The MV Grigiory Mikheev, the party's home away from home. Photo: Peter Potterfield

Many of us are fascinated by Shackleton's Endurance journey. We marvel at the bad circumstances, the good luck, the bravery, the drive and determination that saw them all through. We wanted to get a little closer to the whole darn thing than just the flood of books, films and lectures on the saga back in the states. But we need to be selective about what we re-create and replicate. Shackleton devotees would like to do everything from crushing a modern ship in the ice to re-enacting the First World War to really get the feel of the times. Luckily, I guide for a company that is happy to find some middle ground. Adventure Network International put together this Shackleton Commemorative Crossing of South Georgia and asked me to head it up. I liked the idea. I've always been a sucker for mountains and glaciers and bad weather and a good goal. So ANI put me and the team on a ship and sent us away to the South Atlantic.

The first couple of days of the crossing didn't remind me at all of grade school. Things were so good that I was simply reminded that I've got the best job ever invented. Our team was strong and friendly, the weather was variable yet workable and the scenery was breathtaking. One could feel the vivid history of Shackleton, but also of the planet itself. Things went so well in those first days that the biggest trouble was folks complaining of seasickness in the tents. "Landsickness" really, when you wake up rocking and rolling to the ocean only to realize that the glaciers have no such motion going on. Blame it on our previous week aboard the good ship Grigoriy Mikheev on the way over from the tip of South America, but the Drake Passage was behind us and we were getting our land legs again and loving it.

So far, so good, I wasn't yet hearing that distinctive wail, when I saw the helicopter. Helicopter? Yeah, I know, I said there aren't any about. But the one we walked up on near the divide between the Crean and Fortuna Glaciers does exist. The thing is, it is upside down and busted in half. Crashed there back in 1982 when the British were going to retake South Georgia Island from Argentine troops, a small, sad sideshow to the Falklands Conflict.