Painting a realistic portrait of Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson and his arduous trek through some of the most treacherous icy Antarctic terrain, Roberts (The Mountain of Fear) gives the reader a very close look at the huge risks and preparations of the nearly impossible feat. The author fleshes out Mawson, the 30-year-old lecturer in mineralogy and petrology at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, earning his stripes during a hazardous 1907–1909 Shackleton expedition to the frigid continent. With a superb collection of Frank Hurley’s celebrated Antarctic photographs, Roberts parallels the courageous achievements of Mawson’s team on the 1911–1913 journey along the previously uncharted regions of the landscape with those of his acclaimed peers, Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen, battling the bitter cold, starvation, and peril to the limits of human endurance. Roberts sums up the dangers Mawson and his crew were up against: “No region on earth possesses deeper or more treacherous crevasses than Antarctica.” And what wreaks havoc with every team of explorers that tries to traverse its unforgiving wastes is the fact that crevasses there are not confined to the glaciers. Harrowing, exciting and brutally real, Roberts provides a chilling backstory to polar explorer Mawson’s bold solitary survival tale. (Jan.)
"A fresh and thoroughly researched account of Doulas Mawson's epic journey of self-rescue across one of the most inhospitable regions known to man. Roberts takes the reader alongside the men of the 1912 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, and the desperation of Mawson s sledge journey can be well imagined step by frigid step."
"Impressively seamless and straightforward."
Boston Globe - Christina Thompson
"Wonderfully told, impressively researched…For fans of outdoor adventure, Alone on the Ice brings you as close to trekking in a blizzard on icy, dangerous terrain as you’ll likely want to get."
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Chuck Leddy
"In Alone on the Ice , Roberts, a veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures, admirably succeeds in restoring the luster that the Australian Antarctic Expedition and its leader deserve."
"Others have written the loose outlines of Douglas Mawson's astonishing survival against the worst conditions that Antarctica can deliver a lesser-known but equally compelling epic as that of Ernest Shackleton but Roberts's telling trumps them all."
"A chilling story…You feel the freezing temperatures, the fear, the desperation, along with the loyalty of the other Australasian Antarctic Expedition members."
Denver Post - Sandra Dallas
"This is Roberts at his best, telling a little-known tale of adventure, tragedy, and endurance. Mawson may be the most famous Australian explorer, and Alone on the Ice is an admirable introduction of him to American readers."
"An accurate and enthralling account of the greatest story of polar exploration and survival. Roberts takes the reader back to a time of hardship, collective friendship, and a level of determination unknown in todays culture. This book will make you cherish every meal and the joys of a warm bed."
An important missing story from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, this book will steal the night from you. Gripping and superb.
Matthew Brenher lends a formal British voice to this descriptive story of the men who tried to conquer the Antarctic. He never crafts an accent for any of the characters, which seems right for the subject matter. The men always seem bent on maintaining as much civility as possible even in the worst of times, and Brenher’s narration matches that professionalism. In graphic detail, based on diary accounts, the author describes the arduous journeys—from the specific meals they ate to their own mental and physical well-being. The account is not for the faint of heart; conditions for the dogs, especially, were brutal. But Brenher keeps a steady voice as he takes the listener on the daunting expeditions. M.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2013 - AudioFile
Mountaineer and prolific author Roberts (Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer , 2011, etc.) returns with a vivid history of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson (1882–1958) and his 1912 exploration of Antarctica. The author covers the entirety of the expedition, skillfully blending his research of Mawson and his life with details from firsthand diaries and records of the crew. "A scientist in his very bones," Mawson kept meticulous records of the expedition, despite the trip's hardships. While the entire voyage is engaging, the most engrossing part of the tale begins about halfway through the book when Mawson and two colleagues, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, set out from their base camp to a point 300 miles southeast. Without warning, Ninnis and a half dozen of the team's best dogs plunged to their deaths through a crevasse, taking Ninnis' sledge and its food rations down as well. With only a week's food (and no food for the remaining dogs), the surviving men stretched their rations by eating any sled dogs too weak to continue to pull the sled. That decision may have led to the painful demise of Mertz, as he may have poisoned himself with an overdose of vitamin A from eating the dogs' livers. His human and canine companions dead, the starving Mawson trekked another 100 miles back to his base camp. When he finally returned to camp, the first man to reach Mawson "beheld the ravaged countenance of the man limping down the slope above him, [and] Mawson knew exactly what [he] was thinking: Which one are you? " Roberts creates a full portrait of Mawson and does justice to what famed mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary would later call "[t]he greatest survival story in the history of exploration."
