South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories.

In 1985, Gareth Wood, Roger Mear, and Robert Swan walked more than 870
miles in a 70-day trek that took them from their base camp at Cape Evans
to the Amundsen–Scott Station at the South Pole. Accomplished without
benefit of dogs, radios, or food caches, their trip retraced Scott’s
1911–12 journey to the South Pole.

Mear and Swan published the first account of the expedition, In the
Footsteps of Scott, in 1987. Wood and Jamieson’s equally well-written
narrative portrays the Antarctic not as an isolated wasteland but as a
place teeming with political intrigue. (Indeed, the region’s harsh
political climate had a greater effect on the expedition than either the
unpredictable weather or the strained relationships among the expedition
members.)

Although the book’s black-and-white photos are of exceptional
quality, they lack the impact of the full-color reproductions featured
in the 1987 account.