TO THE END OF THE EARTH

A British explorer follows the path to True North and runs into a still-raging polar controversy.

In 1909, Commander Robert E. Peary capped his brilliant exploring career by reaching the North Pole in a remarkable 37 days, only to return home to find his American countryman, Frederick Cook, a member of previous Peary expeditions, claiming priority. Newspapers and the fractious polar community quickly took sides and, though Cook’s claim was eventually discredited, controversy surrounding Peary’s achievement has yet to evaporate. Sir Wally Herbert, the first man to make a surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, in 1969, dealt a seemingly mortal blow to Peary’s title as conqueror of the North Pole with his publication of The Noose of the Laurels (1988), in which he argued the impossibility of reaching the Pole in the time Peary claimed. Replicating nearly every aspect of the Peary journey—copying, for example, his design for dog sleds—Avery (Pole Dance: The Story of the Record-breaking British Expedition to the Bottom of the World, 2004), four companions and 16 dogs set out in 2005 to determine whether the legendary explorer could have accomplished what he said he did. One hundred years after Peary’s expedition, the obstacles and dangers of an arctic passage remain the same: open water, pressure ridges, polar bears, blizzards, frostbite, hunger, etc. How Avery dealt with these, how he mastered the dogs and how he blended the strengths and handled the differing personalities of his team in extreme conditions are all the stuff of a journey sufficiently amazing to require no special prose to narrate it. Deeply respectful of the arctic environment and of the polar explorers who preceded him, Avery comes across as a modest, amiable man who manages to conceal the steely drive his arduous expedition so obviously required. As his conclusion makes clear, the author may need that stamina to withstand the attacks from those still convinced that Peary was a fraud.

A fine blend of history and adventure.