“The Worst Journey In The World”

True stories of exploration and discovery have always fascinated me — in particular those involving Mt Everest and Antarctica. This blog, originally published in Feb 2011, is mostly a review of a book about an Antarctic expedition. I was reminded about this recently when I encountered a chapter from this book in an anthology of writings on the Arctic and Antarctic — “The Ends of the Earth.”

Antartica can safely lay claim to being the most inhospitable continent, with temperatures falling as low as -115F in Winter. But for much of the 19th century it continued to attract a number of sea faring explorers — because it housed a coveted prize in exploration: the South Pole. On January 17, 1912 the British navy captain, Robert Scott and his 4-man team reached the South Pole. However, they were not the first to get there — that distinction belonged to Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team: they had beaten Scott to the Pole by 33 days. But, for the better part of the last 100 years, it has been Scott who has been celebrated as a hero while Amundsen has been largely forgotten outside his native Norway. Behind this apparent contradiction is a very simple human truth: People glorify a noble failure far more than a (seemingly) facile success. You see, Scott and his team did not make it back alive: the last three members of the team perished on March 19, 1912 after being trapped in a blizzard and unable to get to their next depot of food and fuel — a mere 11 miles away. The circumstances of their death and the stoicism with which they faced the inevitable (as inferred from the diaries they left behind) dove tailed perfectly with the British ideal of the heroic amateur explorer, who would accept any hardship and sacrifice for his comrades and his country and Scott became an instant hero around the world.

It took me a while, but I eventually got through the 600 page tome, “ The Worst Journey In The World,” by Aspley Cherry-Garrard. The book describes Scott’s second Antartic expedition (also called the Terra Nova Expedition after the name of his supply ship) which was from 1910 to 1913. Cherry-Garrard was the youngest member of the expedition — just 20 years old when he set out and with no real qualfications for being on the expedition. In fact, he is almost ruled out for medical reasons — he was severely short-sighted and needed thick glasses to see anything. Agreeing to go on the planned ‘Winter Journey’ (see later) is what gets him on the team. However, by sheer hard work and a good attitude he becomes a valued member of the team. After years of answering questions about what happened during the trip, Cherry-Garrard gave in and wrote his masterpiece (the only book he would ever write) and it was published in 1922. Almost 90 years later it continues to attract new readers and stir the imagination of almost everybody who reads it. Pretty remarkable for a book that devotes long sections to scientific observation about the local flora and fauna and is filled with archaic turns of phrase and lots of jargon — both nautical and geographical.

Attempting to summarize the trip here is hardly possible — I highly recommend the Wikipedia entry about the Terra Nova expedition for that — it is well written and thoroughly annotated. However, it helps know the broad outlines: At the dawn of the 20th century, both the Poles were as yet unconquered despite several fierce attempts to do so. Admiral Peary of the US would claim to the North Pole in 1909 (a claim that is largely discounted today), but the South Pole was still up for grabs when Scott and his team departed from England in mid-1910. The plan was to get to Antartica in early Summer (remember that Summer in the southern hemisphere is from Dec-March) and establish camp. They would then spend the rest of the Summer and early Fall laying depots (stores of food and fuel) along the chosen route to the Pole that they would depend on for the assault on the Pole the following (1911) Summer. They would wait out the intervening winter months (June-Aug of 1911) at their base camp (in a place called ‘Cape Evans’). Antartica is barely hospitable in Summer, it has near impossible conditions in Winter — super low temperatures, howling blizzards, and of course no sunlight — and nobody had ever contemplated any kind of travel during those months. Until this expedition.

On 27th June, 1911 — in the dead of the Antartica winter — 3 men headed out to Cape Crozier, which was 60 miles from Cape Evans, on the eastern edge of Ross Island. The three men were Dr. Wilson (the leader), Bowers, and our author, Aspley Cherry-Garrard. The goal was to visit a rookery of the Emperor Penguin in order to collect some eggs which are laid in the middle of Winter. Wilson (a zoologist) had a theory that examining the egg of an Emperor penguin (considered a primitive bird) would yeild clues about some missing evolutionary links. This was a most horrific journey — they really didn’t know what to expect and things turned out far worse than anybody imagined. It was often pitch dark (they held up a candle to see each other and their way) and bitterly cold — temperatures were almost always around the -60s and one day dropped all the way to -79F. It was so cold that their clothes would freeze into boards within seconds of coming out of their tent and in the night they lay shaking in their sleeping bags, as Cherry-Garrard writes, “..until our backs would almost break.” During the day their perspiration and breath would instantly freeze into ice and during the night their sleeping bag would be soaking wet as all this ice melted. They were “ man-hauling”, which means that they were pulling a sled with their supplies. And in their case, it was actually 2 sleds carrying almost 800 lbs of stuff. The surface condidtions were often very rough — sometimes almost sand-like because of the extremely low humidity. Many days they covered a little over a mile after 10 hours of pulling and it took them 19 days to cover the 60 miles. Things only get worse after they reach Cape Crozier, but somehow they survive and actually return with 3 penguin eggs.
This trip is in fact the “ worst journey” of the title of the book (and not the subsequent Polar Journey during which Scott and his team perish). You know that the three men survived this trip, but you can scarcely believe it as you read page after page of the terrible conditions and deteriorating health of the travelers in Cherry-Garrard’s matter-of-fact prose. In fact, they come close to death many times but somehow pull through. Rather than discounting from the impact, the almost lack of poetry or overwrought text gives the telling a weight that is hard to shake off. The sheer accretion of detail — there is a detailed accounting of almost every single day of the 6-week journey — gives you sense of being immersed in the journey yourself and it is easy to envision yourself in the middle of a vast icy expanse — damp, cold, and miserable in the dark. Although you are well aware of it by now, you can’t help but be moved when Cherry-Garrard says, almost in passing, that his two companions, Bowers and Wilson, survived the “worst journey in the world” only to die a few months later during the ostensibly well-planned Polar Journey.

Cherry-Garrard gives much the same thorough treatment to the rest of the expedition and of course the starring role is occupied by the actual assault on the Pole and the subsequent discovery of the remains of the 5-man Pole party. The difficulty of going to the Pole and back is hard to exaggerate — they had to cover 1712 miles, almost entirely on foot and often pulling a sled laden with their gear and food. They set out on November 1, 1911 and for most of the next 5 months they walked and man-hauled for 10–15 miles, every single day (except when trapped by blizzards).

Much ink has been expended on debating how the Pole party could have survived, but three points are particularly poignant. The first: Scott’s decision to lay the final depot almost 30 miles north of where he originally planned to (in other words, they would have reached this depot almost 20 miles before the point at which they died) and second, his decision increase the size of the Pole party to 5 when all calculations about food and fuel had been made with a 4-man team in mind. The third one is something that would haunt the author, Cherry-Garrard to his dying day: In early March 1911, he was given the charge to re-supply the ‘One Ton Depot’ and possibly help the returning Pole party who were expected to be at that depot by then. However, he does not find them there and he has to decide between going further south (till his food ran out) or waiting at the depot. Since he has no navigation experience and indeed no real way to ensure that he would cross paths with them, he stays put at the depot and eventually returns to base camp. What he didn’t know was that Scott, Wilson, and Bowers — the last surviving members of the 5-man Pole party — were just 70 miles south of the depot, slowly dying from fatigue, illness, and most crucially, a lack of food and fuel. This knowledge, gained from their diaries 8 months later would be Cherry-Garrard’s lasting regret — the dilemna of the path not taken — could he have rescued them if he had headed further South?

Bravery in the face of adversity is commendable, but is also in part the survival instinct. Willingly taking on a near impossible task with mortal danger almost inevitable, merely because one believes that it must be done — this is what heroes are made of. What would drive these otherwise ordinary men to take on such extraordinary risks? This is what fascinates the rest of us — we, who go through our quotidian tasks treading over the same landscape that multitudes before us have and will continue to do so. Perhaps this fascination explains why so many non-climbers aspire to reach the top of Mt Everest. Indeed, there is an outfit that will allow you to re-live the Polar expedition, after a fashion: For $65,000 they will fly you to Antartica and you get to ski about 700 miles pulling a sled behind you. It will take you 3 months to get to the Pole, but unlike the Polar explorers of a century ago you don’t have to ski back to the starting point — they fly you back.

Many, many, books have been written about the various Polar expeditions, but this is the one that most people think of. Why is this? Cherry-Garrard is not unskilled as a writer, but he is no Hemingway. But what he lacks in skill, he more than makes up with the conviction of one who was there, of one who experienced and saw everything first-hand. This invests his text with an authenticity that no amount of careful wording or dramatic prose can evoke. It is a tough slog, but well worth the price of admission.

Originally published at http://4kumars.blogspot.com.