Some Like It Cold: Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions

320 Pages·2001·1.95 MB·English

by  Neville Shulman

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Neville Shulman
S U M M E R S D A L E
Copyright © Neville Shulman 2001
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means,
nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language,
without the written permission of the publisher.
Summersdale Publishers Ltd
46 West Street
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 1RP
UK
www.summersdale.com
Printed and bound in Great Britain.
Paperback ISBN1 84024 142 X
Hardback ISBN1 84024 201 9
Photographs supplied by Neville Shulman,
Andy Goldsworthy, Steve Pinfield and Ian Ford.
Some Like it Cold is dedicated to Ann Shulman,
mother, grandmother and great grandmother,
without whom I wouldn’t have had the opportunities
to travel to the ends of the earth.
Not everything in Life is surreal.
Even living on the edge it’s possible to be truly happy,
even if only for the briefest of moments.
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Foreword by Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Foreword by David Hempleman-Adams
Introduction by Sir Nicholas Serota
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One – North Pole Invitation ............................................ 13
Two – The Men Who Dared ............................................. 21
Three – Arctica – Catching the Cold .............................. 40
Four – Inuit of the Arctic ................................................. 52
Five – Outward Bound ....................................................... 60
Six – Grise Lightning .......................................................... 66
Seven – The Hairy Muskox ................................................ 72
Eight – Huskies Don’t Lose Their Voices ....................... 75
Nine – The Great White Polar Bear ................................. 80
Ten – The Hunter, the Artist and the Ski-doo Riders ..... 86
Eleven – I Am the Walrus ................................................. 97
Twelve – Trouble With Harry ........................................... 101
Thirteen – To the Pole ....................................................... 115
Fourteen – On Top of the World .................................... 121
Fifteen – Flowers at Camp Hazen .................................... 127
Sixteen – Resolutions ......................................................... 134
Seventeen – Homeward Bound ........................................ 140
Eighteen – Our Land: Nunavut ........................................ 143
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One – Antarctic Dreams .................................................... 149
Two – Ice Warriors ............................................................ 155
Three – The Loneliest and Remotest Continent ............ 172
Four – Punta. The Windiest City ...................................... 184
Five – In Life, Some Things are Black and White ........ 190
Six – Herculean Efforts ..................................................... 194
Seven – The Max Factor .................................................... 204
Eight – Getting My Rocks Off ......................................... 214
Nine – Telling Stories Out of School .............................. 225
Ten – Baby, It’s Cold Out There ...................................... 232
Eleven – Year In, Year Out ............................................... 244
Twelve – Mountain Highs .................................................. 249
Thirteen – Throwing a Wobble ......................................... 259
Fourteen – Amundsen and Scott Stood Here ................. 267
Fifteen – Return From the Bottom of the World ......... 282
Sixteen – A Patriot’s Goodbye .......................................... 287
Seventeen – Kissing the Big Toe ...................................... 294
Eighteen – Many Happy Returns ..................................... 299
Bibliography ..................................................................... 302
Author notes......................................................................304
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Fiennes has been described as ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’.
He has led several expeditions across the polar regions, to the North
and South Poles, and across the desert of Oman to find the legendary
lost Arabian city of Ubar.
Of all the magical places in the world to visit the North
Pole and the South Pole take a lot of beating. Neville
Shulman is one of that still small group who has
experienced standing at the Top of the World and then at
the Bottom of the World. There are those of course who
think the Arctic and the Antarctic are merely huge frozen
wastes and themselves could never contemplate spending
any time there. But, as Shulman succinctly puts it, Some
Like it Cold.
Probably the best known of all the polar explorers are Roald
Amundsen and Robert Scott who battled heroically and
dramatically against each other in order to be the first to
reach the South Pole. Amundsen arrived there in December
1911 and Scott a month later in January 1912, only then to
die with all his team so tragically on their return journey.
Stories of their exploits and those of the other great Arctic
and Antarctic explorers are detailed in the chapters, The
Men Who Dared and Ice Warriors.
In this fascinating book, Neville Shulman recounts two
adventures; his travelling to the North Pole, following in
the footsteps of the naturalist sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy
and ten years on, his journey to the South Pole to fundraise
for the Red Cross. There are also detailed chapters with
fascinating information on these beautiful but remote ice
regions, their extraordinary animal and bird life and of
course the excitement of Shulman’s personal journeys and
his own battles to make it through to the end. Within the
book he gently explains the philosophy he uses to help
him overcome innumerable obstacles and couples this with
the humour he includes in all his books. These are inspiring
and reflective journeys which will undoubtedly encourage
others to attempt to travel to both the North and the South
Poles.
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Hempleman-Adams has climbed the highest mountains on each
continent, the Seven Summits, and has also led expeditions to both
Poles. Recently he achieved a series of world records by ballooning
from Spitzbergen in Norway to within one degree of latitude of the
North Pole.
Many of my own adventures have been in the Arctic and
Antarctic regions and I know exactly what Neville Shulman
means by calling his book Some Like it Cold. When you are
trekking across huge tracts of fragmenting ice, fighting
against intense, bitter winds and sub-zero conditions you
couldn’t really do it unless you had some sort of affinity
with the immense cold that is all around you. I have been
drawn again and again to travel to the polar regions and
they are absolutely fascinating places, full of beauty, mystery
and of course solitude. I was certainly fortunate to become
the first man to walk solo and unsupported to the North
Magnetic Pole and also the first Briton to walk alone and
unaided to the South Pole. My latest adventure in ballooning
all the way to the North Pole region, although fraught with
danger, was yet full of excitement and I know very well
that I want to return.
Neville Shulman tells wonderful stories of his own
adventures in reaching first the North Pole and then the
South Pole and there is very much to admire within his
own tremendous determination and absolute commitment.
The fact that he undertakes his journeys primarily to raise
funds for charity only serves to enhance his own personal
endeavours and efforts.
Neville Shulman has provided a great deal of
comprehensive background information on the Arctic and
the Antarctic as well as intriguing and provocative
references to the many explorers that have travelled before
us. As he lucidly explains, his own Zen philosophy
undoubtedly helped him to cope with the many trials and
tribulations that face anyone venturing into these
completely frozen and dangerous territories. I realise, like
myself, he is completely hooked and also will always
remember the exciting times he had travelling in the ice
footsteps of so many of our great polar explorers.
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Serota is one of the leading art experts in the United Kingdom and
is the director of Tate Britain (formerly the Tate Gallery) and was
instrumental in establishing Tate Modern. Each year he heads up
the committee choosing the Turner Prize for modern art created by
the Patrons of New Art.
When we were approached by Andy Goldsworthy, that most
innovative and creative of naturalist artists, to ask the
Patrons of New Art if they would like to participate in his
expedition to the North Pole, I doubted very much if
anyone would really be willing to join him. Of course, I
had reckoned without our member Neville Shulman, who
continues to amaze all his friends by the extraordinary
explorations he undertakes to faraway, remote and often
dangerous destinations. He is a real adventurer and
obviously loves to test his mettle in sometimes life-
threatening situations, whether on a mountain or in a jungle
or even combining both testing habitats within one
expedition.
At the time, I knew the Arctic planning and arrangements
were fraught with difficulties and on a number of occasions
we doubted whether Andy would actually be able to take
off himself. We were also concerned whether the two
Patrons of New Art, who indeed were the only two to
volunteer, would be able to travel out and meet up with
Andy either in the Arctic or more particularly at the North
Pole itself. It is a tribute to their determination and
enterprise that they were somehow able to make it through
and eventually all meet at the Pole. Andy has brought back
some remarkable photographs of the powerful sculptures
he was able to create there as well as earlier at Grise Fiord,
the Inuit village.
In Some Like it Cold Neville Shulman tells the story of the
Andy Goldsworthy expedition as well as of a subsequent
expedition through Antarctica to reach the South Pole. He
has also written about the adventures of previous polar
explorers, both in the Arctic and Antarctic and of course
the heroic struggles between those who were so determined
to be the first to arrive at the North Pole and then a few
years later at the South Pole. Shulman also provides a great
deal of interesting information and background on both
polar regions and is able very effectively to portray both
the beauty and the glory that is undoubtedly to be found
there.