South Pole 2009
Shackleton's Unfinished Journey - South Pole 2009.
In 1907 Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton mounted the first significant attempt to walk to the South Pole.
Together with Companions Adams, Marshall and Wilde, he reached the furthest point south ever achieved at latitude 88'23"S. However, with food running short, Shackleton had to make an immortalising decision: Either turn back, or die. Later he was to tell his wife. 'he thought she would prefer a live donkey to a dead lion'.
With his victory 97 nautical miles away, he returned by the skin of his teeth to leave the glory to Scott and Amundsen, but it was Shackleton who found the way.
In the Centenury year of his attempt we are going to try and finish this journey.
We will fly to 88'23"S and walk on skis the final 112 statue miles.
This is an amazing opportunity and something that does not come along very often.
There is only a small team going of four plus Mike Thornewill who is an experienced polar leader so we will be in safe hands.
Fiona Thornewill, my patron wrote this about Antartica.
"Antartica is the world's highest, driest, coldest and most windswept continent with a barely credible low temperature record of -89 Celsius. It is a formidable land of extreme and mystery. Conjured up are legendary names such as Scott and Shackleton. Indeed Great Britain has contributed much to Antartica's discovery."
