Crossing the upper portion of the Murray Glacier toward Trident ridge Photo: Peter Potterfield

They knew there were whaling stations (which, sadly, symbolized "civilization" in those days) on South Georgia and the chance to get a rescue going for the gang doing the Elephant Island program. But Shackleton and his guys were pretty well hammered after that boat trip, and to make matters more complicated, they hadn't been able to get the James Caird to the side of South Georgia that had the factories and people. They would have to cross the island, which hadn't been done before.

South Georgia is a hundred mile-long sickle of big, sharp mountains, cold and heavy glaciers, and bizarre and beautiful wildlife (when it isn't being rendered down for oil, of course). The Island is not very wide. It is just spitting distance across in some places, with a good wind. And since the wind blows about 100mph every other hour just for the hell of it, well, I guess you could say that everything on South Georgia is usually within spitting distance.

Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean, and Frank Worsley set out to cross South Georgia back in 1916 to get a series of rescue efforts going. They were successful. They crossed glaciers and passes and miles of uncharted scary stuff. They reached Stromness and consequently ships and rescue reached all of the Endurance team left hither and thither chewing down bad rations and blubbery creatures. Not a man died, all were successfully delivered back to their draft boards for World War I, already well under way back home.