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Contest Shares Antarctic Skiers' Dream 08/08/2000 The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH Roxanne Washington Talk about soul mates. As a young girl growing up in Scandia, Minn., Ann Bancroft (not that one) read Alfred Lansing's "Endurance," a tale of Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica. Thousands of miles away, in Oslo, Norway, another little girl, Liv Arnesen, was immersed in the same book. By the time they closed the pages, both young women had been hit with the same dream: to ski across Antarctica. More than 30 years later, Bancroft and Arnesen are realizing their dream together. In October, the women will embark on the 2,400- mile ski expedition, leaving from Cape Town, South Africa. After reading "Endurance" and before meeting for the first time two years ago, Bancroft and Arnesen followed remarkably similar life paths. Both became teachers, Bancroft an elementary school physical education teacher and Arnesen a high school languages teacher. True to their teaching instincts, the educators will lead a global education program that will be translated into Norwegian, Taiwanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Malay and other languages by request and offer a message board that encourages educators from different countries to exchange ideas. What's more, the explorers will use Apple Powerbooks to provide daily updates and journal entries on the Web for students. For more information on the expedition or the education program, visit the yourexpedition Web site.