For most of us, a trip to the magnetic North Pole seems unrealistic. It cannot be found with a compass, a useless tool close to the magnetic pole because of the lack of horizontal magnetic pull.

It cannot be pinpointed on a map, either. The sun causes the pole to move in an erratical elliptical path over Canada's Northwest Territories, sometimes moving more than 100 miles in one day.

It also has many dangers. Polar bears, storms and sub-zero temperatures might discourage you from even attempting your quest.

But not explorer Helen Thayer.

Children's Express recently interviewed Thayer over the phone from her home in Snohomish, Wash.

She told us about her adventurous life.

At age 9, Thayer began mountain climbing with her parents in her native New Zealand. She went to various climbing schools and by the time she was a teen- ager she was a high-altitude climber.

She became interested in various sports and in 1975 she become a champion luge racer. All the while she continued to climb mountains.

In 1986, she decided to fulfill a life-long dream and begin preparations for a walk to the magnetic North Pole, which falls in the northern Canadian islands, not the point in the middle of the Arctic Ocean at the top of the world.

Every day, her intense training included running 10 miles, an hourlong gym workout, and pulling cement-loaded sleds up steep, grassy hills for an hour.

Then, at 50 years old, Thayer became the first woman to ski solo to the magnetic North Pole, pulling only a sled. She had no resupply or support of any kind except from a black husky named Charlie.

In her book Polar Dream, Thayer described friends' reactions to her decision to try the trip alone:

Some of my friends just shook their heads when I told them of my ideas. "It's crazy, a woman can't survive out there alone," one friend told me. Another said, "You'll never come back alive. Forget it, go somewhere safer."

"I didn't take any notice of doubters because I knew that I could do it," Thayer said. "My parents and my husband and my close friends were very good supporters. I knew my own capabilities or I would never have thought of doing it."

In order to gather enough experience to safely go on her trip, Thayer spent several weeks living with the Inuit Indians of Resolute Bay in far northern Canada. The Inuit taught her how to protect herself against polar bears, her biggest enemy, and survive in a polar environment.

The next day was stormy so I took my tent down to the sea of ice to practice erecting it in the wind. I skied out to the bay to feel the cold wind on my face, watching for bears and getting the feel of the ice pack beneath my skies.

I spent several more days training out on the ice pack, sometimes alone and sometimes with the Inuit, who were always checking to find out if I was still learning and remembering all that they had told me.

"It was only after I had lived with the Eskimos and learned all I could that I made my final decision as to whether I should go or not," concluded Thayer. "And if I'd had any doubts that I could handle it, I wouldn't have gone."

After two years of training, she embarked on her expedition with apprehension.

Once again my mind was numbed with dread but I forced myself to finish putting on my skis, doing my best to conceal my fear from the dozen people from the mine who waited at the edge of the sea ice to see me off.

Her second day out, she encountered three polar bears, which she was able to scare away with flares and her huskie, Charlie. "You have to keep a good presence of mind," she recalled. "You have to stay calm, you have to think clearly, and you have to draw on all your experiences and everything you have learned. The most important thing is never panic. If you panic, you're dead. You have to stay calm, no matter what happens to you."

Suddenly, a full-grown male bear stepped out from behind the ice, paused momentarily, then with unbelievable speed bounded straight as an arrow for my sled. He flipped the offending object to one side with a mighty swipe of a massive front paw as if it were a tiny toothpick. I stood terrified, rooted to the spot. Charlie's growls were deafening. Then the bear, only twenty feet away, apparently saw me for the first time and partly rose on its hind legs, dwarfing me as I stood there. The bear began to charge and I was jolted in to action.

With all Thayer had to deal with on her expedition, she might have given up. During her 27-day journey, she ran into polar bears seven times and weathered three brutal storms.

As Thayer faced death on a daily basis, she found that her black husky Charlie was constantly by her side, ready to help her. As the journey continued, they began to trust and depend on one another even more.

"I learned a lot about myself as a result of doing something like that," she continued. "I learned that I am very capable of surviving alone. I'm capable of making a good plan and sticking to it, and I learned that I had inner strength that I didn't know I had. I came out of it with a lot more self respect, self confidence, but also a lot of humbleness. In an environment like that you are no more important than the tiniest flake of snow. And the polar bear doesn't care what you think about yourself."

Her trip didn't only benefit herself. "I was collecting scientific data as I went," she explained. The data was used to create an educational program for students nationwide called the Environmental Classroom.

Thayer's explorations did not end with her journey to the North Pole. In 1992, Thayer returned to the magnetic North Pole with her husband, Bill. They became the first and oldest married couple to reach the magnetic North Pole on foot, unresupplied.

They continued their explorations in 1994, when they journeyed to the Arctic Circle and the Amazon. In the Arctic, they lived with a wolf pack for two months. The data they collected went back to schools. In the Amazon, they photographed three new species of wolves previously unknown to scientists.

In the future, the Thayers hope to explore the Mojave Desert, near where her husband was raised.

Thayer is modest about her accomplishments.

"I would never put myself on a pedestal. . . . But I hope that what I do would encourage kids to realize that they can go out and do these things, too.

"We all can set goals, and we can all learn to believe in ourselves. We can all learn to never quit on ourselves. You don't need a million dollars to realize your dreams."

EDITED BY: Lisa Schubert, 15; Sarah Harmon, 13