Galanter to Fulfill Promise, Travel to Icy Antarctica

When Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was brutally attacked by an intruder in her Venice home 20 months ago, she promised herself an exotic vacation if she survived.

Galanter, 47, plans to fulfill that promise on Saturday, when she embarks on a 2-week trip to the icy continent of Antarctica.

“This is my present to myself,” Galanter said. “I think it will be fascinating. It’s certainly not the kind of trip you take for the weekend.”

Galanter said she has always been interested in exploring Antarctica, a cold and desolate 5.4-million-square-mile land mass that encircles the South Pole. The councilwoman said she wants to get a first-hand look at the world’s “highest, driest and emptiest” continent, where temperatures top off at 30 degrees. Galanter said she also hopes to see some seals and penguins.

The 6th District councilwoman, who represents the Venice, Westchester and Crenshaw areas, will first fly to the southernmost tip of South America. From there she will board a boat that will travel to the Antarctic Peninsula.

The tour is being sponsored by the University of Michigan Alumni Assn., Galanter’s alma mater. Galanter said the tour boat will be comfortable, but not luxurious. “This is a cross between a cruise and a seminar,” she said.

Galanter, who has rarely spoken at length about the stabbing that nearly took her life in May, 1987, when she was running for the council, said her mind focused on travel as she lay in her bed bleeding.

“I was lying in bed knowing I was helpless . . . and not knowing whether anyone would find me,” Galanter said. “And my total energy focused on not being dead. Your mind races under those circumstances. And one thought I had was that, for all these years I had been saving my money for retirement and I had never gone anywhere. I thought I should forget about retirement and do something. The idea of going to Antarctica was something I thought of later.”

Galanter is making the trip by herself, though she will join others on the boat. She said the first few weeks in January are a slow time at City Hall and that her staff is prepared to handle any problems that may arise.

In addition to being cold and desolate, Antarctica is the setting for research into ozone depletion. Galanter said she has promised to bring each staff member a piece of the hole in the ozone layer.