Cecil Kuhne - Near Death in the Arctic

Cecil Kuhne is the editor of four anthologies on adventure travel, On the Edge, The Armchair Paddler, Near Death on the High Seas, and Near Death in the Mountains. A former whitewater rafting guide, he has also written nine books about rafting, kayaking, and canoeing. He lives in Dallas.

Near Death in the Mountains

Near Death on the High Seas

On the Edge

The Armchair Paddler

A VINTAGE DEPARTURES ORIGINAL, FEBRUARY 2009

Copyright 2009 by Cecil Kuhne

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Departures and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Permissions appear at the end of the book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Near death in the Arctic : true stories of disaster and survival / edited by Cecil Kuhne.
p. cm.
A Vintage departures originalT.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-307-79372-0
1. Polar regionsDiscovery and exploration. 2. Survival skillsPolar regions. I. Kuhne, Cecil, 1952
G590.N35 2009
910.911dc22
2008045794

www.vintagebooks.com

v3.1

Venturing to the ends of the earth offers its fair share of challenges, and unfortunately, the seemingly never-ending struggle sometimes results in having to pay the ultimate price. The odds of freezing to death are, of course, very real in this apparently endless landscape of snow and ice. If you somehow manage to avoid that awful fate, other hazards await. Cold, howling winds can instantly turn exposed skin into frostbite, blizzards often reduce visibility to a few feet, and hidden crevasses may send you to an immediate end.

And some simply starve to death. The British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, on his doomed 1912 trek to be the first to reach the South Pole, lay dying in his tent with two of his colleagues. He had the presence of mind to pen these haunting last words in his diary: For Gods sake look after our people.

The conditions that Arctic and Antarctic explorers face are, quite frankly, beyond comprehension. The astonishingly hostile conditions obstruct the basic needs of life: food, shelter, clothing, water. And this is true even with modern high-technology gear. Tents must withstand the onslaught of wind and blowing snow; sleeping bags have to be well-insulated, waterproof, and breathable enough to avoid condensation inside; and reliable cooking stoves are necessary to melt snow and cook meals high enough in calories to keep the body warm.

Those who probe these frigid, gale-swept reaches must also possess exceptionally well-honed navigational skills, mental and physical fortitude, and even a bit of good fortune. A simple slipup can easily lead to frostbite, snow blindness, and even death. The constant concern, naturally, is hypothermiathe sudden lowering of the bodys core temperature. Along with it comes a debilitating loss in reasoning ability, and errors in judgment are not easily remedied. More alarming is the fact that most victims dont even become aware of the danger signals until its too late.

Conditions worsen when you add the element of water. The most dangerous seas on earth are those surrounding Antarctica. Winds circle unobstructed around the continent, whipping up huge waves and creating deadly sea ice. Many a vessel has met its fate after being trapped and crushed under the immense pressure of these polar ice fields. Even today, natures forces are the enemy, and they always win in the end.

The arduous journeys described in this book are a moving mixture of success and failure, and their prose resonates precisely because they were written not by professional authors, but by those driven to set foot in a spot no human had yet laid eyes upon. Their goals were sometimes met, but often matters went horribly wrong. From reading these accounts one thing is absolutely clear: the globes apexes are best observed from the relative comfort of the pages related here.

Cecil Kuhne,
Dallas, Texas

I awoke at 12:30 a.m., and the first thing I saw when I checked the weather was the lenticular clouds, some cigar-shaped and others saucerlike, floating lazily across the pale blue sky. They and polar bears were the last things I wanted to see. I nervously checked the temperature. It had risen to 5 degrees F., and the south wind had strengthened to ten miles per hour. With sinking spirits I realized last nights weather forecast was correct after all. My quandary then was whether to try to beat the storm to the North Pole or stay where I was, close to the coast, and wait it out. I knew that at this time of the year, storms can have long staying power. But there was always the possibility that the storm might dissipate before developing into anything serious.

I weighed the alternative. If I tried to race the storm to the pole and didnt make it, then I would have to camp out there and wait for it to pass. I had certainly camped in worse places and I had already weathered high winds. My tent and gear were in good shape and should be able to withstand a battering. Besides, could I really expect more shelter from the storm where I was camped than out on the sea ice farther south? As soon as I asked myself the question I knew the answer was no. Therefore, there was no advantage in waiting. I decided to go for it.