Table Of ContentCECIL KUHNE
NEAR DEATH
IN THE
ARCTIC
Cecil Kuhne is the editor of four anthologies on adventure travel, On the
Edge, The Armchair Paddler, Near Death on the High Seas, and Near Death
in the Mountains. A former whitewater rafting guide, he has also written
nine books about rafting, kayaking, and canoeing. He lives in Dallas.
ALSO EDITED BY CECIL KUHNE
Near Death in the Mountains
Near Death on the High Seas
On the Edge
The Armchair Paddler
A VINTAGE DEPARTURES ORIGINAL, FEBRUARY 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Cecil Kuhne
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Departures and colophon are trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Permissions appear at the end of the book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Near death in the Arctic : true stories of disaster and survival / edited by Cecil Kuhne.
p. cm.
“A Vintage departures original”–T.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-30779372-0
1. Polar regions–Discovery and exploration. 2. Survival skills–Polar regions. I. Kuhne, Cecil,
1952–
G590.N35 2009
910.911–dc22
2008045794
www.vintagebooks.com
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Author
Also by Cecil Kuhne
Title Page
Copyright
PREFACE
FOREWORD from Polar Dream
HELEN THAYER
IN THE LAND OF WHITE DEATH
An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
VALERIAN ALBANOV
THE SOUTH POLE
An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram,” 1910–
1912
CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN
MAWSON’S WILL
The Greatest Survival Story Ever Written
LENNARD BICKEL
ALONE
RICHARD E. BYRD
THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD
Antarctic 1910–13
APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD
ICE BIRD
The First Single-Handed Voyage to Antarctica
DAVID LEWIS
FARTHEST NORTH
DR. FRIDTJOF NANSEN
THE NORTH POLE
Its Discovery in 1909 Under the Auspices of the Peary Arctic Club
ROBERT E. PEARY
SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION
The Personal Journals of Captain R. F. Scott, C.V.O., R.N., on His Journey to
the South Pole
ROBERT FALCON SCOTT
SOUTH
A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
ERNEST SHACKLETON
SHADOWS ON THE WASTELAND
MIKE STROUD
SHACKLETON’S BOAT JOURNEY
The Narrative from the Captain of the Endurance
FRANK ARTHUR WORSLEY
NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
Venturing to the ends of the earth offers its fair share of challenges, and
unfortunately, the seemingly never-ending struggle sometimes results in
having to pay the ultimate price. The odds of freezing to death are, of
course, very real in this apparently endless landscape of snow and ice. If
you somehow manage to avoid that awful fate, other hazards await.
Cold, howling winds can instantly turn exposed skin into frostbite,
blizzards often reduce visibility to a few feet, and hidden crevasses may
send you to an immediate end.
And some simply starve to death. The British explorer Robert Falcon
Scott, on his doomed 1912 trek to be the first to reach the South Pole,
lay dying in his tent with two of his colleagues. He had the presence of
mind to pen these haunting last words in his diary: “For God’s sake look
after our people.”
The conditions that Arctic and Antarctic explorers face are, quite
frankly, beyond comprehension. The astonishingly hostile conditions
obstruct the basic needs of life: food, shelter, clothing, water. And this is
true even with modern high-technology gear. Tents must withstand the
onslaught of wind and blowing snow; sleeping bags have to be well-
insulated, waterproof, and breathable enough to avoid condensation
inside; and reliable cooking stoves are necessary to melt snow and cook
meals high enough in calories to keep the body warm.
Those who probe these frigid, gale-swept reaches must also possess
exceptionally well-honed navigational skills, mental and physical
fortitude, and even a bit of good fortune. A simple slipup can easily lead
to frostbite, snow blindness, and even death. The constant concern,
naturally, is hypothermia–the sudden lowering of the body’s core
temperature. Along with it comes a debilitating loss in reasoning ability,
and errors in judgment are not easily remedied. More alarming is the
fact that most victims don’t even become aware of the danger signals
until it’s too late.
Conditions worsen when you add the element of water. The most
dangerous seas on earth are those surrounding Antarctica. Winds circle
unobstructed around the continent, whipping up huge waves and
creating deadly sea ice. Many a vessel has met its fate after being
trapped and crushed under the immense pressure of these polar ice
fields. Even today, nature’s forces are the enemy, and they always win in
the end.
The arduous journeys described in this book are a moving mixture of
success and failure, and their prose resonates precisely because they
were written not by professional authors, but by those driven to set foot
in a spot no human had yet laid eyes upon. Their goals were sometimes
met, but often matters went horribly wrong. From reading these
accounts one thing is absolutely clear: the globe’s apexes are best
observed from the relative comfort of the pages related here.
Cecil Kuhne,
Dallas, Texas
FOREWORD
Polar Dream
HELEN THAYER
I awoke at 12:30 a.m., and the first thing I saw when I checked the
weather was the lenticular clouds, some cigar-shaped and others
saucerlike, floating lazily across the pale blue sky. They and polar bears
were the last things I wanted to see. I nervously checked the
temperature. It had risen to 5 degrees F., and the south wind had
strengthened to ten miles per hour. With sinking spirits I realized last
night’s weather forecast was correct after all. My quandary then was
whether to try to beat the storm to the North Pole or stay where I was,
close to the coast, and wait it out. I knew that at this time of the year,
storms can have long staying power. But there was always the possibility
that the storm might dissipate before developing into anything serious.
I weighed the alternative. If I tried to race the storm to the pole and
didn’t make it, then I would have to camp out there and wait for it to
pass. I had certainly camped in worse places and I had already
weathered high winds. My tent and gear were in good shape and should
be able to withstand a battering. Besides, could I really expect more
shelter from the storm where I was camped than out on the sea ice
farther south? As soon as I asked myself the question I knew the answer
was no. Therefore, there was no advantage in waiting. I decided to go
for it.
I hurriedly packed and with my dog, Charlie, in his usual place at my
right side, I set off at 1:00 a.m. for the pole. My plan was to head due
south, straight down the coastline of King Christian Island, then continue
to the south and reach the pole in one day. Navigation would be easy
until I was out of sight of land again. Then I would switch to the
methods I had used to get to King Christian Island on the way north. I
skied down the coast into the headwind, taking a line farther out from
the coast than I had on the way up, and again was struck by the flat
