"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."

While there is some doubt as to whether or not Ernest Shackleton ever ran such an ad to recruit crew members for his last attempt at crossing Antarctica, it provides apt foreshadowing of what awaited the members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Endurance, written by Alfred Lansing tells the true tale of the incredible journey of the men aboard the Endurance. Hoping to cross Antarctica, instead the Endurance becomes locked inside the ice flow. After about nine months of living in the ice trapped boat, the pressure from the ice flow finally crushes the ship, and the crew are forced to live on top of the ice, floating through the sea at the mercy of the wind and the currents. After an incredible 14 month journey, every member of the Endurance survived. I won't tell you how, or what they endured during the trip, Lansing does too good a job of that for me to ruin it. He had access to all of the journals of every crew member who kept one, and interviewed them as well. It is a very detailed and accurate depiction of their epic trip.

There a couple of things that I find truly fantastic about the story this book tells. First, the adventure occurred between 1914 an 1916. This means they had no climbing boots, GPS, down jackets, or means of communication with the outside world. They were forced to be utterly self-reliant. They wore wool and animal skin parkas, made a stove that operated by burning blubber from the seals they would club, etc. Even more impressive is that they managed to navigate their way to safety with exceeding accuracy with the use of a sextant. I'm not sure most people today could get as close with a GPS unit!

Another incredible aspect of their story is that, while they spent the entire time cold, wet, facing starvation and, at times, the fear that the ice would open up and swallow any or all them without any notice, they appear to have hardly ever complained. It also seems that disputes were rare. A lot of credit for this is given to the leadership of Shackleton, but the men most have had something to do with it as well. A great example is that, one morning, the ice opened unexpectedly right below a tent. The men quickly realized that someone was missing, and could see the crumpled tent shaking wildly. Shackleton, who just happened to be there at the right moment, yanked the tent away, revealing a man struggling in a sleeping bag in the water. He reached down, grabbed the bag, and heaved it up just before the ice closed again. Because they had no other change of clothes, the man who fell in had to be kept walking until his clothes dried out due to his body heat. Imagine you're exhausted, within inches of hypothermia, your friends are forcing you to walk for hours so your body heat can combat the freezing air. Would you complain? Apparently the only complaint this man made was that his tobacco had fallen out of his pocket while he was in the water. Impressive.

My brother-in-law and I once took a back county ski trip to one of the 10th Mountain Division huts here in Colorado. Due to multiple strings of bad luck (couldn't find a way across a stream for awhile, skins kept falling off the skis, we weren't entirely sure of where we were going, etc. Ok, that last one wasn't so much bad luck as bad planning, but you get the idea.) it was looking like we might have to spend the night out in a snow cave. As that possibility kept getting closer, we decided to play what we termed, The Shackleton Game. No one could complain about any aspect of the trip, no matter what continued to go wrong. Fortunately for us, we found the hut just over a ridge a little bit after dusk, so we were spared the worst of it, but it was a good way to continue to put our issues in perspective.

If you're looking for a good outdoor adventure read, this is it. The book is a relatively short and quick read, and it is well written and tells a story that deserves to be read and leaves you astounded at both the physical and spiritual stamina of humans. Oh, its also great to read in the winter. Its much harder to complain about having to scrape your car windows after reading what these guys did!

Here is a great video giving you a sense of what they endured.

By the way, earlier this month, someone went back to Antarctica and found five cases of whisky that Shackleton left behind during his 1907-1909 attempt on board the Nimrod. While they are not sure if any is still good, they can hear some sloshing about and are hopeful. Now that would be well aged whisky! I'm sure a shot of Shackleton's whisky would fetch a fair farthing on e-bay! Here is a great video about one of his huts!