Shackleton's Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica

The route across the continent, as  followed 
by the British Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition
(click to enlarge).

In November 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton watched horrified as the grinding floes of the Weddell Sea squeezed the life from his ship, Endurance, before letting her slip silently down to her last resting place. Caught in the chaos of splintered wood, buckled metalwork and tangled rigging lay Shackleton’s dream of being the first man to complete the crossing of Antarctica. Shackleton would not live to make a second attempt – but his dream lived on.

Sno-cat in a blizzard during 
the descent of the Skelton Glacier

Shackleton’s Dream tells for the first time the story of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary, the conqueror of Everest. Forty years after the loss of Endurance, they set out to succeed where Shackleton had so heroically failed. Using motor-sledges and converted farm tractors in place of Shackleton’s man-hauled sledges, they faced a colossal challenge: a perilous 2,000-mile journey across the most demanding landscape on the face of the planet, where temperatures can plunge to a staggering –129°F and dense clouds of drift snow blind and disorientate.

Sno-cat on the brink of a crevasse

This epic adventure saw two giants of twentieth century exploration pitted not only against Nature at its most hostile and unforgiving, but also against each other. From their coastal bases on opposite sides of Antarctica, the two leaders pushed south relentlessly, dodging bottomless crevasses and traversing vast unexplored tracts of wind-sculpted ice. Planned as an historic continental crossing, the expedition would eventually develop into a dramatic ‘Race to the South Pole’: a contest as controversial as that of Scott and Amundsen more than four decades earlier, culminating in a titanic clash at the very heart of the frozen continent.

Previously unpublished sketches from expedition members:

A Sno-cat - thought to have been drawn by Hannes La Grange - meteorologist on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-58), and the first South African to reach the South Pole.

An Antarctic solar corona, painted by Dr Hal Lister - glaciologist on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Sno-Cat at the Science Museum

The London Science Museum has recently installed a surviving Tucker Sno-Cat tracked vehicle from the Trans Antarctic Expedition's crossing. 

The museum is putting on exhibits that tell 10 'climate' stories of varying natures which promote visitors thinking about their relationship with the climate and one of which is the story of this expedition. George Lowe's colour film will also be played adjacent to the Sno-Cat exhibit. The Sno-Cat is discussed from 0.36 secs in to the film.

George Lowe's Colour Film Charting the Expedition

We've recently discovered that filmmaker George Lowe's colour film charting the Trans Antarctic Expedition has also been posted on YouTube in five excerpts online which we were keen to pass on and share with you here. The film remains the property of British Petroleum Ltd and Stephen will be doing an introductory talk covering both this and the expedition at London's Science Museum in the autumn.