Douglas Mawson's tragic Antarctic trek

On an Antarctic expedition 100 years ago, Mawson endured one of the most horrific journeys in the history of explorationDeath and tragedy are familiar experiences for explorers. Despite Douglas Mawson's copious innovations and achievements in leading the original Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911, he is mostly remembered because of one of the most terrible tales in the history of Antarctic exploration. In November 1912, Mawson set out to explore what would later become known as King George V Land with two companions, three sledges and a team of dogs. He came back, three months later, alone and a physical wreck.By late 1912, as summer returned to the Antarctic, Mawson had split his explorers into several sledging teams with the aim of mapping as much of the unknown continent's surface as he could from his bases at Commonwealth Bay. Mawson's team trekked into the Antarctic interior in an attempt to link up his mapping with the edges of areas explored by Robert Scott.Over several weeks in December 1912, Mawson and his companions – a British officer called Bellgrave Ninnis and a Swiss ski champion called Xavier Mertz – had worked their way to a distance of 500km from base camp. On 14 December, they were crossing a heavily crevassed field in single file: Mertz at the front, Mawson in the middle and Ninnis at the back. Ninnis was with the sledge that had the strongest dogs and most of the team's provisions.In his book The Home of the Blizzard, Mawson wrote that he notic...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: theguardian.com Blogposts World news Antarctica Science Source Type: news