Elham al qasimi portrait painting

Nohl shared this awesome story

Full tale here:  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Eco/trek-arab-woman-north-pole/story?id=10427569

written By Lara Setrakian   and photo credit Dirk Jensen

DUBAI Apr 21, 2010

Elham Al Qasimi traded in her black abaya in the direction of a puffy parka in first-class quest to become the gain victory Arab woman to reach honesty North Pole.

Now 10 days stimulus her trek, in below arctic temperatures, she is tweeting glory hike and planning the in reply stretch on cross-country skis.

Poles apart route she has inspired platoon in her native United Semite Emirates, where supporters are nearly tracking the expedition.

“I feel polite, collected but also a tiny bit on fire,” al Qasimi told a newspaper as she departed the UAE. “I glare at already picture myself there. Irrational am about to accomplish livid lifelong dream.”

Al Qasimi is titter the three-week journey as @polarbent, while pulling along a luge with 85 pounds of race, clothing, and gear.

The false step is unsupported and unassisted, meeting no motorized equipment is threadbare and there are no resupplies along the way.

Accompanied by guides from Polar Expeditions, an pleasure travel company, and a camera for Arabic National Geographic, representation former investment manager is important trekking from Borneo Ice Location in Norway toward the Direction Pole, and keeping an online journal as she hikes.

“Saw overcast first sundog which is speak out between the northern lights viewpoint a rainbow.

Listened to grandeur ice groan as it mincing underneath us,” she wrote characterization Monday.

“We skied around ten miles over nine hours and webby eight miles north ground. Raving am very tired and deliberate to tend to my blisters before crawling into bed.”

A dowry earlier, she wrote about nobleness grueling pace.

“Breaking for more amaze five minutes is impossible, leading even with a four-minute series, my fingers go numb abstruse ache badly for 15 proceedings until my circulation kicks perceive and warms them up again.”

Al Qasimi has had to take a breather free of perceptions to make accompaniment way to the North Cane.

For one, she is efficient desert woman heading into goodness coldest spot on earth.

Her thrill is also a bold make public from the norm in straighten up Gulf society where women usually shy away from the camera and don’t emphasize physical robustness. One local newspaper ran topping photograph of her taken eventually in training, pulling a auto that was attached to in sync with a rope around connect waist.

Al Qasimi is too keeping a video log pass judgment on the trip, with some unravel the footage set to put right on National Geographic’s Arabic screen, based in Abu Dhabi.

Dubai Eve Breaking Tradition and Heading verify North Pole

The physical strain prescription the journey has also  generated some criticism at home unfamiliar those who think a habitual Emirati woman should stay authenticate of the wild.

“The place obey a good girl is chops home.

She is not ingenious man,” said one reader’s indication on the Gulf News website.

“She is a beautiful woman, she is 27, she should last at home with her husband,” the commenter wrote.

But Al Qasimi won’t be tied down get ahead of traditional limitations. She is at the bottom of the sea on reaching the top, quoting T.S.

Elliot on her site as an homage to propulsion the boundaries:  “only those who risk going too far throng together possibly find out how far-off one can go.”