OHYAT - Extreme Tobogganing

The Second Returning Party had gotten off course over the three preceding days – the weather had been bad but they had to keep going so they could reach the depot on time and not run out of food. When they did finally see where they were, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, it was at the top of the Shackleton Ice Falls, a steep and jumbled-up area of crevassed ice where the Polar Plateau spills into the Beardmore Glacier.

To reach the glacier we were faced with two alternatives: either to march right round the icefalls, as we had done coming south, and thus waste three whole days, or to take our lives in our hands and attempt to get the sledge slap over the falls. This would mean facing tremendous drops, which might end in a catastrophe. The discussion was very short-lived, and with rather a sinking feeling the descent of the great ice falls was commenced. We packed our ski on the sledge, attached spiked crampons to our finnesko, and guided the sledge through the maze of hummocks and crevasses.

– Teddy Evans, South With Scott

They guided the sledge over the slippery ice, one man leading and two holding the sledge back to keep it from running away down the slope. "We encountered fall after fall, bruises, cuts, and abrasions were sustained, but we vied with one another in bringing all our grit and patience to bear; scarcely a complaint was heard, although one or other of us would be driven almost sick with pain as the sledge cannoned into this or that man's heel with a thud that made the victim clench his teeth to avoid crying out." (Evans) Eventually they came to a part that was too steep even to pick their way down, so Teddy proposed a daring idea. Stop fighting gravity and use it instead: hop on the sledge and toboggan down the ice falls!
( Mr Evans' Wild Ride )

Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard

The final part of Sara Wheeler's five-part series on the men of the Terra Nova is a subject close to my heart, and evidently close to hers as well, because she wrote his biography.

To Strive and Seek: Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Chronicler

Mentioned photos:
Setting out for Cape Crozier
Returning from Cape Crozier

The story of the Polar Party is very sad, indeed tragic, in every sense of the word, even (especially) the classical. The thing about tragedy, though (especially the classical), is that it carries with it an element of catharsis. When I tell people about this obsession of mine, if they know anything about it already they tend to roll their eyes a bit and go 'Oh gosh, that's so depressing...' While I do find it intensely sad, oddly I don't find it depressing at all. No, what is depressing is Cherry's post-Antarctic biography. Merely surviving to a ripe old age is not always the happy ending.

On a lighter note: I've managed to deal with it for the rest of the series, but it's just really weird to hear Cherry's words delivered by anyone but Matt Green, who played him in the radio play that introduced me to all of this, and in my opinion was brilliantly cast and note-perfect in his portrayal. One of the reasons I put off reading the book so long was that I didn't want it to have a different 'voice' than what was in the play, but it was exactly what Mr Green (and the writer and director) had led me to expect, and as a result I 'hear' Cherry's words in that voice whenever I encounter them. I really really hope that the signs of centenary interest visible on Radio 4's scheduling mean that they're going to rerun the radio play this year, so I can point everyone in its direction ...