Gareth Wood

Eric Jamieson

Canadian Gareth Wood along with two Englishmen successfully walked across Antarctica to the South Pole. Each man hauled a sledge loaded with 350 pounds of survival gear 900 miles through the unimaginable cold of the empty, hostile continent. Unlike Robert F Scott's 1911-12 Antarctica expedition, this trek to the bottom of the world ended with success and survival. Roger Mear, Robert Swan, and Gareth Wood overcame 9,000 feet of altitude and 900 miles of frozen barriers en route to the South Pole without dogs, radios, mechanical support, or caches of food. In tribute to their American predecessor, they used Scott's log. Their epic struggle tested these self-assured individuals and taught them the value of co-operation and teamwork in the face of disaster. For Gareth Wood, the day they finally reached the Pole was more the beginning of a new journey than the end of his quest. The ship that was to have collected the team was crushed in the ice. Not only did Wood survive another year in the Antarctic, but he also lived to describe the horrific attack by a savage leopard seal.

Eric Jamieson

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