Helen Thayer "Three Among the Wolves" lecture April 22

Motivational speaker Helen Thayer will return to Omak to give the lecture "Three Among the Wolves," a close-up look at wolves in the wild, at the Omak Performing Arts Center on Monday, April 22, at 7 p.m. This motivational program includes rare photography, not only of the wolf family, but many other Arctic animals such as grizzlies, moose, lynx and of the northern tundra plains.

Three Among the Wolves (Sasquatch Books, 2006) is also Thayer's second book. She and her husband Bill traveled to the Canadian Yukon Territory, above the Arctic Circle, to live within 100 feet of a wild wolf den. They spent a summer observing and documenting the daily lives and activities of the pack and returned in the winter to study the wolves interacting with polar bears on the northern sea ice. It is a remarkable story of wolves in the wild—their pup care, their hunts and their social hierarchy explained.

Thayer has explored the far corners of the world. She took a 900-mile expedition through four Sahara Desert countries, following an ancient trade route and accompanied by a 12-member family of the Berber tribe. In 1988, she became the first woman to walk and ski to any of the world's poles when she trekked solo to the Magnetic North Pole without dog sled or snowmobile. She was also the first woman and first American to circumnavigate the Magnetic North Pole. Other adventures include living with the Massai tribe in Tanzania in 2009, studying indigenous cultures and water issues in the Amazon in 2008, and trekking on foot across the Mongolian Gobi Desert in 2001.

Thayer has received numerous awards and recognitions for her achievements and expeditions. In 2010, she was chosen by the University of Washington as one of Washington state's "100 Women Who Have Made a Difference." She was also named "One of the Great Explorers of the 20th Century" by National Geographic in 2002.

This event is free and open to the public.

This presentation is an Earth Day event and is sponsored by the Associated Students of Wenatchee Valley College at Omak and the WVC at Omak Foundation. Thayer presented the lecture "Polar Dreams" to an audience of over 300 last March.