It’s a terrifying thing, to watch someone’s lips turn blue as they gasp for air. Rapid, staccato breathing, audible over the violently flapping tent—a harbinger of the worsening storm bearing down on us.
We had just tumbled into the hastily erected tent, searching for a brief respite from the cold, dry air that clawed at our lungs. Now I pull at my face, tearing off the tangle of frozen coverings, discarding them on the tent floor with beard still attached. The stove sputters in its feeble attempt to warm the tent air. I look over at Squiz and Vinnie. Hard men, both of them. But their faces mirror mine—fear.
The child-like scribblings on the tent wall behind them show the passage of time: We have been out here for 54 days. We’re still at least a week out from the Pole, and we are exhausted, thin, and in serious trouble.
THE JOURNEY, FOR ME AT LEAST, BEGAN seven years earlier. Having just returned from a winter crossing of Iceland—a reckless, foolhardy and utterly brilliant adventure, which through sheer dumb luck rather than skill saw two of us walk away unscathed—I was apathetically wading through my inbox. Post-expedition blues had well and truly set in. Then I noticed an email from an old friend with a single line: “This may interest you.” I opened the attachment to see an expression of interest from Emily Chapman, seeking people to form a team to undertake a large expedition in Antarctica. I applied on a whim.
Hundreds of applicants were screened, sorted, interviewed, assessed, prodded, poked, and ranked.
With each team-building, training, and selection activity the herd was thinned. We hiked in Tasmania, climbed in the Blue Mountains, skied Kosciuszko, and shivered our way through the quintessential Australian mix of sleet and snow out the back of Falls Creek.
But ultimately, nobody restricts themselves to Australia to train for a polar expedition. We packed our duffels and skis and flew to Norway, to the unassuming mountain village of Finse; it’s nestled between two barren, icy plateaus, and is about as real as you can get to train for Antarctica.
Our original plan was to start the expedition at the end of
