Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration

by David Roberts

0 ratings • 0 reviews • 0 shelved
Book cover for Alone on the Ice

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Douglas Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp. The dogs were gone. Now Mawson himself plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface.

Mawson was sometimes reduced to crawling, and one night he discovered that the soles of his feet had completely detached from the flesh beneath. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizably skeletal, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?"

This thrilling and almost unbelievable account establishes Mawson in his rightful place as one of the greatest polar explorers and expedition leaders. It is illustrated by a trove of Frank Hurley's famous Antarctic photographs, many never before published in the United States.
  • ISBN10 0393240169
  • ISBN13 9780393240160
  • Publish Date 26 February 2013 (first published 28 January 2013)
  • Publish Status Inactive
  • Out of Print 20 April 2017
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint WW Norton & Co
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 368
  • Language English