Book review: "Alone on the Ice" by David Roberts

Warning: This review has spoilers

In the field of great Antarctic explorers, the name Douglas Mawson is rarely mentioned alongside the much-heralded figures of Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton. But in "Alone on the Ice," author David Roberts makes a compelling case that it should be.

"Alone on the Ice" tells the story of the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, an ambitious undertaking led by Mawson to reach into vast unexplored portions of the frozen continent. Seven different teams, each with three or four men, were sent out on separate journeys by foot and dogsled to explore areas never before seen by human eyes.

The dramatic heart of the story involves the three-man party led by Mawson himself, The men are 315 miles out from base when one man, Belgrave Ninnis, falls to his death in a crevasse, along the team's best dogs and a sledge filled with food and supplies. Mawson and his remaining teammate, Xavier Mertz, are suddenly left in a desperate situation with insufficient food and no tent. 

The two men head for base, but Mertz dies of hunger and exposure, leaving Mawson to slog the last 150 miles alone. The subtitle of the book calls it "The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration," a phrase used by Mt. Everest conquerer Sir Edmund Hillary to describe Mawson's journey home.

At one point, the solitary Mawson, already weakened by hunger and freezing temperatures, falls into a crevasse. His sledge catches him, leaving him dangling by a rope 14 feet down an icy hole.  Fortuitously, he had earlier tied knots at intervals in the rope, giving him something to grip on his slow, agonizing climb up.  Just as he reaches the surface, the snow at the lip of the opening gave out and he fell in again. 

It is a compelling story, but still only one part of the expedition that is well-told in this 2013 book. Roberts touches on all aspects of the venture to various depths, relying on the men's diaries and other historical accounts to produce a remarkably complete tale. I particularly liked how he gradually introduced the many characters, allowing the reader time to learn each man's personality one a time. 

Roberts also smartly gives the story historical context. The second chapter tells the story of an earlier expedition, in 1908-09, in which Mawson and two companions attempted to reach the magnetic South Pole. Much like the later trip, this one turned into a desperate race for survival and was nearly every bit as much of a page-turner.

I previously read Roberts' 2011 book "Finding Everett Ruess," and enjoyed it. But "Alone on the Ice" is a much better story

The weak points in the book come near the end and the beginning.  In the first chapter, in which Roberts tells the first part of the Mawson-Ninnis-Mertz trek, the story is slowed by overly detailed descriptions of similar days. I skimmed through parts.

Similarly, Roberts goes on too long in the last chapter (before the epilogue), recounting the team's final overwintering at its base camp. The only notable part of this final winter is that one of the team members goes essentially insane. This is notable to be sure, but Roberts offers an excessive number of examples to make the point. 

One the more intriguing questions offered up by this book is the assertion of the subtitle, that it is "The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration." Mawson's desperate trek, first with Mertz, and then alone, is certainly an amazing accomplishment. But to call it the "greatest" invites comparisons with other stories that also have compelling cases.

This could be a great bar argument. Is it a greater story than the Antarctic odyssey of Shackleton and his men in 1915-16? How about the six men in the book "The Long Walk" who trekked 4,000 across Asia deserts and mountains after escaping a Soviet prison camp? Or what about the amazing stories described in "Miracle in the Andes," "In the Heart of the Sea," "Skeletons on the Zahara," or "Unbroken"?

I could go on with more examples. For now, I'm comfortable with calling Mawson's trek one of the greatest survival stories.