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| Fiennes
doggie pees both Poles |
Photo of Fiennes's doggie courtesy of
Living Dangerously
This is what we are talking about:
Cute little Bothie has unique polar
ex-pee-rience.
But a lap dog peeing on a Pole is not the same as
reaching the Pole with a team of Huskies. Henson & Peary used the
powerful arctic Husky to haul their sledges. This is
why we say Fiennes is unqualified to comment on the 1909
North Pole achievement that earned Henson the
posthumous Hubbard Medal award. For Fiennes to comment on
Henson strikes me as absurd. Henson made history. 90 years
from now Henson will still be a legend and Fiennes
forgotten. |
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Roland Huntford describes Amundsen's narrative as "all that
Scott's is not"...the Golden Age of Antarctic Exploration...in his
excellent books The Last Place on Earth and Shackleton
helped to debunk the myth of the glorious failure (Scott the Martyr)
as an example to follow. How right he is! Amundsen relates a
fascinating tale of fortune, misfortune, hardship, and ultimately -
success. Numerous photos, maps, and scientific data, this book should
be considered one of the great narratives of exploration.
The great moral lesson of this tale is that preparedness
ultimately leads to success. Is it any wonder that Roald
Amundsen and his comrades won the race to the South Pole? |
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Is Fiennes qualified to comment on how Henson reached the North Pole?
Fiennes has no dog sledge experience.
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That is why we say he is not qualified to comment on what is
possible with skilled men driving teams of arctic huskies. |
Another brilliant editorial by Russell R. Robinson
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The English, traditionally, rejected dogs because of confusion between household pets and
the arctic Husky. They would never use "man's best friend" the way
Scott used his own men. That mistake cost Scott's expedition their lives.
But arctic Huskies are not pets! Peary described them as wolf-like
animals that fought viciously to determine dominance. The winner
was the King dog who then led each team. I don't think Fiennes
has much real experience with Huskies. Therefore he knows little
about the means of polar transportation Henson & Peary
mastered to reach the North Pole, and Amundsen the South Pole.
I think traveling alone without Huskies cost Fiennes his finger tips.
In fact, I think that Fiennes last North Pole trek would have killed
him if he had not been air rescued. He also had to be air
rescued at the South Pole! In fact, after freezing his hands attempting
the North Pole, he cut off his dead finger tips himself with a fret saw.
This is not indicative of a man skilled in polar travel the way Peary
reached the North Pole in 1909, or how Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1913.But Peary did not ski! Peary used dogs
to drag his supplies and used snow shoes when appropriate, and also
used skis when appropriate. And sometimes he simply rode in the
sledge on flat ground that was easy for the dogs to traverse.
In my opinion Fiennes is unqualified to have any opinion on Henson or
the 1909 North Pole achievement in general. His knowledge of this polar
specialty is outside of his own field of expertise. His only excuse seems to be that he believes
Wally Herbert(1). (More
about Wally Herbert...)
Fiennes is not an
historian so he has no professional credentials, training, or peer
review when he comments on the 1909 North Pole expedition.
[ (1) from a letter by Fiennes supporter Michael Kobold.]
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Polar Success |
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| Peary & Amundsen each used dogs to polar success. Medal from the Royal Geographical
Society. |
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Scott used his men as
dogs and died alomg with them. Fiennes
preferred this method, or he used
motorized travel such as Land Rovers. But he never used dog teams. |
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| Coming soon:
Russell R. will review the out of print,
indulgent autobiographical Fiennes classic Living Expensively
(aka Living Dangerously). |
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| In response to reader letters from American and
British Fiennes "supporters" we feel
more needs to be web published about this difficult to
understand topic of "royalty", the South Pole, and
anti-Peary sentiment. Hopefully, Russell R.'s next review will bring
insight into the mentality of the remaining vestiges of a "British Empire" from the
point of view of an American Colonial. |
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Matt Henson never lost any finger
tips during his 18 years in the arctic with
Peary, but then Henson never tried to reach the North Pole alone,
as Fiennes did. Fiennes lost his finger tips when trying to
reach the Pole alone.
Both Peary and Henson, in their books, discuss
how exposed skin freezes in minutes. One never took off one's gloves
to plunge bare hands under the freezing ocean. The
difference is that Peary and Henson mastered the Inuit ways of
living, traveling and surviving in the arctic. That is how they
reached the Pole in 1909. That was how they succeeded. |
See? We told you the Arctic was dangerous. Fiennes dead
fingertips prove it. Later he sawed off the dead tips all by
himself.
http://www.maxadventure.
co.uk/exped_north9.htm |
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