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.
From the article:
"Worsley read everything he could about Shackleton and other polar explorers. He was delighted to discover that Frank Worsley, a trusted member of one of Shackleton’s expeditions, was a distant relative of his, and had written his own thrilling memoir..."
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.
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")
A great article. It also is a great reminder that knowing when to give up can be the bravest and best things you can do. Knowing how far he could go and push his men seems to have been one of Shackleton's great strengths. Better a live donkey indeed.
[+] [-] donquichotte|8 years ago|reply
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/
[+] [-] cellover|8 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQRHHHXntc
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/
[+] [-] Mitzz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RHSman2|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yoodenvranx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marasal|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tincholio|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neaden|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tcfunk|8 years ago|reply