2006 September | Ben Saunders

Archive for September 2006

Sir Wally Herbert, for one night only

As perhaps the biggest unsung hero of the polar world, I've always felt the epic achievements of Sir Wally Herbert deserved a little more recognition.

He led the first undisputed expedition to the North Pole on foot, and he went on to make a dogsled crossing of the entire Arctic Ocean by its longest route - a feat that no one has come close to repeating. His book Across the Top of the World is an amazing tale of human endeavour, and his accounts of the perils and pitfalls of organising sponsorship and logistics for an expedition on such a scale now seem oddly familiar.

In light of this, Pen Hadow has been busy organising a gala testimonial evening to honour Sir Wally on October 18th at London's Royal Geographical Society. If you fancy coming along (and there are plenty of polar/mountaineering stars there to regale you if you do - Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Robert Swan, Sir Chris Bonington, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Pen Hadow, Fritz Koerner and of course Sir Wally Herbert himself) then you can read more about the event here.

(Wally Herbert portrait by Martin Hartley.)

{ Filed under Inspiration and motivation on September 27th, 2006 | No Comments }

Between 2004 and 2005, perennial sea ice in the Arctic shrank by 14%, with 730,000 sq km disappearing (an area nearly three times the size of Great Britain).

My favourite expedition book by far (the New York Review of Books said it was “to travel writing what War and Peace is to the novel”) - Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World is available as a free ebook at Project Gutenburg. (Via Station11.)

Patience

Firstly, my apologies for the recent radio silence. I'll start with the big news: Tony and I have decided to postpone SOUTH by a year.

Rationally, I know that we did the right thing. "Delay is preferable to error" said Jefferson, and while he probably didn't have crevasses, whiteout and katabatic winds in mind when he said it, it's a valid point. Especially when you're trying to go further than anyone's ever gone before in a place that, as Robert Swan laconically put it, "wants you dead".

Emotionally, however, it's been a strange few weeks. I know now that the challenge of organising an expedition is every bit as tough as actually doing one. Tougher in fact, because when I'm out there on the ice, I don't think there's anywhere I'd rather be. The same can't be said of the time I spend behind my desk. I've been itching to get back out there since 2004 and our two recent Greenland expeditions have only gone part-way to satisfying that desire. Friendly knock-abouts rather than Grand Slam tournaments.

So, a little longer to wait, but ultimately it can only improve our chances of success. And in the meantime, I'm weighing up a couple of Arctic plans for early next year. Watch this space…

{ Filed under SOUTH on September 11th, 2006 | 16 Comments }

Ben Saunders - Polar Explorer, Motivational Speaker

Sir Wally Herbert, for one night only

Patience