Advertisement 1

The Last Continent: Challenging the unforgiving in search of the unknown

Article content

Postmedia columnist Daphne Bramham crosses the notoriously rough Drake Passage from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia — known as the Serengeti of the Southern Ocean — to Antarctica. Her daily reports from the 18-day expedition will cover issues from climate change and micro plastics in the ocean to Japan’s continuing whale hunt, the antics of penguins and the world’s wild race to tour, and exploit, this last frontier.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

In mid-December, four weeks into a solo, unsupported and unassisted crossing of Antarctica, British adventurer Ben Saunders began to realize that it might not end as he had planned.

Article content

He was trudging in whiteouts that made navigating difficult, caused headaches, slight nausea, and brought on bouts of vertigo. He compared it to being “on a treadmill in a brightly lit freezer with a white pillowcase over my head.”

Unusually for the Antarctic summer, there were sastrugi — big windblown ridges of snow, some as tall as him — that he had to clamber up while dragging the sledge carrying all of his supplies.

December 2017: Ben Saunders resting in his tent in Antarctica. Saunders attempted the first solo unassisted crossing of Antarctica in memory of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley.
December 2017: Ben Saunders resting in his tent in Antarctica. Saunders attempted the first solo unassisted crossing of Antarctica in memory of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley. Photo by Ben Saunders

One day, Saunders skied straight onto “a rock-hard lump of wind-blasted snow about the same shape and size as a small sheep,” landing hunched over with his skis on the “sheep’s” back and his poles planted in front of him.

“There is something very humbling about Antarctica. It can be quite intimidating because it has no regard for life,” Saunders tells me via Skype from London.

The ferocious weather changed his calculus about the amount of food he had, the distance he had left to go, and the number of days it would take to cover it. Each day, Saunders became ever more conscious of being alone.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

“As the daily averages (of distance covered) did not start to increase, I became more and more resigned — no, resigned is not the right word — I came to be completely at peace with my decision,” he says.

Saunders is a highly experienced polar adventurer. In 2013-14, he and Tarka L’Herpiniere set a world record for the longest polar journey on foot — 2,913 kilometres — from Ross Island on the eastern coast to the South Pole and back again.

After 52 days, the 40-year-old arrived at the South Pole on Dec. 28, 2017. It was decision time. Continue on and risk surviving on half-rations? Re-supply and continue, although it would mean he could no longer claim to have done it unsupported? Or, quit and go home.

“I’d received a lot of supportive messages from others who have done similar things. They said, ‘It’s possible. You can do it.’ They were sitting in their armchairs by the fire with their coffee beside them,” says Saunders.

“But I just knew it wasn’t feasible. … You have a far slimmer appetite for risk when you are on your own. There is obviously less margin for error and I didn’t feel I had a sufficient safety margin.”

Article content
Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Two people weighed heavily on Saunders’s mind as he made the decision to end the quest after reaching the South Pole. One was his fiancée, Pip Harrison — they are getting married in June.

The other was his friend, Henry Worsley.

Former British Army officer Henry Worsley was just 48 kilometres from the end of an almost 1,600-kilometre trek when he called for help and was airlifted off the ice in 2016. He died following complete organ failure in Chile.
Former British Army officer Henry Worsley was just 48 kilometres from the end of an almost 1,600-kilometre trek when he called for help and was airlifted off the ice in 2016. He died following complete organ failure in Chile. Photo by Shackletonsolo.org

Saunders had intended to finish the trip that had defeated and, ultimately, killed Worsley, who called for help after 70 days and only 50 kilometres from the finish.

He had waited too long. Dehydrated and malnourished, Worsley was airlifted to Union Glacier base camp, diagnosed with an infection of the abdominal lining, and flown to Chile. He died there on Jan. 24, 2016. He was 55.

Worsley, too, had set out to complete an unfinished journey — one begun a century earlier by his hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton, who in 1915 set out to be the first to cross the continent. Coincidentally, among Shackleton’s crew was a distant relative — Frank Worsley.

Frank Worsley served on Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctica Expedition as Captain of the Endurance. Henry Worsley was a distant relative.
Frank Worsley served on Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctica Expedition as Captain of the Endurance. Henry Worsley was a distant relative. Photo by Frank Hurley /Wikimedia Commons

What drives men like these, or someone like Felicity Aston, who in 2012 was the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica hauling two sledges? Or Cecilie Skog and partner Ryan Waters, who became the first to make an unassisted Antarctic crossing?

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

Or Robert Swan, the first to have walked to both poles, and on his second walk to the South Pole was there the day before Saunders flew out in December? Swan had just successfully completed a final walk to the South Pole with his son, Barney, on the first expedition to the pole using only clean energy technologies.

Psychologist Peter Suedfeld has spent most of his career studying people in extreme environments — everyone from polar explorers to NASA astronauts.

“They’re unusual people in quite a few ways,” says the emeritus professor at the University of B.C. “But they’re not completely off the scales.”

Most of the qualities are obvious: They are more willing to take risks, are more comfortable alone, are physically tough, and more open to new experiences.

Whether astronauts or adventurers, the biggest difference between us and them is that they have a high need for achievement, says Suedfeld.

“They want to do something that is outstanding, something better than what they had done before, something perceived as a victory or success. Other motives (such as exploration, scientific research) are somewhat secondary.”

Advertisement 6
Story continues below
Article content

But what is interesting to Suedfeld is how they react when their quest is thwarted. Some are able to redefine it as a success.

Shackleton rather ruefully acknowledged that struggle for meaning, writing to his wife, “I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.”

What has changed adventuring and adventurers is communications. Both Swan and Saunders were in daily contact with the outside world. What they did each day is documented in both words and images on their blogs (bensaunders.com/blog and 2041.com/blog).

Robert Swan (left) and Ben Saunders (right) at Union Glacier.
Robert Swan (left) and Ben Saunders (right) at Union Glacier. Photo by Ben Saunders

Saunders says his experience deepened his respect and awe for what people like Shackleton, Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen were able to accomplish.

“They were ill-equipped, badly clothed by contemporary standards. They sailed away from home for three years, and at a time when there was no hope for rescue,” says Saunders.

“When Shackleton turned around short of the South Pole on the Nimrod Expedition (1907-09), he would have already been there for a year and still had 18 months of travel. It was like being on another planet.”

Yet, then as now, there was no shortage of adventurers. There were 17 major Antarctic expeditions from 10 countries between 1897 and 1922, a period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, 

Advertisement 7
Story continues below
Article content

Almost every expedition recorded a first. They climbed and named mountains that were previously unknown and crossed terrain that no one had trod before.

It was thrilling, terrifying work, reflected in Shackleton’s ad looking for men to join him on the aptly named Endurance Expedition: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”

The ‘Endurance’ crushed by the ice and sinking during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17, led by Ernest Shackleton.
The ‘Endurance’ crushed by the ice and sinking during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17, led by Ernest Shackleton. Photo by Frank Hurley /Getty Images

The big prize was first to the pole, which Norway’s Amundsen accomplished during his 1910-1912 expedition.

But, as Suedfeld points out, the majority of people currently in Antarctica aren’t lone adventurers. They are drivers, radio operators, cooks, construction workers, nurses and scientists.

“With all credit to them, because I admire their courage and adaptability, Saunders and others like him are the whipped cream on the Antarctic cake. The cake is made up of the others (workers and scientists).”

For those others, there is not much adventure at all once they get there. Sure, they might go out occasionally to see an ice cave or a penguin rookery. But for the most part, Suedfeld says, their biggest challenge is the monotony of doing the same things every day with the same people.

Advertisement 8
Story continues below
Article content

dbramham@postmedia.com

Twitter: @daphnebramham

Daphne Bramham is travelling as a guest of One Ocean Expeditions, which has neither approved nor reviewed her stories.


Antarctic Exploration Timeline

Up until the 18th century, the continent at the bottom of the Southern Hemisphere was drawn in as Terra Australis Incognito

1773: Captain James Cook and his crew are the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. In 1775, Cook claimed South Georgia Island for Britain. On his third voyage, Cook sails past South Georgia but did not see the continent of Antarctica.

1820: The question of who first discovered Antarctica is controversial. American sealer Nathaniel B. Palmer, Captain Edward Bransfield of Great Britain, and Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen from Russia, all laid claim to its discovery. 

Painting of Sir James Clark Ross, by John R. Wildman in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Painting of Sir James Clark Ross, by John R. Wildman in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Photo by David Westwood /Wikimedia Commons

1821: American sealer and explorer John Davis and his crew are the first to land on Antarctica.

1823: Englishman James Weddell sails to 74 degrees south, the furthest south reached to this point in the sea that now bears his name.

1840: Jules-Sebastian Dumont d’Urville discovers a stretch of Antarctic coastline, which he names for his wife, Adélie. The penguins found there also bear her name. 

Advertisement 9
Story continues below
Article content

1841: In January, Sir James Clark Ross discovers Victoria Land and enters the sea that now bears his name. He discovered Ross Island and named an active volcano, Mount Erebus, and a smaller inactive volcano, Mount Terror, after his ships.

The British Admiralty subsequently sent the ships to the Arctic under Sir John Franklin’s command to search for the Northwest Passage. Franklin and his crew all died in the attempt. Ross commanded a rescue expedition to find Franklin in 1848. The wreck of the Erebus was discovered in 2014, and the HMS Terror in 2016. 

A Parks Canada underwater archaeologist, Marc-André Bernier, collects a marine biological sample from the hull of HMS Erebus. Her final resting place is a mere 11 meters from the surface of the water.
A Parks Canada underwater archaeologist, Marc-André Bernier, collects a marine biological sample from the hull of HMS Erebus. Her final resting place is a mere 11 meters from the surface of the water. Photo by Thierry Boyer /Parks Canada

1890: Having depleted the whaling stock to the north, whalers move southward triggering a renewed interest in the Antarctic, with explorers from various countries vying to become the first to reach the South Pole. It’s romantically dubbed “The Heroic Age.”

1898: Adrien de Gerlache and the crew of Belgica are trapped in pack ice off the Antarctic Peninsula. They drift for a year, but manage to become the first to survive an Antarctic winter. 

1902: Swedish geologist Otto Nordenskjold and five crew members spend the first of two winters and make the first major sledge journey in Antarctica. Their ship was crushed in the ice pack after leaving the crew on Snow Hill Island, creating two separate groups of explorers. Miraculously, the second crew survived the winter and found their way back to the island where the whole party was rescued in 1903 by an Argentinean relief ship. 

Advertisement 10
Story continues below
Article content

1902: Robert F. Scott, Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton get within 745 kilometres of the South Pole. Scurvy, frostbite and a supply shortage forces them to turn back. In their struggle to survive, they killed and ate their sled dogs.

1902: Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson on the British National Antarctic Expedition.
1902: Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson on the British National Antarctic Expedition. Photo by National Library of New Zealand /Wikimedia Commons

1904: Norwegian Carl Larsen builds the first whaling station at Grytviken on South Georgia. Within 10 years, over 20 stations and factory ships are operating in this region. 

1908: Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams get within 156 kilometres of the South Pole, forced to turn back because of a shortage of supplies. 

1911: Two teams race to reach the South Pole. Using sled dogs and skis, Norwegian Roald Amundsen and four team members get there first on Dec. 14. Amundsen plants a Norwegian flag and leaves letters for Robert Scott and his four-man team. Scott arrived a month later. He and his team all die on the way back.

January 1912: Standing (L-R) Captain Lawrence Oates, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, (seated (L-R) Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Edward Wilson at the South Pole . The Norwegian flag planted by Roald Amundsen can be seen in the photo. Scott and his team died on their return journey.
January 1912: Standing (L-R) Captain Lawrence Oates, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, (seated (L-R) Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Edward Wilson at the South Pole . The Norwegian flag planted by Roald Amundsen can be seen in the photo. Scott and his team died on their return journey. Photo by Henry Bowers / Wikimedia Commons /PNG

1912: After other members of his expedition team die, Australian geologist Douglas Mawson treks across George V Land back to his base at Commonwealth Bay only to see the expedition’s ship sailing away. He survived for a year before being rescued.

Advertisement 11
Story continues below
Article content

1915: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton aims to be the first to cross the continent. After their ship, the Endurance, is wrecked, Shackleton and five others sail nearly 1,300 kilometres in a small, open boat to reach a supply depot on South Georgia, while 28 others remain on Elephant Island in the South Shetlands. But the supplies weren’t there, so Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley trekked across the island to a whaling station. It took more than a year and four tries before Shackleton finally returns for his crew on Elephant Island.

1922: At the age of 48, Shackleton dies of a heart attack while on another expedition. He is buried at South Georgia. 

Memorial Cross for Sir Ernest Shackleton, erected by his comrades in Grytviken, South Georgia Island.
Memorial Cross for Sir Ernest Shackleton, erected by his comrades in Grytviken, South Georgia Island. Photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

1929: American aviator Richard Byrd and three others are the first to fly over the South Pole.

1958: An expedition led by New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to complete an overland crossing of Antarctica and the first to reach the South Pole since Scott in 1912. Hillary’s team used modified Massey Ferguson tractors.

1958: Sir Edmund Hillary (left) and Derek Wright and Murray Ellis wave in triumph after arrival at the South Pole Jan. 3rd. Hillary’s expedition started out as an historic tractor trip from Scott Base on McMurdo Sound.
1958: Sir Edmund Hillary (left) and Derek Wright and Murray Ellis wave in triumph after arrival at the South Pole Jan. 3rd. Hillary’s expedition started out as an historic tractor trip from Scott Base on McMurdo Sound. Photo by Bettmann /Getty Images

2016: British explorer Henry Worsley — a distant relative of Shackleton team member Frank Worsley — dies attempting to cross Antarctica unaided, 50 kilometres short of his goal. In 2012, Henry Worsley’s expedition had successfully retraced Roald Amundsen’s 1912 route to the South Pole.

2017: Ben Saunders, another British explorer, fails in his attempt at a solo, unaided and unassisted crossing of Antarctica. Fellow Brit Robert Swan completes his second trek to the South Pole.

With research by Vancouver Sun librarian Carolyn Soltau

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers