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A Walk to the Pole: To the Heart of Antarctica in the Footsteps of Scott
First American Edition. Some creasing, foxing to DJ. Pages are clean and binding is tight. Slight shelf and edge wear. Solid Book.
306 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2020
This first-hand account of the expedition to the South Pole in the "Footsteps of Scott" was an interesting read. It was interesting to read about what living and working in the Antarctic is like, especially because I know someone who was stationed at McMurdo, and how much politics and egos can get in the way of a good thing. I will probably read it again sometime, but is not something I will re-read frequently.
April 11, 2022
In 1994 I went through a phase of reading books about polar expeditions, tapping the small library at the Naval base I had just been transferred to. This one left long-lasting images in my mind. Years later I wanted to revisit it but had forgotten the title and author, and it took me years more finally to identify it.
Even rereading it I wasn't sure til I got to the chapter where author Roger Mear set off on a multi-day climb of Mount Erebus alone in the round-the-clock darkness of Antarctic winter, -40 degrees (or worse -- that's just where mercury freezes), with no one to call for help should anything go wrong. That was definitely one of those images that had lingered in my mind.
The tale recounts how in the mid 1980s, British adventurer Robert Swan became obsessed with the idea of man-hauling a sled from the Antarctic Coast to the South Pole, inspired by the ill-fated attempt of Robert Falcon Scott to command the first team to reach the South Pole in the 1910s. Swan recruited Roger Mear (the author) and Gareth Wood for the hike, as well as sponsors and support staff. The mission was to be the first team to do such a trek by manhauling sleds without the benefit of draft animals or supply depots prepositioned along the route. To get the timing right, the team started off by wintering over on the coast.
That winter was when Mear hiked up Erebus. Also Mear, Wood, and a teammate who would not be trekking to the pole repeated the "Worst Journey in the World" as recounted by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Cherry-Garrard wrote the book of that title, which I read last year, recounting the Scott expedition of a century ago. The "Worst Journey" was a multi-week trek Cherry-Garrard and two others had made during the winter to collect Penguin eggs. Mear and his buddies had a much better time of it.
In addition to recounting the action, Mear takes pains to record how, in close-quarters intimacy, all the guys got on each others' nerves and often got quite bitchy with each other. And he was equal-opportunity in quoting excerpts from his teammates complaining about Mear himself. But for a bunch of boomers as young men, these guys were prone to butthurt and catfighting. Part of the problem was that none of the team asserted himself as the leader, so the group was probably a bit too democratic for their own good under such a circumstance, to the point of arguing at the last minute which three of them would make the actual Pole trek. I would have gotten fed up with the whole lot of them and told them to shut up and act like men.
Unlike such explorers as Scott and Amundsen, this team only needed to make it to the pole, home to a year-round American base. If they could make it to the base they would survive and catch a plane that was supposed to come pick them up, though possibly at the expense of annoying the Americans. Unsurprisingly (and reasonably, seems to me), the American authorities did not give their official blessing to the endeavor because they did not want to set a precedent for crazy civilians setting off on suicidal treks across Antarctica, leaving the Americans obligated to launch search & rescue operations when they got themselves in trouble. In the event, the Americans of both the coastal McMurdo base and the South Pole station were abundantly welcoming. Also in the event, the Americans did have to launch a small fleet of helicopters on a rescue mission, not because of the pole trekkers, but because their support team's ship got trapped and crushed in ice. No casualties, but the crew found themselves stranded and needing transportation.
The journey proper begins halfway through the narrative. Manhauling made for a challenge to get the food quantity just right: enough to keep the guys healthy and energetic for a 3-month long trek with enormous daily energy output in the Antarctic cold; but not so much as to weigh the sleds down and make them unpullable.
The remainder of the narrative is largely a kind of diary by Mear marking their journey, along with asides about the challenges faced by the support crew in prepping an airplane, closing down camp, attempting to leave Antarctica, and losing their ship, and the problems around having to be rescued by the Americans.
An interesting story and obviously one that stuck in my mind over the decades. But in the end there's nothing inspirational about it. The trek did not need to be done and did not serve science. Exactly as American officialdom feared, the expedition got in trouble and had to be rescued. The stern reaction of American officials led to Mear finishing off the book with a lot of whiny butthurt -- which I guess reflected the personal interaction problems among the team.
Even rereading it I wasn't sure til I got to the chapter where author Roger Mear set off on a multi-day climb of Mount Erebus alone in the round-the-clock darkness of Antarctic winter, -40 degrees (or worse -- that's just where mercury freezes), with no one to call for help should anything go wrong. That was definitely one of those images that had lingered in my mind.
The tale recounts how in the mid 1980s, British adventurer Robert Swan became obsessed with the idea of man-hauling a sled from the Antarctic Coast to the South Pole, inspired by the ill-fated attempt of Robert Falcon Scott to command the first team to reach the South Pole in the 1910s. Swan recruited Roger Mear (the author) and Gareth Wood for the hike, as well as sponsors and support staff. The mission was to be the first team to do such a trek by manhauling sleds without the benefit of draft animals or supply depots prepositioned along the route. To get the timing right, the team started off by wintering over on the coast.
That winter was when Mear hiked up Erebus. Also Mear, Wood, and a teammate who would not be trekking to the pole repeated the "Worst Journey in the World" as recounted by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Cherry-Garrard wrote the book of that title, which I read last year, recounting the Scott expedition of a century ago. The "Worst Journey" was a multi-week trek Cherry-Garrard and two others had made during the winter to collect Penguin eggs. Mear and his buddies had a much better time of it.
In addition to recounting the action, Mear takes pains to record how, in close-quarters intimacy, all the guys got on each others' nerves and often got quite bitchy with each other. And he was equal-opportunity in quoting excerpts from his teammates complaining about Mear himself. But for a bunch of boomers as young men, these guys were prone to butthurt and catfighting. Part of the problem was that none of the team asserted himself as the leader, so the group was probably a bit too democratic for their own good under such a circumstance, to the point of arguing at the last minute which three of them would make the actual Pole trek. I would have gotten fed up with the whole lot of them and told them to shut up and act like men.
Unlike such explorers as Scott and Amundsen, this team only needed to make it to the pole, home to a year-round American base. If they could make it to the base they would survive and catch a plane that was supposed to come pick them up, though possibly at the expense of annoying the Americans. Unsurprisingly (and reasonably, seems to me), the American authorities did not give their official blessing to the endeavor because they did not want to set a precedent for crazy civilians setting off on suicidal treks across Antarctica, leaving the Americans obligated to launch search & rescue operations when they got themselves in trouble. In the event, the Americans of both the coastal McMurdo base and the South Pole station were abundantly welcoming. Also in the event, the Americans did have to launch a small fleet of helicopters on a rescue mission, not because of the pole trekkers, but because their support team's ship got trapped and crushed in ice. No casualties, but the crew found themselves stranded and needing transportation.
The journey proper begins halfway through the narrative. Manhauling made for a challenge to get the food quantity just right: enough to keep the guys healthy and energetic for a 3-month long trek with enormous daily energy output in the Antarctic cold; but not so much as to weigh the sleds down and make them unpullable.
The remainder of the narrative is largely a kind of diary by Mear marking their journey, along with asides about the challenges faced by the support crew in prepping an airplane, closing down camp, attempting to leave Antarctica, and losing their ship, and the problems around having to be rescued by the Americans.
An interesting story and obviously one that stuck in my mind over the decades. But in the end there's nothing inspirational about it. The trek did not need to be done and did not serve science. Exactly as American officialdom feared, the expedition got in trouble and had to be rescued. The stern reaction of American officials led to Mear finishing off the book with a lot of whiny butthurt -- which I guess reflected the personal interaction problems among the team.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews