A South Pole Expedition 4
On the way back down to the coast, our crampons — they're the spikes on our boots that we have for travelling over this blue ice on the glacier — broke on the top of the Beardmore.
We still had 100 miles to go downhill on very slippery rock-hard blue ice.
They needed repairing almost every hour.
To give you an idea of scale, this is looking down towards the mouth of the Beardmore Glacier.
You could fit the entirety of Manhattan in the gap on the horizon.
That's 20 miles between Mount Hope and Mount Kiffin.
I've never felt as small as I did in Antarctica.
When we got down to the mouth of the glacier, we found fresh snow had obscured the dozens of deep crevasses.
One of Shackleton's men described crossing this sort of terrain as like walking over the glass roof of a railway station.
We fell through more times than I can remember, usually just putting a ski or a boot through the snow.
Occasionally we went in all the way upto our armpits, but thankfully never deeper than that.
And less than five weeks ago, after 105 days,we crossed this oddly inauspicious finish line, the coast of Ross Island on the New Zealand side of Antarctica.
You can see the ice in the foregroundand the sort of rubbly rock behind that.
Behind us lay an unbroken ski trail ofnearly 1,800 miles.
We'd made the longest ever polar journeyon foot, something I'd been dreaming of doing for a decade.
Questions
What record did Saunders and his partner break?
>they made the longest ever polar journey on foot.
What was this record so important to Saunders?
>he had wanted to accomplish this goal for more than a decade.
if something is inauspicious, it seems to show that...
>its future success is unlikely.
How do the Beardmore Glacier make Saunders feel?
>the humblest he had ever felt in his life
Why did Saunders and his partner have difficult return journey to the coast?
>Their crampons broke.
And looking back, I still stand by all the things I've been saying for years about the importance of goals and determination and self-belief.
But I'll also admit that I hadn't given much thought to what happens when you reach the all-consuming goal that you've dedicated most of your adult life to,
and the reality is that I'm stillfiguring that bit out.
As I said, there are very few superficial signs that I've been away. I've put on 30 pounds.
I've got some very faint, probablycovered in makeup now, frostbite scars.
I've got one on my nose, one on eachcheek, from where the goggles are,
but inside I am a very different person indeed.
If I'm honest, Antarctica challenged meand humbled me so deeply that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put it intowords.
I'm still struggling to piece togethermy thoughts.
That I'm standing here telling thisstory is proof that we all can accomplish great things, through ambition,through passion, through sheer stubbornness, by refusing to quit,
that if you dream something hard enough,as Sting said, it does indeed come to pass.
But I'm also standing here saying, you know what, that cliche about the journey being more important than the destination?
There's something in that.
The closer I got to my finish line, thatrubbly, rocky coast of Ross Island,
the more I started to realize that the biggest lesson that this very long, very hard walk might be teaching me is that happiness is not a finish line,
that for us humans, the perfection that so many of us seem to dream of might not ever be truly attainable,
and that if we can't feel content here,today, now, on our journeys amidst the mess and the striving that we all inhabit,
the open loops, the half-finished to-dolists, the could-do-better-next-times, then we might never feel it.
A lot of people have asked me, whatnext?
Right now, I am very happy justrecovering and in front of hotel buffets.
But as Bob Hope put it, I feel veryhumble, but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.
Thank you.
Questions
How was Saunders' body affected by his journey?
>Frosbite left him with a couple of scars on his face.
If something is a cliche, it...
>is overused.
What is Saunders in a process of figuring out?
>What happens after a lifelong goal is accomplished.
What is Saunders message to the audiences?
>Happiness isn't found at the finish line, it is found during the journey.
If something is all-consuming, it...
>takes almost all of one's attention in time.
I've never felt as small as I did in Antarctica.
You could fit the entirety of Manhattan in the gap on the horizon.
When we got down to the mouth of the glacier, we found fresh snow had obscured the dozens of deep crevasses.
They accomplished the longest ever polar journey on foot.
The glacier made Saunders feel the smallest he had ever felt in his life.
We'd made the longest ever polar journey on foot, something I'd been dreaming of doing for a decade.
