By Lincoln Hall
Published in Australian Geographic
January to March, 1998
I STILL HAVE VIVID memories of struggling to haul a sled up a seemingly endless series of glaciers, as part of the AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC-sponsored Bicentennial Antarctic Expedition in 1988. I therefore found much to identify with in Gareth Wood's amazing tale, South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot.
But whereas our 300-kilometre round trip to the summit of Mt. Minto took only three weeks, Gareth, Robert Swan and Roger Mear endured 70 days of backbreaking sled-hauling before they reached the South Pole in 1986. The British team suffered intense cold, blizzards, a barely adequate diet, and the worry of navigation without modern technological aids (deliberately eschewed to match the conditions under which Scott's team laboured).
But perhaps the greatest challenge was in coping with the constant clash of minds. The expedition was the brainchild of Robert, a man inspired to re-enact Scott's epic 1911-12 journey to the Pole and with the vision and audacity to get such a bold venture off the ground. Roger was an accomplished mountaineer and Gareth a meticulous planner, logistics officer and base commander.
The pressure that their very different personalities created is palpable when Gareth relates the discovery that two of their sleds had incorrectly fitted runners. "Our failure to recognize this mechanical problem for 350 miles was a direct result of failing to work together. To think that we could have traded sledges at the first hint of our troubles and recognized the discrepancy make us all complete fools. We could have died because of this obstinacy."
Of the three men, Gareth was the quiet one, which is perhaps one reason why his story is published 10 years after the expedition and nine years after In the Footsteps of Scott, Robert and Roger's account. South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot loses nothing of its immediacy because of this time lag. In fact, I think it is a more objective account as a result. Gareth kept a detailed diary that he has expanded or abbreviated as necessary with the help of co-author Eric Jamieson, balancing his opinions with those of Robert and Roger gleaned from diaries, interviews and, I would guess, extensive post-expedition post-mortems.
The challenge of any great expedition is to cope with the unexpected, and Antarctica is particularly powerful when it comes to unpredictable forces of nature. It's foremost in Gareth's mind when he writes of the team's departure: "...we were soon swallowed by the night, a crescent moon barely flooding the cold and uncertain path for us. Ahead lay adventure. My stomach churned with a curious mixture of excitement and dread."
Both our expedition and Gareth's lost its motorized support. Our skidoo floated out to sea when the sea-ice broke out of Edisto Inlet, and two team members were lucky to survive. For Gareth's team, the triumph of reaching the South Pole on 11 January, 1986 was offset by disaster when their ship, the Southern Quest, was crushed by pack ice on the same day (Sinking of the Southern Quest, AG 3). The ship's loss led directly to Gareth spending a second winter on the frozen continent, at Cape Evans, and twice nearly cost him his life when attacked by a leopard seal.
The strongest aspect of South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot is that Gareth manages to show the strengths and weaknesses of all key players without passing judgement. He recounts not only an extraordinary geographical journey, but also personal journeys. "I had come full circle. Physically, I had met the Antarctic on its own terms and survived, but the greater reward was discovering in myself the resources for the success," he wrote.
To me, this is a sign that in the end, as Gareth states: "Our success was a tribute to our individual courage and determination, but most of all it was the result of our combined efforts as a team." Adventure always brings out the best and worst in people, but rarely is this fact so honestly and sensitively portrayed.
Lincoln Hall
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Independent Book Reviews:
· Sir Ranulph Fiennes
· Lincoln Hall
· Gregory Strong
Sample Passages:
· The Beardmore
· Leopard Seal Attack
· Hut Point
· Epilogue
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