start at Camp Widjiwagan as both a camper from 1969-74 and a staff member in 1976.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A BOOK AND A TRIP TO CAMP

When Ann Bancroft was 10 years old, she read “The Endurance,” “the harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole” and called “one of the best adventure books ever written” by “The Wall Street Journal.”

“It was like lightning struck, and the polar region was ignited in me. Dog teams, ice, tents, camaraderie … I wanted all that,” Ann said. Ann had gone camping with her dad, Dick, but after reading the book, she wanted more.

Through her neighbor who had gone the year before, and from a source closer to home, Ann had learned about a noteworthy camp in Minnesota, Widjiwagan. Her mom, Debbie, was a camper on one of the first female trips in the 1940s, a major source of pride for both Debbie and Ann. And so, in seventh grade, Ann signed up for her first trip to Camp Widjiwagan.

“I felt so completely alive in the woods. And Widji embraced my individuality. I was on my own for my first significant adventure.” It was 1969, and she was 14 years old.

“Widji really got me as a ‘weird kid.’ I felt like they understood me in ways my parents didn’t. It was freeing in so many ways. It was such an important time for developing self-esteem, a sense of worth, and your place in the universe. What can you give a girl to keep bringing out their courage, potential, and passions and to teach them to raise their voices up? Everything about camp was empowering, and I feel like it had a lot to do with where I went later in life.

Ann returned to camp the following summer. Her second year was profound, the third formative.

In the late 1960s, trips were led by female counselors, but had to include a male guide. Ann said, “I don’t know all the details of the behind-the-scenes, but that was a transition point.” Her trip that year included eight girls and a female counselor, without a guide. It was a “different formula” than previous Widji trips. And that group, “gelled like crazy. We were so tight. We were empowered by not having a male guide. We knew what we were doing and we felt like we were unstoppable. I think it had a lot to do with having a female guide and being led by this powerful woman. She was little, but she could flip the big canoe. It was so inspiring.”

The third summer she returned, once again, she had an incredible group that really connected. But for some reason, they once again had a male guide. “We were incensed! We felt like we had graduated from needing a male guide; we felt so slighted that they didn’t believe in us.”

Maybe in part because of this perceived insult, during that trip, “We paddled twice the distance, and worked so hard. We were determined to prove our worth.”

Ann would continue to go to Widji each summer after that, taking a Voyager trip in 1974 and then serving on staff in 1976. She describes her trips as formative. “I was an outdoor kid already, but it fed that passion and I am so grateful for the experience. It was an important place to be.”

FROM WIDJIWAGAN TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Ann graduated from college in 1981 and became a teacher in St. Paul. She continued to take trips, sometimes with her Widji friends, but always with “a desire to go further and go longer.”

In 1986, explorer Will Steger assembled an expedition to the North Pole. It was the first unsupported dogsled journey, meaning that all gear and supplies were carried with the team without a resupply.

When Ann interviewed for the team, she said she felt “sure I was getting in over my head, but I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try. And they were crazy enough to take me. It was a 56-day journey. Me, five men, 49 male dogs.” That expedition made Ann the first woman to reach the North Pole on foot 
and by sled.

“I had been expeditioning with friends, but this involved sponsors and media. We didn’t have GPS or technology. They said, ‘What do you want us to do with your body if you don’t make it?’ It changed everything. I became the first woman to the top of the world. I went there because it was my childhood dream to go as far north as I could possibly go. And this was it.”

“I was so ill-equipped for the flurry of attention when we did it. No one was ready for how it grabbed people’s attention, not just in Minnesota but all over the world. That was the same year as the space shuttle disaster with a woman teacher on an adventure that went wrong. It altered the trajectory of my life.”

Despite everything she has accomplished, Ann consistently points back to Widji as a source of inspiration.

“What Widji gave me was the feeling that I could. A place where you could be both serious and silly and where others took you seriously. Those are the kinds of things that Widji laid down to make me think I could dream about those places and take steps to reach them.”