Dr Anna Bidgood Winter Lecture
On Friday evening an audience of pupils, parents and alumnae discovered their inner adventurer at an inspiring lecture by Dr Anna Bidgood. The lecture was the first of The Mount’s Borealis Society Winter Lecture programme.
Dr Bidgood, a qualified mountain-expedition leader and a professional geologist, spoke of her love of travelling and the pathway from school to university and into the world of work that led to her becoming a geologist.
Sharing video footage and stunning photography from her travels, Anna recounted tales from her first-ever expedition to Greenland during her school years, of mountaineering expeditions to Iceland, Norway and Greenland as a mountain leader and fieldwork in remote Greenland, British Columbia, Peruvian Andes and the Indian Himalaya.
Anna had recently returned from a geological expedition to North Greenland. She detailed the challenging travel conditions her group faced as they confronted the largest volume of summer sea ice that Greenland had seen in 40 years. Time-lapse footage showed their ship ramming its way through sheets of ice and safely negotiating its way around nearby icebergs until the conditions became so treacherous that their ship became stuck and could make no further progress northwards this year. The group had to find inventive, alternative solutions to move their equipment from the ship and safely onto land.
Anna’s audience was delighted to learn about a particular method of transport used on the expedition: the ‘Sherp’. A Sherp is an amphibious vehicle that can drive on land, no matter how rocky and navigate through water, no matter how icy and cold. Amusing footage of the Sherp in action showed how things did not always go entirely to plan!
Following the talk, David Griffiths (Principal of The Mount) opened the floor for questions. When asked to choose her favourite expedition and why, Anna contemplated, “I don’t quite know how to answer that! Every trip has been so different. My trip this Summer was a very cool experience and different from anything I have done before. However, the trip that stands out the most is my first expedition to Greenland with my school. It was the first time I had seen such breathtaking scenery. It certainly inspired my love of travel and exploration.”
Anna is passionate about encouraging teenagers, especially girls, to widen their horizons. She summed up her lecture by advising the girls to “take every opportunity that arises.”
The evening concluded with the official launch of the second Mount School Borealis Expedition to East Greenland in 2024. This follows the successful expedition to North Iceland earlier this Summer.
The next Borealis Society lecture on Friday 25 November will have the College Girls, who took part in this Summer’s Borealis Society Iceland Expedition, sharing their accounts and experiences of the expedition. This will include video footage and photos of the amazing scenery and wildlife that they saw on their travels.
About Anna Bidgood:
Anna has a 1st class degree (MEarthSci) and a DPhil in Earth Sciences both from the University of Oxford. She currently works at the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience (iCRAG) based at University College in Dublin.
In January 2023, Anna moves to the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington to continue her research as a recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.