Press Play with Madeleine Brand

'He pushed himself against obliterating conditions' -- one man's trans-Antarctic journey

In 2015, retired British Army officer Henry Worsley tried to walk from one end of Antarctica to the other -- alone, with no support. He pulled his 325 pound sled of provisions by his waist. Sometimes on skis, sometimes by foot, he made his way across more than 900 miles. He was 55 years old. Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall, and Jameson Adams on the deck of the Nimrod. In 1909, they made it to within 97 miles of the South Pole. Credit: Royal Geographic Society. Ernest Shackleton’s ship the Endurance. In 1915, the ship became encased in ice and sank into the Weddell Sea, leaving the crew marooned. Photo by Frank Hurley. Henry and Joanna Worsley at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington DC in 2015. Photograph courtesy Joanna Worsley. Writer David Grann. Photo courtesy of the New Yorker. Joanna, Max, and Alicia Worsley travelled to South Georgia Island in 2017. Photograph by Roger Pimenta. Henry Worsley called Joanna and said, “I’m having a cup of tea and I’m going to be fine.” Photograph courtesy Joanna Worsley.