To the Edges of the Earth by Edward J. Larson

Author:Edward J. Larson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-01-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

On Top of the World

TWO MONTHS TO THE day after Shackleton’s southern party claimed Robert Peary’s record for reaching nearest a geographical pole, the American, without knowing of the British team’s stunning achievement, set off from Cape Columbia to recover that title and more. Traveling with all deliberate speed, Peary’s northern party was sledging toward its goal even before Shackleton returned to Cape Royds. Unlike the Nimrod teams, Peary (after three failed attempts to reach his pole) knew precisely what to expect and was prepared to face it.

“The only variation in the monotony being that it occasionally gets worse,” he warned his men at the outset of the journey.1 At age fifty-two, this surely would be Peary’s last attempt to reach the pole. The wind blew strongly from the east—an unusual direction for the region and seen as a bad omen by Peary’s Inuit drivers. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees below zero.

“Sunday, February 28, I left the land with three Eskimos and dogs,” Captain Bob Bartlett wrote. “We were the pioneer party. Our work was to set the course, break the trail, and gauge the distance for the main party.”2 As Peary explained, “The pioneer party was the pace-setter of the expedition, and whatever distance it made was the measure of accomplishment for the main party.”3

The leader of the pioneer party often marched ahead on snowshoes charting the course. His party’s three lightly loaded sledges followed close behind, breaking a rough trail in the snow and ice. Borup’s more heavy-laden party departed from Cape Columbia later on the 28th, deepening and widening the trail.

The remaining five parties, or “divisions,” as Peary called them, left the land in rapid succession on March 1, with Peary’s departing last. Sometimes bunching together, sometimes traveling apart, the divisions remained fundamentally separate during this portion of the expedition. Rough ice and pressure ridges occasionally required pickaxes to cut through, but the old floes were mostly level. Each succeeding party improved the trail by use so that it was generally clear by the time the last one passed, carrying Peary. Prior parties also built igloos at their camps that later arrivals used. By going last, Peary explained, he could monitor movements ahead, address delays, and remain fresh for the final burst after the support parties fell back. To start, he directed Bartlett to set a pace of 10 miles per day.

During this first day, each party crossed the rough, upturned surface of the tidal crack, which could shred wooden sledges. Riding on his 12-foot-long sledge, Peary passed Inuits from prior parties repairing their 9-foot-long broken ones or running back to land for replacements. “It had been a trying day for the sledges,” Peary noted after the first march. “The new ‘Peary’ type, by reason of its shape and greater length, had come off best.” Each division traveled with one longer and two or more shorter sledges, but only the “old Eskimo type,” as Peary called the 9-foot-long ones, broke down that first day.4 Each

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