3 comments about Shadows on the Wasteland: Crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes.

1. A fascinating epic with all the hardships and truths told. An honest account of human mental and physical strengths and weaknessness. At times it unecessarily draws you into the on going ego battle between Stroud and Fiennes.



2. Adverturers come in all shapes and sizes - of ego, that is! And this book is an excellent opportunity to see the diversity of people who succeed at extremely challenging outdoor pursuits. I thoroughly enjoyed this account from a relatively modest style of person, who took on and succeeded at a challenge, the difficulty of which left me aching and bleary eyed just thinking about it.

   In an era where many traditional sports have taken on some kind of "extreme" variant, this book defines "extreme" in a way that makes other pursuits pale by comparison. I was gripped that it provided an interesting insight into what life is like when you take on the genuinely extreme challenge.

   People that merely, say, base jump from a helicopter onto the top of a snow-covered mountain in order to snowboard from apex to base, are amateurs compared to these chaps. They - voluntarily! - walked across the Antarctic continent via the South Pole just because they thought they could. Of course, they did raise a legendary amount of money to benefit research into multiple sclerosis, but that is not central to the story told in this book.

   Mike Stroud gives one side of the story, in a manner that reveals his concerns over his own fallibility, whilst at the same time providing a case study in how an apparently ordinary bloke does an extraordinary thing. He is clearly not the ego-on-two-legs-type that many imagine these guys would be - but the writing reeks of someone committed to his views and those views involving a huge amount of thought. So, despite a self-effacing style, he seems unlikely to lack belief in himself - despite acute and moving accounts of his struggles to retain focus on a harrowing and debilitating slog across the most incredibly inhospitable tract of terrain. I liked the fact that he did things well beyond ordinary, despite not being ten-foot-tall-and-bulletproof the way we imagine many of these guys to be!

   The other side of the story is told by his trek partner, Ranulph Fiennes (Sir, actually, with a bunch of that English stuff about being a Baronet and all), in his book "Mind over Matter". In many respects of style and personality, he is most things that Mike Stroud is not, so anyone with a picture of the larger-than-life-ego-on-two-legs kind of adventurer might well here some bells ringing when they read this account.

   The contradictions between the two accounts are not black and white, but, in the shades of grey, there was enough interest at the time of their publication to put them both into that elite class of public figures - where they were the subject of a newspaper cartoonist's pen. Another thing that I like about Stroud's account is that he highlighted this, rather than papering over it.

   Frankly, I liked Fiennes' account of the trip as well, but it was more predictable in a curious sort of way. Possibly the most can be gained from Mike Stroud's book when Fiennes' acount is read also - classic stuff where neither is completely right or wrong, and that is probably less important in any case than gaining a picture of how you are seen by others, or how divergent your image of yourself can be from that harboured by close colleagues.

   This book - and Fiennes' - may well give you an appetite for more along the same lines, if you don't have one already! Try reading "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, or "Home of the Blizzard" by Douglas Mawson.




3. Englishmen Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud together made four failed attempts on the North Pole. Their major success was an expedition both inwardly expected to fail - the unsupported (carry everything) crossing of Antarctica.
   
   There had already been an unsupported trip to the South Pole. Indeed, as they were making their crossing, the Scandinavian explorer Erling Kagge - who claimed the first unsupported trip to the North Pole, disputed by his rivals Stroud and Fiennes - was making the first solo unsupported trip to the South Pole.
   
   The crossing of the Antarctic continent, however impractical, was the next logical goal. This account, and another by Fiennes entitled "Mind Over Matter," stress the grinding wear and tear on the human body, the bleak, black thoughts that accompany every labored step, and the life-threatening hazards of weather, crevassed terrain and starvation.
   
   The difference in their stories is entirely point-of-view and personality.
   
   Fiennes, the leader, sounds a practical, matter-of-fact note - his appendices on leadership, equipment, history and topography are nearly as long as his personal account. Stroud, the younger and smaller man, is more volatile and impassioned, resentful of the very notion of leadership in a two-man expedition.
   
   They began the trip unsure that they would even be able to budge their sledges - loaded with 485 pounds of food, fuel and equipment. "It would be so embarrassing if, once in our harnesses, our efforts came to nought and the sledges refused to budge," says Stroud.
   
   After four hours they had moved only a couple of miles on their 1,700 hundred mile journey. And the next day they had their first equipment failure - a thermos that left one of the major respites of their day, hot soup, cold and full of gelatinous fat globs.
   
   On they went. Sails, parachutes inflated by the wind, had been an early bone of contention between them. Stroud was insistent, Fiennes, dubious about their usefulness and the added weight, agreed reluctantly. On their first try both found them terrifying and exhilarating.
   
   Says Stroud, "Compared with the toil of manhauling, to be pulled forward at high speed was a delight so intense that to ignore it, merely because it was difficult and dangerous, was near impossible."
   
   And Fiennes, "After a hectic ten minutes of being dragged over ice ridges, crossing ski tips and being struck in the back by the sledge....I suddenly spotted a blueish shadow some forty feet ahead."
   
   Fiennes threw himself to one side. Stroud, used to seeing his companion fall, started to go around. Going too fast to stop, he plunged into the crevasse. Says Fiennes, "Appalling thoughts crowded my mind: chiefly how I would explain Mike's death to his wife and mother."
   
   But Stroud had landed on a precarious snow bridge. The description of extricating him and his sledge is harrowing. The sledge was permanently but not crucially damaged. On they went.
   
   Black thoughts, with no other outlet, turned on one another. Their chief friction was pacing. Stroud believed Fiennes was going slower than necessary because of brooding over his age (47); Fiennes believed Stroud was wasting energy by going too fast and later attributed hypothermic episodes to this depletion. Both experienced intense anger toward the other, most of which they avoided expressing except in their diaries.
   
   Consuming 5,200 calories a day, they were using 6,000 to 8,000, even 10,000. Slow starvation far outpaced the lessening of weight on the sledges. Because of Stroud's medical record keeping, (ironically described in greater daily detail by Fiennes) chemical changes and physical debilitation were documented with appalling exactitude.
   
   Both were subject to digestion problems, chronic frostbite infections, sores from chafing clothing and harnesses, skin damage from the depleted ozone layer, blindness from white-outs and from the absence of anything to focus on. But starvation was chief among their troubles, leading to muscle loss (even of the heart muscle) as well as every bit of insulating fat.
   
   When Fiennes finally called a halt after Stroud experienced several life-threatening bouts of hypothermia and hypoglycemia they had crossed the continent, although not the ice shelf which intervened between continent and ocean. They had succeeded, raising millions (at a penny per mile) for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, accomplishing major physiological research and being first to cross the continent unsupported. This, despite all the practical, idealistic reasons given, was their reason for going, a reason incomprehensible to most of us.
   
   Both books are well-written, expressive of separate personalities undergoing the same grueling physical and mental hardships. Both acknowledge they could not have made it without the other, for mental reasons as well as physical. Both are riveting accounts of exploration in a place few of us ever wish to go.

1 comments about Ice Island: The Expedition to Antarctica's Largest Iceberg.

1. I found Ice Island to be a thoroughly enjoyable book. In a clear and straightforward style that will appeal to most types of readers, the author tells the story of his ambitious scientific expedition to Antarctica in 2001 to find and study what satellite images had revealed to be the world's largest iceberg.

   The adventure unfolds aboard a small, 118-foot research vessel fully packed with enough equipment for an 18-member expedition team, lots of food and fuel, and one helicopter. Facing extreme conditions and a multitude of risks without a safety net, the expedition travels from Lyttelton, New Zealand and crosses thousands of miles of the world's roughest seas to reach a desolate, rarely visited region of Antarctica. Here, floating in the offshore waters of the Ross Sea, they find the enormous icebergs they had been seeking, and conduct their research into an area that could hold important clues on the impact of modern day global warming. In an extraordinary anomaly these huge icebergs originally began separating from the Ross Ice Shelf in early 2000 as a single piece of ice nearly the size of Texas.

   With this scientific journey as the backdrop, the author weaves into the book a surprisingly well-rounded assortment of interesting facts, insights and personal observations concerning both his own experiences during the trip and about Antarctica in general. Subjects discussed range from the regions bird and animal life, marine science, oceanography, natural history, ice diving, and global warming all the way to a short history of Antarctic exploration. Not surprisingly, the author also touches upon the trials and tribulations of living and working for over three months in tight quarters with 18 others - often under harsh, dangerous, and unpredictable conditions. His descriptions and photographs of ice diving, flying, and boating in some of the worlds coldest, dangerous, and most remote waters is breathtaking.

   Appearing on every page of Ice Island are colorful and engaging photographs taken throughout the journey. Unique viewpoints are captured from every possible angle, both above and well below the surface of the water, from the air, and even from inside the icebergs. My favorites are the striking images of brilliantly white polar ice sculpted over many years by the forces of nature and standing in such stark contrast to the deep blue of the ocean's water. Also well photographed are the few remarkable marine animals, birds and plants hardy enough to inhabit this bitterly cold and constantly wind and water swept environment.

   These spectacular photographs document the science and true adventure of this expedition while unveiling a polar world of extreme beauty that few of us will ever be lucky enough to experience first hand. As a photo-essay on Antarctica these pictures could easily stand-alone and be worthy of being published as a "coffee table" style of picture book.

   Devoting the last few chapters to an overview of how global warming is profoundly affecting the Antarctic region as well as the rest of the world's oceans, Ice Island ends with a strong conservation message and the paramount importance of protecting this fragile polar eco-system.

   Ice Island's greatest appeal is that it can be appreciated on so many different levels. The author does a great job of organizing all of the books' many diverse elements into a cohesive and well-communicated whole and for anyone interested in these topics I strongly recommend this book.

No comments about Antarctica.

5 comments about South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage.

1. Poor Shackleton. In all his life it seems he allways came late or second, allmost made it or, as in this story, did not reach his goal at all.
   Most amazing in his last expedition is that no lives were lost, though probably encountering the worst circumstances of the expedions I know of.
   Most remarkably are the stunning photo's by Frank Hurley. The negatives were either transported over ice and sea, or (no book provided me with that information) were allready developed on the ice. In my copy of this book (printed probably around 1935), but not found in all later editions, one of these negatives is in good quality full-colour, made in 1914!



2. His party stranded on an ice floe hundreds of miles from their destination, beyond the reach of the outside world -- even had the outside world known they needed help, or where to look -- his ship crushed by countless miles of pack ice and supplies running low, Ernest Shackleton spent not a moment in lamentation. He set about saving his crew and himself. They made their way to a small, desolate bit of island shore, from which Shackleton and five men journeyed 800 miles in a 22-foot open boat across the most dangerous sea in the world. A trek through miles of snow-covered mountain wilderness finally brought rescue. And everybody survived! Shackleton's is an epic tale of true adventure and derring-do, and he tells it with the straight-ahead momentum of an ice breaker diving into the pack. He sees beauty in the Antarctic, and he carries a touch of poetry (Browning, anyway) in his soul. He is also a detail man, and his flights of descriptive eloquence bog down amid facts, figures, wind speeds and diatomous striations. But this piling-on of minutiae proves riveting in the action sequences (most of the book). We feel like we are there. Having told his own party's tale, Shackleton gives a useful if anticlimactic account of the Ross Sea wing of the expedition - a story with its own generous measure of adventure, heroism and poignancy.



3. This is a great adventure book. Exciting adventures and heroic deeds make for good reading.



4. I've noticed numerous people complaining about how Shackelton seems to be neglecting character development in his narration. This isn't a work of fiction, the people involved are not characters Shackelton just pulled out of thin air and could mould to his choosing. They were real, flesh and blood human beings, and to say that one man no matter how well he knew them could actually put their thoughts and personality to paper would be not only incredibly foolish, but also woefully inaccurate, and seriously can you honestly picture Shackelton dragging various members of the crew out onto the floes and sitting them on a snow band before asking, "How does that make you feel?".
   
   Of course it's not going to be the most exciting piece of literature you've ever read. The book is written as a journal and journals tend to cover the day to day dealings of the person whom is writing in them. Longitudes, latitudes and the general functioning of the ship were Shackelton's daily concerns.
   
   It's amazing how many people overlook the enormity of the task these men undertook simply because the authors writing style tended to focus on the here and now and the little details of daily life rather than some hugely embellished fantasy designed simply to make a profit. Anyway.
   
   To those of you whom appreciate this for what it is, you have my applause.



5. I was very disappointed when I received this book. I had ordered the hard cover edition at a premium price expecting to get a quality reproduction of Sir Ernest Shackleton's classic book. The original book published by Heineman had many plates of photos taken by the photographer who travelled on the voyage. This version published by North Books had no photos, was on cheap paper and had a fairly basic hard cover. I sent it back and managed to source a second hand copy of the version published by Heineman.

No comments about Antarctica Wildlife 5th (Bradt Guides).

No comments about You Wouldn't Want to Be a Polar Explorer! (You Wouldn't Want To¿).

5 comments about Life on the Ice: No One Goes to Antarctica Alone.

1. I've been fascinated with Antarctica since hearing Vaughan Williams' Sympony No. 7 "Antarctica." This is the first book about the area that I've read. I found it fascinating right from page one. The author wastes no time getting to the ship and the voyage, and does a tremendous job describing the landscape.
   
   However, for a book about a personal journey to a place 99.9% of the readers will never visit, I found it downright stupid (sorry) that there are NO photographs of this foreign landscape! One of the very first scenes described by the author is how a group of penguins poked around his camera bag, so we know the author took many, many pictures...how about sharing a few of them?
   
   That's my only complaint, and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars.



2. I've been looking for a book on Antarctica as I will soon be going there in a research support capacity. I was anxious to get an account of "what it is really like" being down there. Smith's accounts of dealing with the US program were especially interesting to me. His writing is humerous, insightful and thoroughly enjoyable to read. After reading this book, I think I have a decent sense of what to expect (his description of the pre-trip paperwork has already proven to be dead-on).
   
   For my purposes, this is by far the best book I've read on this subject.



3. Roff Smith writes in this book about more than one trip to Antarctica, and in each trip he moves around from base to base to explore the place. For this reason, the book feels a bit disjointed, but it is a great portrait of the place and the people who live and work there today and the support systems that help them from the outside. Smith is often funny, as well as awestruck. That seems to be the effect the place has on people.



4. How can you do a National Geographic book that covers multiple trips to Antarctica with no photographs and no maps? I also found Smith's condescending comments about the United States to be annoying. Yes, I can imagine the beaurocracy seemed pointless and tedious, but still. Not to acknowledge in the list of acknowledgments anything of value provided to him by the U.S. Antarticic Program seems petty. To read between the lines, I felt that Smith was saying that an Antarctica with no U.S. presence would be superior to any value that the U.S. has provided there.



5. I really enjoyed this book! What makes a book good for me is when I want to run out and read more about that particular subject. The author made it interesting for the lay person since he is not a scientist himself. I have to agree about the pictures though. I was so fascinated by what the author was describing but couldnt really visualize such a landscape. I found myself googling Antarctica pictures to get more of an idea.

2 comments about Antarctica Unveiled: Scott's First Expedition and the Quest for the Unknown Continent.

1. Recent writings on Antarctic exploration have not been kind to Scott's leadership. If you're interested in a different look at the man (to some degree) and the first (Discovery) expedition try this book. The author gives one a sense of life on the expedition and takes one along through daily life on the ship, over the winter and on the sledging journies. Heavy on detail and a bit too focused on 'righting the wrongs' of Huntford, etc., the result seems an extremely well-researched view of the scientific goals and results of the expedition. (And, perhaps the author can be forgiven for the emphasis on righting wrongs--previous works have certainly emphasized contrary views.) I've long felt that viewing the turn-of-the-century expeditions through today's 'lens' is problematic. Scott and the others were English men of their time and subject to those values, just as we are products of our time. I recommend the work to those interested in a detailed view of that first expedition, how its course affected the Terra Nova expedition, and a different view of the explorers and the expedition--placed in their time.



2. Historian David Yelverton takes a long overdue look at Scott's Discovery expedition, the first significant attempt to probe the interior of that great southern continent. He pays great attention to Scott's difficulties in securing funds, crew, supplies and so forth. And, of course, Yelverton writes at length on the Discovery herself, an leaky craft that would have never made it south were it not for the constant struggle at the pumps. There is also a good deal on the cooperative effort with the Germans (!) on making often difficult magnetic observations, one of the principal reasons for the expedition in the first place.

   This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the history of the Antartic continent, Scott and, to a lesser degree, Shackleton. It is, without question, the most complete review of the Discovery expedition.

   Although Scott's disaster in 1912 overshadows the Discovery effort, it could be said (and this is the point of "Unveiled") that there was much more meaningful work accomplished during this 1901-03 expedition.

   Most readers will find "Unveiled" ponderous a times, although that is to be expected in a work of this depth and precision. I was disappointed with the occasional childish snipes at Roland Huntford's monumental "Last Place on Earth," a book that is a sore point with Scott's many fans. It's too bad that writers on Antarctic exploration feel as if they have to be one side of the fence or the other. Scott accomplished more than most other polar explorers -- but he also made many, many blunders.

   But, in the main, "Antartic Unveiled" is worth looking into.

2 comments about The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival.

1. The epic of endurance laconically described by Mawson ranks with those of Scott and Shackleton as one of the greatest feats of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, yet is far less well known. Read this book and marvel at the man. Great pictures, missing from some earlier editions of the book, are included. Avoid the self-serving foreword by Ranulph Fiennes who cannot even get the name of Mawson's companion on the first expedition to the South Magnetic Pole right.



2. After his contributions to Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition, Australian scientist Dr. Douglas Mawson decided to put together his own expedition, one that placed more emphasis on science than any up to that time and many afterwards. Although his own experiences were by far the most gripping of the expedition, Mawson is careful to tell the entire story, with excerpts from other member's diaries and reports. His style is a little dry, compared to Shackleton's books, but the tale of the expedition is a compelling and interesting one. The book is very well illustrated with photographs, maps, and diagrams, and the cover is really handsome. Read this, but also read Lennard Bickel's "Mawson's Will" for more emphasis on Mawson's own terrifying adventure.

No comments about MGA 1: The Worst Journey in the World, Volume 1 (MyEclectica.com Great Adventures).