Shadows on the Wasteland: Crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes

by Mike Stroud

When Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Mike Stroud ended their journey on foot across Antarctica in February of 1993, they were frostbitten and close to starvation. They had made the first coast-to-coast crossing of the continent, unsupported by men, animals or machines, and were too weak to continue over the floating Ross ice-shelf to open water. Ninety-five days earlier they had begun, pulling nearly 500 lbs each of essential food and fuel on sleds, and on the way they endured windchill temperatures as low as minus 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Mike Stroud, doctor, nutritionist and survival consultant to the British Ministry of Defense, is no stranger to the Polar regions. He was a member of the "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition and has made several attempts with Fiennes to reach the North Pole from Canada and Russia over crumbling sea ice. But this record-breaking trek across Antarctica represented a physical and psychological challenge that has been likened to the first conquest of Mount Everest. In the tradition of the great expedition memoirs of Hillary, Scott and Byrd, Stroud's book is a compulsively readable account of what happens when habits and fears, compassion and resentments, fortitude and physical limitations are magnified in a struggle to conquer the most hostile landscape on the planet. Stroud's chronicle of the 1,350 mile traverse at the South Pole is as moving as it is surprising, revealing a no-man's land of the mind, a territory where psychological as well as physical stress interact to provide a challenge greater than the brutal landscape and unpredictable weather alone. Few will fail to be gripped by this exciting account of what is perhaps the most celebrated Polar trek of our time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Science

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

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Reviews

[Petra London, cold & grey not what I signed up for · Rating 3 out of 5]

It says something for the writer's ability that the description of a more than three-month long unassisted trek pulling 500lb sledges across various sorts of ice and snow kept me reading. After all, nothing ever happened. They just went forward and nearly fell into this crevasse, actually fell into that one, climbed this ice feature, but went round that one and through it all were hungry, cold and had bad feet and fingers and when they weren't being friends, then they were out of sorts with each other. It helped that the accompanying photographs show a quite spectacular landscape where light is all. However, I now feel that since I've 'literally' been to the South Pole once, I need never ever do it again.

I worked briefly for the author's co-adventurer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes who was quite unbelievably charming and almost as handsome (I'm surprised the ice didn't melt before his feet, so hot was he). I might have stayed in that job if he'd been there more often but he was away, arranging another trek most of the time. Baronets and world-famous explorers don't have the same work structures as the rest of us!

The author, especially at the end, has a very ambivalent attitude towards Ran's public retelling of their assault on the South Pole, and it seemed almost as if he wrote the book to justify his own, joint part in it, and for that pettiness which made me think of girls-in-the-toilet bitching about their friends on the dance floor, the book gets three rather than four stars.

PS They made it up and are best of friends again and even did seven marathons in seven countries on seven consecutive days together. Explorers and adventurers are just different from the rest of us.

[Paul Edgingtob · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like science, adversity, endurance, fitness, nutrition, nature, adventure, danger, isolation and a chance to learn about Antarctica, this book is for you.
There is also a will they won't they cliff hanger in the mix. I couldn't put it down and I would thoroughly recommend this book .
It's a cliche but you'll learn things you never knew you never knew and be amazed by Stroud and Fiennes determination.

[Andrew (M) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Twice I even got a touch of penile frostbite”. This line painfully and perfectly sums up the lengths to which Ranulph “Ran” Fiennes and author Mike Stroud were willing to go for the sake of their expedition and for science. In the summer of 1993 the two set out to cross Antarctica, including the ice shelves on either side, on foot. This would be no ordinary expedition; in addition to taking detailed scientific measurements before, during, and after, they would be completing their journey entirely unsupported. Everything they wore, used, ate, and consumed for the entire journey had to be hauled behind them on 500 pound sleds. In the end, they succeeded in crossing the first ice shelf, the entire continent, and a portion of the final ice shelf. Their 100 day, 1,350 mile trek was the longest unbroken, unassisted journey by a human being in history.

The feat that they achieved is truly awe inspiring and it would have been easy for Stroud to write a book glorifying himself and Ran as the toughest explorers of modern times, focusing on their unwavering motivation and determination to reach their objective. Instead, he choses to include the reality of all the ups and downs in his mood, motivation, fatigue, hunger, and relationship with his companion. This focus on the psychological and interpersonal aspect of the journey is what makes “Shadows on the Wasteland” special. Even in the chapters describing the preparation for the trip, Stroud contemplates his motivation and does not shy away from potentially embarrassing self disclosure; “There was the challenge, the sense of satisfaction in taking something on and seeing it through.... There was also the scientific side of the journey... There was one less acceptable motivation – ego. How much of me wanted to go out and prove myself, not internally, but to others? How much of me wanted to revel in admiration and praise?... I sometimes wondered whether I was fooling myself and just not admitting that it was the achievement in the eyes of others that mattered”. Later, when thinking about quiting the journey, Stroud reveals that at one point in a previous Polar expedition he had actually contemplated shooting Ran in order to have an excuse to stop. During the current trip, he spent several days trying to decide how best to fake illness.

The journey was not entirely filled with hardship, and when morale was high and progress being made the reader can feel Stroud's enthusiasm and high spirits. This is a phenomenon I've experienced in my own ultra distance endurance activities; the most soul crushing despair alternates with euphoric highs and the belief that anything is possible. It is something that needs to be experienced to be understood, but this book does an excellent job of conveying the roller coaster of feelings. Similarly, although they completed the main objective of crossing the continent they had not managed their ultimate goal of reaching the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Despite being welcomed home as conquering heroes, Stroud describes the self-doubt and questioning that followed what he still perceived as a failure.

Beyond the personal psychological side of the journey, Stroud does not hesitate to describe the variable relationship between himself and Ran. The reader is often reminded of the day to day friendship between the two men; chess games with urine sample bottles, joking about their wives' cooking, playing twenty questions. But there are also conflicts. Ran and Stroud have different physiques and different strengths and weaknesses. This means that they often moved at different speeds, a frustrating and demoralizing experience both for the one in front (“If you can't take it, I'm not going to wait for you”) and the one behind (“I'm going as fast as I can, and I don't expect some little runt to tell me it's too slow”). At one point this led Ran to suggest that he go on without Stroud. At another point they argued for days about whether to lighten one or the other sled. There are more than a few times at which one of the two men said outright that he hated the other. Despite all these conflicts they remain rational and keep perspective enough to be able to count on one another for the entire journey. In fact, the shared misery built a special kind of camaraderie and friendship between the two. In the end, Stroud states that he would gladly do another journey of this kind, and that he would do it with Ran.

Most people will never have the chance or the desire to complete any kind of self supported adventure, let alone something truly astonishing like what is described in this book. Even if your idea of a wilderness adventure is driving an RV to a KOA campsite, it is a good idea to occasionally be reminded of the incredible feats of which human beings are actually capable. Physically, Ran and Stroud are not anything particularly special; they are certainly not superhuman or even Olympic caliber athletes. What is different about them is their unwillingness to accept the kinds of limits that most of us place on ourselves. With those mental limitations gone, these explorers searched not a continent, but their own absolute physical limits.

[Marcos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of the longest, unaided trip of man. Statistics: 1993, 2 men, 2160 km, 95 days, each pulling a sledge of 220 kg, fighting temperatures going down to -80°C, eating 5500 kcal a day and still ending their journey barely surviving, frozen and starving, each having lost about 20 kg of body mass.