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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jan 12, 2014 - 09:13pm PT
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Near the end of the trek across S. Georgia, they are caught up too high, too late in the day, with too little steam left, and it's too cold. Shakleton knows that in order to survive, they must get down quickly, so he decides they will slide down this huge, steep snow field, without knowing what's at the bottom.
The two men with him thought he was crazy, but, he kept asking them, can we stay where we are? So they slid screaming down this snow field, and they arrived at the bottom unharmed. Amazing!!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 12, 2014 - 10:35pm PT
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Outstanding reenactment of an amazing feat of seafaring that was the fitting end to the greatest exploration epic that I am aware of.
Thanks for the heads up Joe!
When in doubt, glissade! Worked for Woodrow Wilson Sayre too.
An unseen hand guides the brave and true adventurers and brings us home. Endurance is shimmering evidence of that simple truth.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Jan 12, 2014 - 11:06pm PT
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I encountered the story of the Endurance around 1975, one of the postdocs in a lab where I worked as a lab peon was a sailor and lent me Lansing's book. I made the mistake of glancing at it that evening...and read straight through the night going to work the next morning sans sleep but plenty energized. It should be absolutely required reading for everyone in junior high or so. Incredible story and bunch of guys. One of the highlights for me of all time going to museums was an exhibit about 10 or 12 years ago at the NY Museum of Natural History with a lot of actual stuff from the trip plus other similar contemporary gear, lots of photos many of which were not in any book I had seen, and the centerpiece was the actual James Caird! Though it was roped off, I was not going to leave without having laid a hand upon it to absorb some juju. And they had a sextant set up with visual of pitching and rolling seas, so you could try out your ability to get a sight from which navigation might be possible if you could peel the soggy pages of the book of tables apart.
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Jan 12, 2014 - 11:44pm PT
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A truly sad footnote is that about half of the men that were saved died within the next couple years....World War I
Susan
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 13, 2014 - 12:04am PT
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Did they use rendered penguin fat for cooking and light?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 13, 2014 - 12:04am PT
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And the other 800 pound gorilla in the story is something many of us probably can relate to one
way or another - the rather less than inspiring details of Shackleton's life back in England.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Jan 13, 2014 - 12:54pm PT
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More important than penguin fat was seal blubber. At one point, while still on the ice foes, before they got in their 3 boats, they were VERY low on cooking fat for their stoves. Just before they ran out, they were attacked by a couple of leopard seals and shot them, thus renewing their fat supply.
The resourcefulness of those men was incredible. Two of many, many examples: Once they reached Elephant Island, they outfitted the James Caird with parts from the other 2 boats to make it more sea-worthy. Once they reached S. Georgia Island and found that they couldn't sail to windward around either end of the island, they removed the screws from the deck of their boat and screwed them through their boots to create make-shift crampons for climbing the ice and snow over the island to reach the whaling station.
What an epic adventure. And fabulous photos!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 13, 2014 - 06:50pm PT
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Does add new depth of meaning to the phrase DEAD RECKONING.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Jan 13, 2014 - 07:14pm PT
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I know a guy who worked in the merchant marines out of Australia, basically small-crew but very big oil tankers. He learned to navigate by the stars in case everything else fails.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jan 13, 2014 - 07:47pm PT
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Another adventure sequel.....a pale imitation. Chouinard once said that adventure only begins when things start to go wrong. Modern communications will enable the "adventure" to turn out well no matter what the turn of events.
Should be fun though!
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jan 13, 2014 - 08:12pm PT
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Watching the first episode right now. Looks interesting.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Jan 13, 2014 - 08:23pm PT
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While Guido has more than adequate electronics aboard his boat, "Shanachie," when I sailed with him from N.Z. to French Polynesia, he made me practice noon "sun sights" with his sextant, so we'd have back up equipment and people aboard in case of whatever might happen.
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John Morton
climber
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Jan 25, 2014 - 02:20pm PT
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Just finished watching part 3. A difficult journey for sure, and difficult to endure for the viewer. This extreme adventure film style is getting to me: the endlessly repeated litany of "no GPS", "100 yr. old clothing" etc., the talking heads, the relentless minor key soundtrack, the slanted editing that replays the biggest waves and the steepest slopes.
Shackleton's epic is all the greater for the contrast with this trip, which utterly failed to reproduce the conditions of 1916. A support boat that warns them off the rocks, with radio contact and satellite weather data and a doctor? Some North Face tents for when something goes wrong? And they skipped the part about camping for 7 months on ice floes before setting sail. And my favorite, the water bags of rotten hairy sealskin.
It's like a tightrope walk with a tether, or a free solo with a net just off camera. I'm not saying they should do it for real and die, I'm saying it makes no sense except as a paying TV gig.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 25, 2014 - 03:06pm PT
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jan 25, 2014 - 03:44pm PT
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Mongrel, it was in 2000 I believe.
I caught it at the Field Museum.
They had reproduced the James Caird and surrounded it with big curved screens playing huge rolling waves.
I smuggled a camera in and snuck some shots. Good luck on banning cameras now.
The coolest thing was stopping on the way to Chicago at Norlin Library where I was given special permission to put on gloves and examine Frank Hurley's original prints from the expedition.
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Chewybacca
Trad climber
Montana, Whitefish
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Jan 25, 2014 - 03:59pm PT
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It is interesting to look at the differing experiences of the icebound Shackleton expedition with those of the ill-fated Franklin expedition.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
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I was going to right a scathing review of 'Chasing Shackleton', but John Morton(4 posts above) nailed it! Shackleton was probably laughing at all of them when they visited his grave site at the end of the show.
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John Mac
Trad climber
Littleton, CO
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It was a bit over dramatized but still a pretty good effort and I'm sure it was difficult for them.
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