The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#1

Post by misotaur » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 8:41 PM UTC

The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica
newyorker.com

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#2

Post by donquichotte » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 11:49 AM UTC

Ooooh man, I'm getting chills just reading the intro. Last week, I finished Reinhold Messner's book "Wild" which is an excellent narration of Shakleton's (and Frank Wild's) adventures in the Antarctica.

This sparked my interest in pole expeditions, and I was surprised to learn that:

1) Amundsen was not only the first person to reach the geographic south pole, but also most likely the first to reach the geographic north pole. Today, the two expeditions that claimed to have reached the north pole prior to him are both thought to have missed the pole by several hundred kilometers.

2) He reached the north pole in a rigid air ship with Umberto Nobile, my new explorer hero, who later rescued his Jewish girlfriend in fascist Italy and went on to build air ships for the Soviet Union and later teach aerodynamics in the United States.

EDIT: And I'm getting more chills just thinking about Sjaak Lucasson's planned north pole expedition with a modified Yamaha R1 motorcycle pulling a huge sled full of fuel [1]

EDIT 2: Funnily enough, the navigator on Shackleton's boat sailing to the attempted pole traversal was also called Worsley.

[1] http://www.sjaaklucassen.nl/en/noordpool-2017-intro/

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#3

Post by cellover » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 12:21 PM UTC

donquichotte wrote: post #2

Ooooh man, I'm getting chills just reading the intro. Last week, I finished Reinhold Messner's book "Wild" which is an excellent narration of Shakleton's (and Frank Wild's) adventures in the Antarctica. This sparked my interest in pole expeditions, and I was surprised to learn that: 1) Amundsen was not only the first person to reach the geographic south pole, but also most likely the first to reach the geographic nor…

I can not recommend enough the documentary about Shackleton's survival story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQRHHHXntc

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#4

Post by ManuelKiessling » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 12:35 PM UTC

cellover wrote: post #3

donquichotte wrote: post #2

Ooooh man, I'm getting chills just reading the intro. Last week, I finished Reinhold Messner's book "Wild" which is an excellent narration of Shakleton's (and Frank Wild's) adventures in the Antarctica. This sparked my interest in pole expeditions, and I was surprised to learn that: 1) Amundsen was not only the first person to reach the geographic south pole, but also most likely the first to reach the geographic nor…

I can not recommend enough the documentary about Shackleton's survival story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQRHHHXntc http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/

I can highly recommend the book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#5

Post by RHSman2 » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 1:12 PM UTC

Not many words to comment on that. Shame this isn't at the top of HN instead of 'Do you need a blockchain'.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#6

Post by tcfunk » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 1:22 PM UTC

OT, but what a beautiful page.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#7

Post by marasal » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 1:24 PM UTC

That was journey... Like emotional roller coaster.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#8

Post by yoodenvranx » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 2:58 PM UTC

RHSman2 wrote: post #5

Not many words to comment on that. Shame this isn't at the top of HN instead of 'Do you need a blockchain'.

It would be nice if each submission on HN had a tag for 'tech-related vs not tech-related'. This way you could do some nice filtering if you are sick of the standard tech-related articles.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#9

Post by lb1lf » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #4

cellover wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can not recommend enough the documentary about Shackleton's survival story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQRHHHXntc http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/

I can highly recommend the book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing.

Also, the aforementioned Frank Worsley (Shackleton's navigator) wrote a terrific book called 'Shackleton's Boat Journey', an account of their (successful, as it were!) attempt to rescue the crew after the pole-traversal expedition ran into problems. Reads almost like a thriller.

Also, Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote a quite harrowing account of Scott's expedition. Highly recommended.

Re: The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

#10

Post by tincholio » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 3:28 PM UTC

Not directly related to the article, but this documentary about life in Antarctica is truly amazing: http://frozensouth.weebly.com/ (it's called "Antarctica - A Year On Ice")