Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman To Ski Solo Across The Southern Ice

257 Pages·2014·3.51 MB·English

by  Felicity Aston

Praise for Alone in Antarctica
‘Felicity’s dynamic and inspiring storytelling links us all to our
own crossing, helping us all push beyond our fears to reach our
goals. Her descriptions of the ice and her honesty of the feelings
it brings forth, stir our love for that magnificent place and the
lifestyle of the challenge – we want to return!’
Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, polar explorers
‘Felicity’s gripping adventure captures the thrill and fear of
Antarctic exploration’ Ranulph Fiennes
‘Resilient, brave, daring, foolhardy, admirable and hugely likeable’
Joanna Lumley
Praise for Call of the White
‘An uplifting and enthralling feat; I take my fur hat off to all those
who answered this call of the white. An inspiring tale which will
stir the hearts of women and men around the world’
Benedict Allen
‘A unique expedition… this story is true inspiration to venture
beyond your comfort zone’ Wanderlust magazine
‘Enthralling’ Woman’s Weekly
‘Uplifting’ Adventure Travel magazine

COUNTERPOINT
BERKELEY
Copyright © Felicity Aston, 2014
First published by Summersdale Publishers Ltd, UK
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aston, Felicity.
Alone in Antarctica : the first woman to ski solo across the southern ice /
Felicity Aston.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-61902-347-5 (hardback)
1. Aston, Felicity—Travel—Antarctica. 2. Cross-country skiing—
Antarctica. 3. Survival—Antarctica. 4. Women adventurers—Antarctica. [1.
Antarctica—Discription and travel.] I. Title.
G8502011 .A75 2014
919.8904—dc23
2014014413
COUNTERPOINT
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318
Berkeley, CA 94710
www.counterpointpress.com
Printed in the United States of America
Distributed by Publishers Group West
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Foreword by Joanna Lumley.................................................7
Prologue: Alone...................................................................11
Chapter One: Every Step......................................................15
Chapter Two: Paying Attention............................................37
Chapter Three: LOO-JW......................................................54
Chapter Four: Forty-Six.......................................................85
Chapter Five: Life Raft.......................................................119
Chapter Six: Bald-Headed Men.........................................148
Chapter Seven: Sundogs and Haloes..................................174
Chapter Eight: Skiing in the Dark......................................201
Chapter Nine: Getting Out of the Tent..............................226
Epilogue: Echoes and Shades.............................................241
Author’s Note....................................................................246
About the Author...............................................................253

I met Felicity Aston at the Royal Geographical Society: we were
speaking about journeys we had made, along with Robin Knox-
Johnston and Ranulph Fiennes, so I was pretty comprehensively
out of my depth, as all I was going to talk about was being
on a desert island for nine days, visited every day by a small
film crew. This could hardly be on the same page as Felicity’s
phenomenal journey, so I was especially touched when she
asked me to write the foreword to this book. What had struck
a chord with her apparently was how we both, as women, had
experienced sensations of utter alone-ness, cartwheeling minds,
mild hallucinations and a feeling that nature, for want of a better
word, was watching out for us. It is always fascinating to hear
how others have coped with hardships with which we in some
way feel we can empathise. I started reading the book at once, as
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ALONE IN ANTARCTICA
soon as she sent it to me: I read it straight through and now try
to herd my stunned impressions into some kind of shape.
‘Alone’ usually means without anyone else: ‘I’ll come alone’,
‘I was alone on the beach’, ‘Leave me alone’. When we use the
word we imagine that, although the writer is without human
company, evidence of humanity is around: houses, books,
roads, fields, footprints of human existence. But imagine ‘alone’
meaning to be without the world as we know it, without
horizons or daylight, without distance or objects to focus on,
without high or low, when all perspective is lost; and then try
to think of that weird and dreadful condition day after day (if
you can tell the difference between day and night) combined
with danger, complete isolation, when your physical toughness
is tested to the extreme and your mind begins to somersault off
towards the edges of sanity… This is the ‘alone’ that Felicity
Aston chose to face in her astonishing journey across Antarctica.
And ‘cold’ – what does cold mean to you? Putting on
gloves and a thick coat, jumping up and down, sitting on the
radiator…? It doesn’t usually mean having icicles on your
eyelashes, your bra filled with batteries and lighters, being
locked inside layers of frozen clothing.
Crying your eyes out, knowing no one is coming to help you
as you are miles from any possible sign of life, surrounded by
the most hostile conditions on Earth, is not an everyday event
in our normal lives, and this is the point: nor is it normal in
hers. Resilient, brave, daring, foolhardy, admirable and hugely
likeable, she traces for us the whole journey and why she made
it in the first place: her terrors and routines, her eating habits
(gnawing half-frozen food and posting tiny bits of chocolate
through her breathing aperture) and dream-like encounters
with the sun, her guardian and her inspiring companion.
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FOREWORD
Her writing is so modest and humble that it is sometimes
hard to grasp the scale of her record-breaking adventure. What
comes over strongly is her sheer perseverance, her dogged
determination.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will that says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Felicity’s version of Kipling’s words is simply: ‘Keep getting out
of the tent.’ Her greatest fear, it turns out, is the fear of being
alone: and when she decides that she need never be completely
alone again, ever, for the rest of her life, it seems like a sign for
us all. Once you have faced your demons down and clung on
to the bitter end, terror melts away in the warmth of the sun,
who is, after all, your friend.
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