Mawson's sledge-trip East is the obvious highlight, a staggering survival story featuring hungry crevasses, hungrier men, sudden death, madness, a diet of long-boiled husky paws (he's "Dogless Mawson" by the end, ha ha) and an episode where he lashes the soles of his own feet back on.

But elsewhere, among the sometimes boring scientific obs and routine, are passages that make you certain Lovecraft read this:

"We had come to probe its mystery, we had hoped to reduce it to terms of science, but there was always the 'indefinable' which held aloof, yet riveted our souls."

Or:

"Climbing out of the veranda, one was immediately swallowed in the chaos of hurtling drift, the darkness sinister and menacing [...] Unseen wizard hands clutched with insane fury, hacked and harried."

More than half the book is taken up with the non-Mawson, "subsidiary", narratives, of which Grainger's account of his two years on MacQuarie Island is sometimes quite funny, for example when the men are bored enough to mess with the penguins' heads by adding 10 eggs to a nest while a parent is away, or when a new paragraph starts "Blake found a cave..."

Finally I enjoyed the presence of radiocommunications in this book. The various parties take the radio equipment with them, but it's only after a year or so that it starts to work. We feel their excitement and wonder as their isolation begins to melts away with the interchange of dots and dashes. The "heroic age" of Antarctic exploration is ending, but only a masochist would want to go back to it. ( )

I have been living under a rock. How did I miss the story of to recreate Mawson's journey?

Or his book?

[bc:Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica|6231494|Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica|Tim Jarvis|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GC+2O-zGL._SL75_.jpg|6414097]
[b:Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica|6231494|Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica|Tim Jarvis|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GC+2O-zGL._SL75_.jpg|6414097]

Or his award-winning 90-minute documentary following the expedition that re-enacted the polar survival journey of Sir Douglas Mawson ?

This sensational headline from the time of Jarvis' trip says it all: "Accused of eating a team mate to survive, he's the polar hero history chose to forget. A century later, one remarkable man set out to prove Douglas Mawson was innocent ... "

Interestingly, it never even occured to me after reading his memoir that Mawson cannibalized his fellow climbers. I don't think I'd give a damn if I found out he did, and I don't suppose they would either, but Jarvis trip is a quite a homage to this great explorer and I can't wait to read more about Mawson and what it was like to walk in his footsteps! ( )

This is a compelling story of endurance, courage and determination on the most inhospitable continent on earth. Mawson's recount tells of the wonder, excitement and horror of early Antarctic exploration in vivid detail; today's reader can only marvel at how these scientists were able to manage living conditions in such a hostile environment and to set the standard of scientific achievement for future expeditions.
The first part of the tale covers how in 1912 a team of 18 men set up a base and learned to manage living in almost continuous blizzard conditions and winds of unimaginable strength. With self-deprecating humour Mawson explains how the Hut was built, a formidable task in itself; how they cooked, cleaned and entertained themselves; what they wore to protect themselves against the bitter cold; how they took care of the sledge dogs; and - with a light touch for the general reader - how they undertook the job of gathering scientific and cartographic data. Using equipment and protective clothing that nearly a century later seems primitive, they were entirely self-sufficient - the ship Aurora having departed for its own perilous return journey through the icy waters to Hobart, Tasmania.
This section of the book is immensely readable, but it is the story of Mawson's epic sledge that is unputdownable. After the men had spent nearly a year in the Hut, in November the weather improved, and the men split up into small teams to explore the area further afield. Mawson, Mertz and Ninnis set out together, but only Mawson returned, having lost his companions in appalling circumstances. He tells the tragic story of their deaths and his journey back to the base so vividly that it is unforgettable.
In Adelaide, South Australia, the museum has a special permanent exhibition about Mawson, Australia's greatest polar explorer. Viewing the little wooden sledge that he used for his solo trek across the ice, brings into perspective the enormity of this man's battle against the elements. His refusal to give into despair is inspiring.
The book comes with photos, maps and diagrams, as well as supplementary narratives from the other men on the expedition. Highly recommended.
Cross posted on Good Reads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4440386.The_Home_of_the_Blizzard ( )

death, madness, survival

Read 2007 ( )