TORONTO - Unable to complete her trek to the North Pole due to dangerously warm weather, Rosie Stancer refused to point fingers but did say climate change figured prominently in her journey.
"I don't want to blame global warming for not reaching 90 degrees North (the North Pole)," Stancer said in a posh British accent. "I don't think that would be fair. It was all part of the challenge in a way."
Her journey was cut short after 84 gruelling days on May 28, when she was only 143 kilometres from her destination. She was in Toronto on Friday on a stopover before heading home to England.
"But (climate change) it definitely had a huge impact. I became a complete convert ... It was in my face every day threatening my life.
"I'm not a politician. I'm not a scientist. I am just an ordinary woman who was right there in it experiencing it."
While Stancer may not have constituents or PhD after her name, the distant relative of the Royal Family is hardly ordinary. She made a solo trip across the South Pole in 2004 and journeyed to the North Pole a decade ago with 19 other women.
Stancer was hoping this year's feat would make her the first women to traverse both poles.
She set out on March 6, a few days later than planned as poor weather delayed her start.
Stancer knew she had a finite time to complete her adventure as pilots had told her she only had 60 days to make it to the North Pole. The period when the ice is safe enough for a plane to land and someone up shrinks every year as the ice cap melts.
Then the weatherman at Eureka, a remote weather station 1,100 kilometres from the north pole, warned her a bad storm in December had upset the ice in the region and traversing it would be difficult.
But starting off a few days late wasn't enough to deter her, and Stancer dismissed the weatherman's concerns.
"I heard what he said, but I was determined."
She concurred with the many explorers before her - her husband's grandfather, Sir James Wordie, was aboard Sir Ernest Shakleton's trans-Antarctic expedition in 1914 - who have said the first week of any expedition is the worst.
So when she got frostbite on the third day and a day later a huge storm shook her tent and her petite frame, she thought if that was the worst Mother Nature could do, she was going to be fine.
She was wrong.
The last time she travelled to the North Pole, she noticed the extremely high ice ridges started to level off after a few days. But this time, the ice was unrelenting, adding hours and then days to her trip.
Then there were the rivers, between sheets of ice, which were more common on this trip.
One day while she was crossing one of these rivers - in her immersion suit - a problem occurred. And this had nothing to do with global warming.
Sometime after testing the suit and her actual journey, a tiny tear made its way into the suit. So a few minutes after entering the river, she noticed icy water against her skin.
"It was a rather serious situation, because as it (the suit) fills up, you start to go down," she said. "It was a race to the other side."
Instead of thinking the worst was behind her, Stancer started to wake up every morning ready to face nature's challenge.
"What is she going to throw at me today?," she said, pounding her fist down on the table to reveal numerous cuts and scrapes on her otherwise delicate, tiny hands.
While she didn't accomplish what she set out to do, Stancer is determined to tell people about the changes she has seen, adding that she has a friend at Cambridge University who does polar research.
She also plans to watch Al Gore's documentary on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," as she's been told it is quite good.
But she has other, more personal plans as well.
"I should make an appointment for a pedicure ... and just watch the beautician drop off," she said pointing to her left foot, which is wrapped in a bright pink cast.
The frostbite will claim "a few toes," but she has other concerns about her appearance.
"I have no tits or bum," she said in frustration after her 6000-calorie per day diet caused her to lose 22 pounds.
"This adventure has turned me androgynous."
