The Worst Journey in the World, Cherry-Garrard the Terra Nova, Robert Scott, Ranulph Fiennes rejects Henson, ISBN 0802117252, Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole, by Fergus Fleming

Peary's North Pole diary authentic

Fiennes "reignites
..a race row..."

Polar Racism?

Peary Diary

Fiennes defibrillates

Polar Failure

Man-hauling vs dogs

World's Greatest

Fiennes explorer or travel writer?

Who found Ubar?

Fiennes and Stroud polar suffering

Guinness backs Peary

Guinness history?

$ Titles of nobility

CHERRY

Sara Wheeler in Cherry (A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard) has provided a wonderful service to those avid, hungry readers of Antarctic adventures. The author has filled in the life of one of the important personalities from the heroic age of arctic exploration in such a way as to deepen the understanding of the men how took this challenge, particularly both before and after the adventure of their lives. Cherry, of course, wrote the classic and indispensable, The Worst Journey in the World, the finest book written by an actual explorer himself.

Friday, Apr. 2
8 hours sound, warm, refreshing sleep. Left camp 5.-a.m. leaving others to break camp & follow. A fine morning, clear, temp -25˚ wind of last days subsided.
G Going the best & most equable of any day yet. Large old floes, hard & level with patches of sapphire blue ice (the pools of last summer, & with a surrounded by pressure ridges, some of which almost stupendous, yet easily negotiable either through some convenient gap or up the slope of some huge drifts. Came on at a good clip for about 4 hours when the sledges overtook me. After that obliged to sit on sledges most of the time (setting course by moon, our shadows, etc.) or else run to keep up. Kept the pace for 10 hours.

Chronicling the adventures of Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and other famous explorers of the polar regions, this illustrated history of discovery reveals what these men initially found and the challenges facing these areas today.

This spirited history probes the 15-year search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition in the mid-19th century and the Frederick Cook-Robert Peary controversy. "Readers who think the ultimate adventure took place at the South Pole should rediscover the Arctic explorations.

Note to Mr. Fiennes: Where, sir, in Peary's notes do find evidence that supports your statement? "Sadly, I doubt that Henson and Peary ever got to the North Pole. It can be mathematically proved that they could not have done it on the basis of their notes." Where Mr. Fiennes? Sir?...Sir?

Peary never tried this brilliant method to reach the Pole. Fiennes never tried Peary's method. Fiennes tried to ski to the Pole but failed every time. "Then what makes him an expert on Peary?"

Peary diary, April 1: "Came on at a good clip for about 4 hours when the sledges overtook me. After that obliged to sit on sledges most of the time ...or else run to keep up. Kept the pace for 10 hours....Have no doubt we covered 30 miles but will be conservative & call it 25...

April 3: Dogs frequently on trot...April 4: over 10 hours on a direct course, 25 dogs often on the trot, occasionally on the run. 25 miles....April 5: dog on trot much of the time. Last two hours on young ice of a north & south lead they were often galloping. 10 hours. 25 miles or more. Great....April 6: The rise in the temp to -15˚ has reduced friction of the sledges 25% & gives the dogs appearance of having caught the spirits of the party. The more sprightly ones as they trot along with tightly curved tails, repeatedly toss their heads with short barks & yelps. 12 hours on a direct course. (30 miles)"

Daily details:

Peary diary, April1, (page c)
"Up to now I have intentionally kept in the extreme rear, to straighten out any little hitch or encourage a man with a broken sledge & see that everything is drawing. From here on I shall take my proper place in the lead....(April 2) hard & level with patches of sapphire blue ice (the pools of last summer, & with a surrounded by pressure ridges, some of which almost stupendous, yet easily negotiable either through some convenient gap or up the slope of some huge drifts.)"

Notice how lightly the sledges are loaded. Henson & Peary were making a "dash" to the Pole from the virtual highway of base camps made by all the support teams and back again. They traveled fast because of light loads, dogs in top condition, perfect weather, and because they were the best dog team drivers. On the way back the dogs simply followed their existing outbound trail�a fact that makes travel much faster than blazing a trail.

Came on at a good clip for about 4 hours when the sledges overtook me. After that obliged to sit on sledges most of the time (setting course by moon, our shadows, etc.) or else run to keep up. Kept the pace for 10 hours....Have no doubt we covered 30 miles but will be conservative & call it 25. My Eskimos say we have come as far as from the Roosevelt to Porter Bay. This by our winter route scales 35 miles on the chart. Whatever the distance is, we are likely now that the wind has ceased to retain what we have made. It is possible that with release from the wind pressure the ice may rebound some & return us some of the hard earned miles it stole from us yesterday & the day before. In any event, we are now beyond the 88th parallel, & I am a tired and satisfied man.

Sat. Apr. 3
Got on the trail 3 hours earlier this morning after a small sleep. Am going to try & work in an extra march. Am training down. Took up another hole in my belt this morning. Weather fine, clear & calm. Ice as yesterday except at beginning of march it was rougher requiring use of pickaxes. This & a brief delay at a narrow lead cut down our distance some. Ten hours. (20 m.) half way to 89˚. Dogs frequently on trot. Some gigantic rafters but not in our path.

Sunday Apr. 4
Hit the trail again before midnight after a short sleep. If weather holds good shall be able to make get in the extra march. The day a duplicate of day before yesterday as to weather & going. The latter even better. The surface is as even (except for the pressure ridges) as the glacial fringe from Hecla to Columbia, & harder. Something over 10 hours on a direct course, 25 dogs often on the trot, occasionally on the run. 25 miles. Near end of march crossed a hundred yard lead on thin young ice. As I ran ahead to guide the dogs obliged to slide my feet & travel wide, bear style. One runner of one sledge cut through for some distance but the sledge kept up. The men let sledges & dogs come on by themselves & came gliding across where they could. The last two came over on all fours. Sledge ran over side of my right foot as result of my stumbling while running but think it will give me no trouble. Am tired but satisfied with our progress. We are in sight of 89˚. Give me three days more of this weather.

Monday, Apr. 5
Over the 89th!! Started early last evening. The march a duplicate of previous one as to weather & going. temp at starting -35˚. Sledges appeared to haul a little easier, dog on trot much of the time. Last two hours on young ice of a north & south lead they were often galloping. 10 hours. 25 miles or more. Great.
A 50 yd lead open when I reached it moved enough by time sledges came up to let us cross. Still this biting cold, the face burning for hours. (like the Inland Ice), The natives complain of it & at every camp are fixing their clothes about the face, waist, knees & wrist. They complain of their noses, which I never knew them to do before. it is keen & bitter as frozen steel. Light air from S during first of march, veering to E & freshening as we camp. Another dog expended here. Tomorrow if ice & weather permit, I shall make a long march, "boil the kettle" midway, & try to make up the 5 miles lost on the 3rd. The natives complain of it & at every camp are fixing their clothes about the face, waist, knees & wrist. They complain of their noses, which I never knew them to do before. it is keen & bitter as frozen steel. Light air from S during first of march, veering to E & freshening as we camp. Another dog expended here. Tomorrow if ice & weather permit, I shall make a long march, "boil the kettle" midway, & try to make up the 5 miles lost on the 3rd.

Tuesday, Apr. 6
On the trail again before midnight though I gave the party more sleep at this camp than at the previous ones, as we were all needing it, but I wanted to make the next camp in time for a noon sight if the sun was visible. Weather thick, like the march after Marvin turned back. A dense lifeless pall of grey overhead, almost black at the horizon, & the ice ghastly chalky white with no relief. Like the ice cap, & just the thing an artist would paint for a Polar Icescape. Striking contrast to the glittering sunlit fields over which we have been traveling for 4 days, of my dead reckoning & indicates that I have been conservative in my estimates as I intended, or that the ice has slacked back or both. ...The going better than ever, hardly any snow on the hard granular surf last Summers surface of the old floes, the blue lakes larger. The rise in the temp to -15˚ has reduced friction of the sledges 25% & gives the dogs appearance of having caught the spirits of the party. The more sprightly ones as they trot along with tightly curved tails, repeatedly toss their heads with short barks & yelps. 12 hours on a direct course. (30 miles) Can I wait to cover those other 5? Not a sign of a lead in this march. The thick weather gives me less concern than it might, had I not been forehanded yesterday & fearing a cloud bank in the south took a latitude sight (89˚ 25'). This is 2 miles ahead. The wind which was from the east when we started gradually veered to the south & died away. While we were in camp it blew fresh from the east for some hours.

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