When you can’t find it on Google.

1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition Map

It’s still baffling to me how Shackleton thought this was a good idea. Compare the size of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean around it to the Northern hemisphere. It’s over 2,100 miles on land alone; approximately the same distance as a dogsled trip from Seattle, WA, to northern Michigan.

Shackleton’s planned 1914 route
Northern hemisphere

British explorer Vivian Fuchs, along with Edmund Hillary (one of the first to climb Everest) and their teams successfully completed Shackleton’s route from 1955-1958, during the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE).

This post inspired by the new South & The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration Blu-ray set that I purchased. I reviewed the 1919 film South on Letterboxd. It details the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917.


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