Chicago Sun-Times:
Enduring some of the planet’s harshest weather, a 15-year-old New Trier High School student has become the youngest person to ski the 60-mile “Last Degree” journey to the North Pole.
London, England (CNN) — A woman from the United Arab Emirates was literally on top of the world after becoming the first Arab female to reach the North Pole.
Elham Al Qasimi braved temperatures of minus 22 F (minus 30 C) and coped with frostbite to fulfill a lifelong ambition by making the Arctic journey.
“I wanted to stand on top of the world and I wanted to put myself into the diametrically opposite environment to what I had ever experienced in my life,” Qasimi told CNN.
Upon reaching her destination, Qasimi scattered a handful of sand she had brought from her home country.
Qasimi began her journey on April 16 at precisely 89 degrees latitude, setting off from a temporary Russian base set up on drifting ice in the Arctic Ocean.
She then skied 80 miles with a 41-kilogram sled in tow, and finished her expedition on April 23 at 90 degrees North — the geographic North Pole.
Qasimi and her team of two guides and three other trekkers carried all their own food and equipment. Qasimi dealt with a minor case of frostbite on her nose and frostnip in her fingers.
“You’re facing one of the harshest environments in nature,” Qasimi told CNN.
Video: Elham Al Qasimi training in the Alps
Before the trip she underwent an intensive six-month training regime, including a stint in the French Alps, where she kept a video diary for CNN. But the merciless reality of polar trekking still came as a shock.
“You are too cold to feel your fingers. If you can’t feel your fingers you don’t want to take them out of the mitts in order to pour some food out or drink some water, but you’re burning so many calories that if you don’t, you will collapse.”
More from Inside the Middle East: Beirut festival puts young writers on the world map
Meals included calorie-dense delights like deep-fried bagels and “polar pizza,” made with reindeer salami.
In it, she described the sight of ice blocks jutting out from the snow like “blue kryptonite,” seeing “sundogs” — an optical illusion “somewhere between the northern lights and a rainbow” — and crossing “floaties, which are loose but large pieces of ice that sink into the ocean if you stand on them too long.”
Mental toughness was just as important as physical endurance, according to Qasimi.
She told CNN: “My legs, arms and back held up fine. My joints were hurting from the constant grinding — eight hours a day with barely any breaks — but the mental challenge was the most important part of it.”
When morale was low Qasimi read letters from loved ones to give her strength, she said.
The support of members of the public — particularly Middle Eastern women who often said her story had inspired them to try to fulfil long-held ambitions — also helped her push on.
“Prior to my departure I got really inspiring messages from women throughout the Middle East — from Saudi, Syria, Morocco … There were a whole lot of people who wanted to see me make it, so it wasn’t just personal anymore,” she said.
First wild cheetah cubs born in UAE in four decades
Qasimi, a former investment banker who was born in Dubai but lived in the Unites States until she was 12, is believed to be the first Arab woman to set foot on the North Pole.
Qasimi wasn’t aware of this when she started planning her journey, but it became very important once she realized.
“Women in the Middle East are half the population,” she said. “They’re half the human capital, and they’re half that hasn’t been invested in properly.
“Universities and all these things are important but they’re not what makes a productive society, per se. It’s people with opinions, with viewpoints, preferences and experience.
“Women in the Middle East need a bit more of that, whether it’s in fashion, art or sport. That was the most important message for me, that made it worth sharing.”
The expedition raised money for PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.
Desert Grove Media is proud to present our client, Northwest Passage on CNN World News.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/04/27/woman.uae.north.pole/index.html
Today, the Arctic environment is more threatened than threatening, even as the team endures -50 below temperatures on 300+ mile journey.
FROM THE NORTH POLE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Sebastian Copeland and Keith Heger Start Trek to Change the Future of the Arctic
300+ Mile Journey Will Gather Data for UN Forum
Resolute Bay, Nunavut – March 29th, 2009
Arctic adventurer, explorer, and activist Sebastian Copeland was glad to get off the ground on Tuesday; bad weather had kept him and his partner, Keith Heger,
overnight at the remote arctic outpost of Eureka. As weather cleared, they were able to board the plane to take them to an unlikely rendezvous on the ice.
“Another team was intersecting with us so we could resupply their expedition at the same time we embarked on ours,” Copeland explained. “So we were able to unite on the ice for a short time.” But now Copeland and Heger are on their own for the rest of the 300+ mile journey over the ice. The destination
? The North Pole – before it’s too late to call in air support to get them back off of the ice.
“We’ll be moving as quickly as possible,” Keith Heger, a veteran Polar guide for PolarExplorers, says. “But ice and weather conditions can’t always be predicted. And, of course, there are other factors as well.” Those “other factors” may include polar bears, something that the team they met had already encountered in the form of large pawprints across their trail.
But the arctic environment these days is more threatened than threatening, and that’s what Copeland hopes to focus on.Copeland is embarking on this trip (his fifth to a Polar region in the last four years) to raise awareness of the alarming rate of ice melt due to Global Warming. Scientists predict that in less than five years, the Arctic sea will be ice free in the summer months. In 1909, the average depth of ice at the North Pole was 12 feet while today it averages just 5.5 feet. Just twenty years ago, 80% of the Arctic sea ice was 10 years old or more. Today, just 3% of the ice is a decade old.
Copeland’s adventure is the continuation of the Pax Arctica mission started last summer with the Young Ambassadors of the Arctic. Copeland, Luc Hardy and Global Green partnered to raise awareness on the need to establish a charter of protection for the Arctic as the sea ice melt is opening the region to the exploitation of its natural resources. “One oil platforms has a 33%-55% chance of a major spill in the Arctic environment; that is just one platform!” Copeland says. “In the Arctic, they are virtually impossible to clean up. The pack ice spreads the spill to thousands of square miles, spelling assured death to its surrounding wildlife, and adding one more challenge to the endangered Polar Bears. New maritime sea-lanes emerging in the Arctic are also challenging its biodiversity.”
This mission will lead to a forum at the UN in November chaired by Sebastian Copeland aimed at establishing an international charter of protection for the Arctic similar to the treaty of Madrid for Antarctica which declared it “land of science, land of peace”.
On the journey, Copeland and Heger will be skiing and pulling 200 to 250 pound of equipment and supplies in specially designed sledges for 8 to 12 hours a day — the equivalent of running a marathon every day for over 40 days. Frigid mean temperatures range from -50C to -5C. Ten knots of wind at -50C can drop the overall temperatures to -70C.
Additional challenges the men will face include frostbite; open leads of water; swimming with specially designed suits when leads are too large to cross; Polar Bears; hypothermia; and exhaustion. Sebastian and Keith are expected to lose around 15 pounds in spite of a 7000-calorie rich diet. Sebastian has subjected himself to eight months of rigorous training involving core and strength, hiking with a 100-pound vest, and yoga.
A daily blog of the expedition will be posted on MySpace at myspace.com/sebastiancopeland. The outfitting company Polar Explorer will be running logistics. The team is anticipated to exit out of Longyearbyen in Svalbard around April 28th, through the support of the Arctic floating station Barneo.
About Sebastian Copeland
Sebastian Copeland is a renowned photographer and environmental advocate. He is also an author and lecturer to audiences around the world, including at the UN, the World Affairs Council, the Google and the Apple headquarters, and the DLD in Munich among others. His books have been translated to international markets. Antarctica: The Global Warning won him multiple awards including the prestigious 2007 IPA Professional Photographer of the Year. Copeland is on the Board of directors of Global Green USA. Copeland will produce a personal documentary of this expedition, as well as document photographically this exotic and endangered landscape. This will be his fourth trip to the Arctic in preparation of his follow-up book on the area due in Fall 2010.
Sebastian Copeland – photo@seabassprod.com
www.sebastiancopeland.com
www.antarcticabook.com
ABOUT POLAR EXPLORERS – polarexplorers.com
Named one of the “Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic Adventure Magazine and recommended in the “Rough Guide to Ultimate Adventure”, PolarExplorers is the premier polar guiding company successfully guiding many amateur and experienced adventurers to the North and South
Poles, across the Greenland ice cap, and on other Arctic adventures.
Antarctic temperatures meet their match in Maine, Chicago, and elsewhere in the States. “In my hometown of Chicago it was colder than here in the Antarctic. And at least we’re well-equipped and mentally and physically prepared for the challenge,” PolarExplorers guide Keith Heger says.
(Antarctica January 17th)
One thing self-confessed victims of “Polar Fever” Keith Heger and his international team of South-Pole-bound international trekkers were insulated from was the news of the exceptionally cold winter weather much, much farther North.
The experienced polar guide for PolarExplorers.com found the weather in Antarctica chilly as it dropped into the minus-degree teens, twenties, and thirties below zero but he imagined his compatriots back home were enjoying warmer weather. “It was a shock to hear the temperatures ordinary people were encountering in the U.S., even reaching -50 in Maine! Even in my hometown of Chicago it was colder than here in the Antarctic. And at least we’re well-equipped and mentally and physically prepared for the challenge.”
Some school districts in the United States closed schools because they were afraid that children waiting for school buses might suffer from frostbite and hypothermia. Would the kids have been better off in Antarctica?
“Here, our intense cross-country skiing while pulling a sledge tends to keep us warm enough. At times, it can actually get hot, which is why we manage and layer our clothing and other gear so carefully. And of course, we have the goal of reaching the South Pole, which keeps us inspired.”
Heger is now going on to lead a group to climb Mount Vinson, the highest point on the continent of Antarctica. He is providing a daily audio blog and Antarctica photos at polarexplorers.com/blogs/; select “South Pole Expedition”. Phone interviews via satellite phone can be arranged by calling company founder Rick Sweitzer at 847-828-8388 or 847 256 4409 for scheduling.
Polar Explorers is recognized as one of the “Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic Adventure. Part of The Northwest Passage, Polar Explorers has been leading trips to the North and South Poles since 1993.
http://www.pr-inside.com/polar-fever-sufferer-could-have-r1012524.htm
For Immediate Release
15-year-old Polar Explorer Endures Icy Near Miss
Polar Explorer Taylor, 15 year old
Taylor Sweitzer is used to skiing over the chilly arctic ice fields, enduring temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius and more. But as hard as it is to get over the rough ice fields, where steep pressure ridges often form as ice pans crash together, it’s even harder to get to the North
Pole if you try walking on water.
“Lucky me, my foot slipped but the water didn’t go over the top of my boot. If it had, tt would have been a little more of a problem.” Taylor says nonchalantly. Once the icy water touches the flesh, frostbite can swiftly follow. In those cases, the team would rush to get him to solid ground and race to replace his wet sock and boot. If Taylor seems unnaturally calm in the face of a frigid emergency, it’s because he’s seen it all before – he rehearsed just such a scenario in the Minnesota wilderness during the extensive pre-trip training period.
This season, in addition to pressure ridges, polar adventurers have been encountering many open leads, areas of water which must be crossed or skied around, a process which can add many miles to the quest to reach the North Pole. Taylor is part of a Polar Explorers expedition led by his father, Rick Sweitzer, an experienced polar veteran who has reached the North Pole over 18 times. This time, the team was dropped on the arctic ice a full degree (about 69 miles) from the North Pole, and left to ski the remaining distance. Since the ice floats on top of the Arctic Ocean, it sometimes pushes against the direction they are skiing, adding many more miles to the task in an effect called “The Polar Treadmill”
If Taylor successfully reaches the North Pole, he will be among the youngest in the world to do so, though he has already accepted that he won’t be the youngest in his family to reach the North Pole. “My dad flew in my my mom and my brother Christopher when he was a baby to the Pole to greet him when he completed his first Polar Explorers expedition in 1992. I wasn’t even born yet. At that time there were no age restrictions to be allowed on the flight to the Pole -there are now- so he’ll always have the family record!” Taylor admits. “But I’ll be the one who actually skied there under my own power.”
To hear Taylor’s audio report from the ice for April 20th, go to polarexplorers2010skiexpedition.blogspot.com/
Interviews with Taylor by satellite phone from the ice are available on and can be arranged by contacting Annie Aggens, Director of Polar Operations, or Nancy Vedder, Program Manager, at Polar Explorers: 1 800 732-7328 or 1 847 256-4409. Annie Aggens cell phone is 1 847 651 0524.
MORE ABOUT POLAR EXPLORERS
polarexplorers.com
Annie Aggens
Polar Expeditions Director
PolarExplorers – a division of The Northwest Passage
www.polarexplorers.com
1.800.732.7328 (in the U.S. & Canada)
+1.847.256.4409 (worldwide)
“One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” – National Geographic Adventure Magazine
http://www.pr-inside.com/year-old-polar-explorer-taylor-sweitzer-r1844324.htm
9:30 May 1st, 2010 – The Capp Street Girls take center stage at the world famous The Cat Club in West Hollywood, Los Angeles marking their premier concert in Souther California. Known throughout San Francisco for their ‘Raucous Rock-N-Roll’ brand of rock, The Capp Street Girls are best recognized for the break out singles “LONG LEGGED BEAUTY” and “DIRTY GIRL.” The Cat Club, 8911 West Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90069-1811 – (310) 657-0888 Contact: Justin Howard, Publicist 619-379-7317 Jthoward84@gmail.com
Desert-Grove PR – www.desert-grove.com
Justin Howard, Publicist
JHoward@desert-grove.com
Phone: (619) 379-7317
May 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Capp Street Girls Take Center Stage At The Cat Club.
The Capp Street Girls take over the air waves of Los Angeles at 5:30PM on May 1st, 2010 when they appear as the featured guest on the Screw Pop Culture Show with Celebrity Host Jowanna Lewis. The Capp
Street Girls discuss their amazing growth in San Francisco, the strange ‘Plastic People’ they have encountered here in Los Angles, and their plans to bring their own special “Raucous Rock” to Southern California. Keep an ear open for a live performance as they love to spread the music around. If thats not enough to wet your appetite, come out The Cat Club this evening for a musical event sure to blow your mind. For more information visit – www.screwpopculture.com,
“We officially became a band in April of 2008 when guitarist Mark “Uzi O” Oltz plugged in and instant chemistry ensued. We wrote three songs at our first rehearsal: “Till the Money Runs Out, “Cheesecake Annie” and “Diary of a Rock Band”. Four months later we played our first gig at San Francisco’s beloved biker bar, Bender’s Bar and Grill.” – Richard on Vocals.
The Capp Street Girls are an all original four piece hard rock garage band from the city of San Francisco. Local San Francisco media has described The Capp Street Girls as the bastard love child of MC5 and vintage Areosmith. As a serious contender in ERNIE BALL 14TH BATTLE OF THE BANDS, The Capp Street Girls urge all of their fans to vote. Let’s see them on the VANS WARP TOUR TWENTYTEN. To Vote – www.battleofthebands.com/thecappstreetgirls
Biogrpahy –
The Capp Street Girls are an all original, four piece, hard rock/garage band from San Francisco, CA. Our sound: think the MC5 meets vintage Aerosmith.
We officially became a band in April of 2008 when guitarist Mark “Uzi O” Oltz plugged in and instant chemistry ensued. We wrote three songs at our first rehearsal: “Till the Money Runs Out, “Cheesecake Annie” and “Diary of a Rock Band”. Four months later we played our first gig at San Francisco’s beloved biker bar, Bender’s Bar and Grill. More gigs followed: Red Devil Lounge, Fat City, Li Po Lounge, The Element Lounge, Blondies, Annie’s Social Club, Retox Lounge, Grant and Green, Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge, Rockit Room, Pissed Off Pete’s, Blank Club(San Jose), Stork Club(Oakland), Time Out(Concord), Club Six, Rooster’s Roadhouse(Alameda), The Quarter Note(Sunnyvale) plus many more to come as we continue to book shows.
The Capp Street Girls will play anywhere, anytime. The current line-up features John Prink on drums, Mark Oltz on electric guitar, Larry Frisoli on electric bass, and Richard Share on vocals and harmonica.
Known for a raucous style of rev-it-up-and-go rock and roll and off the hook live shows, The Capp Street Girls live to ROCK!
www.myspace.com/thecappstreetgirls
www.reverbnation.com/thecappstreetgirls
February, 2010 (San Diego, CA) – You are invited to spend a fascinating evening with internationally known Author de Traci Regula as she appears on 850 KOA-AM out of Denver, Colorado. She is the feature guest on AFTER MIDNIGHT with Rick Barber on Sunday, February 28th 2010 at 12 midnight Pacific Time. AFTER MIDNIGHT is nationally syndicated series that reaches an audiences of 1 million +. The program can also be accessed on-line at http://www.koaradio.com. Call in at 303-713-8585, live stream at www.850koa.com.
For Immediate Release- Justin Howard, Publicist Desert-Grove PR CreativeWise@Mac.Com c- 619-379-7317
de Traci Regula – Priestess/Publisher
de Traci Regula will be discussing the rerelease of her New Age bestseller “The Mysteries of Isis” and delving into the various aspects of Isis the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names and how the faith of Isis fits into every day life. As the Co-Founder of Isis-House
Publishing she has dedicated herself to sharing the wise of the Goddess with the World.
As a well-known Priestess of Isis, Regula has been a student of the sacred sciences since childhood. She explores the mystical through writing, travel, and art. As an Author, de Traci has written several books which have gone into various printings in the US, and 12 different language editions internationally. She has produced and directed the video programs Herb Magic with Scott Cunningham and Witchcraft: Yesterday and Today with Raymond Buckland.
For further information, please contact: Justin Howard, Publicist with Desert-Grove PR Jthoward84@gmail.com Cell – (619)379-7317 www.desert-grove.com
Biography - As a well-known Priestess of Isis, de Traci Regula has been a student of the sacred sciences since childhood. She explores the mystical through writing, travel, and art.
She is best known as the Author of “The Mysteries of Isis” an international best selling occult classic that did 5 printings in the US alone. It has since gone into five different foreign languages in both hardcover and paperback editions, and has even been pirated for sales in China. International distribution included the UK and Ireland, India, New Zealand, Australia,. Italy, Russia, Brazil, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, and others. Recently it was printed in a Russian Language edition that is selling extremely well currently.
As the creator of the Egyptian Sacred Scarab Oracle, she is thrilled to see it has sold extremely well, especially in its current Russian Language edition.
Become a Priestess of Isis in 1983 in the internationally known Fellowship of Isis, with over 300,000 members in 120 countries, de Traci has become a force behind the public spread of faith of Isis Isisian both through her books and public appearances. Recently she saw herself in Brazil to attending the annual Meeting of the New Conscience spiritual conference as a guest speaker, this is the largest of its kind in South America.
Professor Onuma of Tokyo University invited de Traci Regula to Japan to take part in presentations and the play The Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone as a Priestess of Isis in the Fellowship of Isis along with its founder Lady Olivia Robertson.
As a Priestess of many talents de Traci produced and directed the video programs Herb Magic with Scott Cunningham and Witchcraft: Yesterday and Today with Raymond Buckland.
Frequently Asked Questions-
How do you manage an active spiritual life and a career? I’m very fortunate that so much of my life is integrated together. My spiritual life underlies everything I do, but this isn’t always obvious. My travel writing and other freelance work is often very “secular”, but the inner experiences I have while traveling always impact my spiritual understanding. Sometimes I think that there is absolutely no spiritual dimension to a particular trip I’m taking, and then Isis sweeps back the veils and I find myself in the midst of an intensely moving experience that deepens my spiritual understanding.
Have you always written New Age? I’ve been a writer since I could hold a pencil. Somehow, I just thought that the reason that they taught kids to write was so they could write books. I started my first novel at eight – and wrote a hundred and fifty pages in longhand. It was an action-adventure-romance with travel, aliens, and a religious theme. I like to think it was a book that truly had something for everyone! Certainly the aliens and religious revelations in Aramaic could be seen as “New Age”, I guess! But I didn’t expect to be a New Age writer. My first published work was poetry in a small magazine called “The Hungry Years” published by Les Brown. I was sixteen and it was the biggest thrill of my life. As for the New Age, it was Scott Cunningham encouraging me to finalize Mysteries of Isis which made me a “New Age Writer”. And most of my freelance writing work is still not “New Age”, though it’s wonderful when I can combine it all together.
What inspired you to write the Mysteries of Isis? When I first connected with Isis spiritually through the writings of Dion Fortune, there was very little about Isis that was readily available. I pored over books and was happy if I found a sentence or two pertaining to Isis. Even in Egyptology books, especially the earlier ones, she was often skipped over or references to her were left out of the indexes while every possible mention of the Egyptian gods or pharaohs were carefully documented. I got very good at a combination of bibliomancy and speed-reading; I had a knack for opening a book to a reference to Isis. or finding them by quickly flipping through. Obviously, I kept notes and began organizing them for my own use, and that became the framework for “The Mysteries of Isis.”
Then, when I should have been concentrating on pre-med biology, I found an amazing bookshelf at the library of the University of California at Irvine. Book after book on Isis, including R.E. Witt’s “Isis in the Graeco-Roman World” (recently reprinted as “Isis in the Ancient World That truly opened my eyes to the richness of the ancient worship of Isis. It also opened my wallet to the good people of UCI when I finally had to pay my overdue book fees in order to get a transcript. They knew who I was when I called the front desk to find out what I had to pay. I suspect there was a poster.
Do you do a lot of research? Absolutely. It’s play for me, and I use all kinds of sources – books, journals, the Internet, my own experiences traveling, interviews, discussions, what I learn in the workshops I give, all of it. One of my projects on Minoan magic is a challenge since relatively little can be discovered by reading – it has to be experiential, by visiting the sites, seeing the way the land is, calculating how it has changed over the millennia, sifting out what has survived into modern folklore practices in Greece and elsewhere, finding what works in helping to forge a bond with the divine of that very ancient time. It’s different , much more physical approach. I’ve scrambled up cliffs to get to caves, nearly driven backwards off of the road to an ancient Minoan peak sanctuary, and have been rescued by Greek fishermen when gale force winds flipped my kayak. Library research is usually calmer, but if I finally find a crucial reference in a book, that gets my adrenalin flowing too.
I write like a sculptor in clay – first I gather up a great ball of information, plunk it down in front of me – metaphorically – and then begin shaping and smoothing it, taking away from this area, adding to that – until it feels and looks right to me. The research is my clay.