The Lessons of Antarctica

John Wilton-Davies has written an article for ThePoles.com entitled Lessons learnt in Antarctica for first time adventurers. You'll recall that John was attempting to go solo and unsupported to the South Pole recently, and came up just short, and end up being one of the last explorers to leave the ice.

This article is labeled "part 1", so apparently we can expect more in the future. The first lessons he touches upon are Physical training and weight as well as Timing. When it comes to the physical/weight issue, he remarkst hat he wished he had put on more weight before embarking on the expedition, as it would have aided his physical condition better in the long run. And on the subject of timing , he simply says he should have started earlier, giving himself more time to reach the Pole, and counter to what others have claimed, he found the sled harder to pull later in the expedition than it was in the beginning. This is rather counter-intuitive from what most Polar explorers say, but seemed to be the case for John.