DaytonDailyNews.com

FAIRBORN — Take a walk.

Eight years ago, Ann Bancroft sailed and skied across Antarctica with Liv Arnesen, becoming the first women to do so. Since then, she has recounted the adventure time and again for audiences, as she did today Feb. 21 at Wright State University.

After each appearance, women often approach her and they ask the same question.

"How did you get started?" Bancroft said. "How did you take that first step? And often times, they're thinking of starting something."

The first step in tackling an outdoor adventure may be a small one, but it's crucial, Bancroft said.

"It's pretty scary for some," she said.

Her advice to novices: "Start walking."

Added Bancroft: "I never got across Antarctica in one giant leap."

Not only did she cross the world's most remote continent, she led the American Women's Expedition to the South Pole in 1993, led the first American women's expedition east to west across Greenland and dogsledded some 1,000 miles in Canada's Northwest Territories in 1986.

Christine Plepys, of Newport, Ky., hung on Bancroft's every word and later approached her to have her sign copies of No Horizon is So Far, a book Bancroft wrote with Arneson, published by Da Capo Press in 2003.

Plepys said Bancroft's talk was, "Inspiring, reinspiring, for me. I'm already an outdoors person."

Plepys, 42, backpacked 270 miles in Vermont over a month two years ago. With a smile, she quipped that "The best way to avoid housework is to live outdoors."

"My mom can't believe some of the things I've done," Plepys said.

Bancroft's presentation — part of a panel discussion on "the making of an outdoor woman" — was part of the two-day fourth annual Adventure Summit at Wright State's Student Union. Presented by the university and Five Rivers Metroparks, the event brought together 65 exhibits — outdoors equipment retailers and those with expertise in what the event calls "the adventure market."

"It's about taking the dreamer and turning the dream into reality," said Brent Anslinger, outdoor recreation manager for Five Rivers Metroparks.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.