I noticed on Google that yesterday was the birthday of one Ernest Shackleton. the story of the Endurance expedition is one of the most incredible depictions of survival against all odds. If you are not familiar with the story I can recommend just a trip to Wikipedia for a resume.

As Antarctic explorers go I think he has largely been overshadowed by the likes of Amundsen, Scott and Captain Oates. And yet his story is all the more incredible because he and his crew all survived. There is a mini series with Kenneth Branagh in the title role that goes some way to describe and explain just how hard it was. His mistake, historically speaking it seems, was to engineer a happy ending.

A team member of that expedition who later wrote a book of his experiences is quoted as saying that if you want to have a really bad time the Antarctic is just the place to have it.