A South Pole Expedition 3
But then we turned around, and this is where things get interesting.
High on the Antarctic plateau, over 10,000 feet, it's very windy, very cold, very dry, we were exhausted.
We'd covered 35 marathons, we were only halfway,
and we had a safety net, of course, of ski planes and satellite phones and live, 24-hour tracking beacons that didn't exist for Scott,
but in hindsight, rather than making our lives easier,
the safety net actually allowed us to cut things very fine indeed, to sail very close to our absolute limits as human beings.
And it is an exquisite form of torture to exhaust yourself to the point of starvation day after day while dragging a sledge full of food.
For years, I'd been writing glib lines in sponsorship proposals about pushing the limits of human endurance,
but in reality, that was a very frightening place to be indeed.
We had before we'd got to the Pole, two weeks of almost permanent headwind, which slowed us down.
As a result, we'd had several days of eating half rations.
We had afinite amount of food in the sledges tomake this journey, so we were trying tostring that out by reducing ourintake to half the calories weshould have been eating.
As a result, we both became increasingly hypoglycemic — we had low blood sugar levels day after day —
and increasingly susceptible to the extreme cold.
Tarka took this photo of me one evening after I'd nearly passed out with hypothermia.
We both had repeated bouts of hypothermia, something I hadn't experienced before, and it was very humbling indeed.
As much as you might like to think, as I do, that you're the kind of person who doesn't quit, that you'll go down swinging,
hypothermia doesn't leave you much choice.
You become utterly incapacitated.
It's like being a drunk toddler.
You become pathetic.
I remember just wanting to lie down and quit.
It was a peculiar feeling, and a real surprise to me to be debilitated to that degree.
Questions
Why did they have to eat half rations?
>They were running out of food.
How does Saunders compare writing sponsorship proposal to actually doing the expedition?
>It's easier to write about something than to do it.
To be susceptible to something means...
>to be easily influenced or harmed by it.
A satefy net is..
>a system designed to protect people or prevent problems
A ration of something is a fixed amount of it that people can have when there is a shortage.
>It can leave them utterly incapacitated.
He had a safety net of planes, phones, and tracking beacons.
To be susceptible to someting means...
>to be easily influenced or harmed by it.
A ration of something is ...
>a fixed amount of it that people can have when there is a shortage.
We had a finite amount of food in the sledges to make this journey, so we were trying to string that out by reducing our intake to half the calories we should have been eating.
And then we ran out of food completely, 46 miles short of the first of the depots that we'd laid on our outward journey.
We'd laid 10 depots of food, literally burying food and fuel, for our return journey — the fuel was for a cooker so you could melt snow to get water —
and I was forced to make the decision to call for a resupply flight, a ski plane carrying eight days of food to tide us over that gap.
They took 12 hours to reach us from the other side of Antarctica.
Calling for that plane was one of the toughest decisions of my life.
And I sound like a bit of a fraud standing here now with a sort of belly.
I've put on 30 pounds in the last three weeks.
Being that hungry has left an interesting mental scar, which is that I've been hoovering up every hotel buffet that I can find.
But we were genuinely quite hungry and in quite a bad way.
I don't regret calling for that plane for a second, because I'm still standing here alive, with all digits intact, telling this story.
But getting external assistance like that was never part of the plan, and it's something my ego is still struggling with.
This was the biggest dream I've ever had, and it was so nearly perfect.
Questions
What tough decision were Saunders forced to make?
>he had to call a resupply plane to bring them food.
To tide somebody over means to...
>to help them through a difficult period
Getting external assistance like that was never part of the plan, and it's something my ego is still struggling with. This was the biggest dream I've ever had, and it was so nearly perfect.
A fraud is someone who...
>deceives others.
Why doesn't Saunders regret calling the plane?
>Because he is alive with all of his digits.
A buffet is a meal where guests serve themselves.
The food was running out so they had to eat half rations.
Having a safety net allowed the expedition to push their limits as human beings.
