How would you have fared on 'The Worst Journey in the World'?

Do you think you’re tough?

If so, I encourage you to read “The Worst Journey in the World” by Apsley Cherry-Garradr and then ask yourself how you think you would have fared on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica in 1910-1912.

Cherry-Garrard, called “Cherry” by his colleagues, was 24 years old when he became one of handful of over 8,000 applicants picked to join Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. The expedition hoped to be the first to reach the South Pole and to collect scientific information about the relatively unknown continent.

Cherry wasn’t in the small group of explorers who pushed on to the pole and that likely saved his life. Scott and four other men reached the pole a month after a Norwegian team led by famed explorer Roald Amundsen became the first people in history to stand on the South Pole. Scott and his entire team died on the way back to their coastal camp, and their bodies were discovered by Cherry and others about eight months later.

Cherry returned to England on a scheduled relief ship and 10 years later, he published “The Worst Journey in the World.” His book is based largely on his diaries and the diaries of the other men on the expedition as well as the numerous reports they put together when they returned home. One of his main goals in writing the book was to help future expeditions by letting them know what worked and what didn’t work on the ground in what’s arguably the harshest, deadliest place on the planet.

The title comes from a chapter in the book in which Cherry and two other explorers complete a daring and highly dangerous overland journey to a hard-to-reach penguin rookery. Their mission was to obtain rare penguin eggs in order to study their embryos in an effort to shed light on the evolution of birds and reptiles.

I’ve wanted to read “The Worst Journey in the World” ever since 1994 when the magazine National Geographic Adventure named the book No. 1 on its list of “The 100 Best Adventure Books of All Time.”

Since then the book has found its way onto numerous “best-of” book lists. It was No. 28 on The Art of Manliness’ “The Essential Adventure Library: 50 Non-fiction Adventure Books.” The book is also among those in Easton Press’ “Greatest Adventure Books of All Time” series. The book was ranked No. 35 on Sports Illustrated’s “Top 100 Sports Books of All Time” list and was tied for No. 2 on Outside Magazine’s list of “Top 25 Adventure Books of the Last 100 Years.”

I really enjoyed this book, and I would rank it among the best books that I’ve ever read. I also thought that it was kind of cool that I happened to be reading the book during the 100th anniversary of some of the important events described in its pages. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in explorers, travel, Antarctica and guys who are tough as coffin nails.

In the end, how many of you have read this book? What did you think about it? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments section below.