UKC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35398552

Poor guy, he was so close.

In reply to Trangia:

Very sad. I suppose when you read enough Ranulph Fiennes books about pushing your body to hells gates and surviving it must be hard to know where the line is.

I wonder where it all went wrong?

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Harsh. The guy only died yesterday, after very nearly crossing Antarctica unsupported, and you're writing him off as a wannabe.


Antarctica. When things to wrong there the consequences are usually serious.

In reply to andyjohnson0:


I didn't read it like that.


Peritonitis is very serious, even not in Antarctica, my Dad was very lucky to survive it and he had the advance of quick hospital treatment.

In reply to Trangia:

In my utter ignorance, I didn't realise that bacterial peritonitis existed. A very sad end to what sounds like a fantastic undertaking.

In reply to andyjohnson0:


>

I didn't read it like that either, I think you are being a bit hard on purplemonkeyelephant.

In reply to The New NickB:

Not to belabour the point, but I read it as implying that he'd read too many popular books on expeditioning and they somehow affected his judgement. What other interpretation am I missing?

But really, the guy only died _yesterday_. As with the Glen Coe fatalities last week, speculating on what went wrong so soon after the event seems disrespectful to me.

(Edit: typo)

In reply to andyjohnson0:


Yeah, like he'd never done anything in his life and then read a book and thought on a whim, 'well f*ck me, I'll do that. How hard can it be...'

In reply to andyjohnson0:

That Fiennes' book describes how difficult is to make judgements when alone and exhausted and that this may shed light on Worsley's situation.

In reply to Trangia:

Truly a pity!

2016 is a baaaad year... too many great people have died already.

In reply to Trangia:

Apologies Trangia.
I opened a thread on this news on the off belay section without realising you had already started one here.
From the BBC news website
 His military career saw him awarded an MBE for distinguished service on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Since childhood he had a passionate interest in the lives of the Antarctic explorers of the Edwardian era - Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen.

In 2008, Mr Worsley led an expedition to commemorate the centenary of Shackleton's "Nimrod" journey, which pioneered a route through the Transantarctic Mountains to a point just 97 miles (156km) short of the South Pole.

To commemorate the centenary of Scott's and Amundsen's expeditions, Mr Worsley returned to Antarctica in 2011, leading a team of six soldiers retracing the original 1912 journey to the South Pole.

He led the Amundsen route - a 900-mile (1,448km) unsupported journey - and in doing so, became the only person to have completed the classic Antarctic routes of Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen.

Source: Endeavour Fund

In reply to Gone for good:

Henry was a good bloke. I spent some time with him at the Pole in January 2012. He was extremely - genuinely - humble about his polar trips and barely mentioned his significant military service. He was very precise in his planning and very considered in his comments and conversations about polar matters. He didn't go in for the hype and lies so common to British polar adventurers. He was the only person to do both the 1,300+km Amundsen and Scott routes from the true coast of Antarctica to the Pole.

He is the only person in history to have done two full trips, unsupported and unassisted, to the Pole from the true coast, starting at the outer edge of the ice shelves (the legendary Borge Ousland used a kite for his incredible second Pole trip/crossing).

We later exchanged some correspondence and he was interested in combining to climb some of the high Transantarctic peaks, past which he had already skied twice at that stage. I used to tease him about wasting all that money plodding past unclimbed peaks, but I'm sorry to think he'll never get back there, or more importantly to spend the rest of his life with his family and friends.

You can see a short video clip of him doing a reading for the 100th anniversary of the Scott arrival at the Pole, during a memorial on 17th January 2012. https://www.facebook.com/damiengildea/videos/10153936434279901/?pnref=story

Vale Henry.

In reply to Gone for good:

I don't know if the phrase "poor guy' and an outpouring of pity is appropriate.

>and in doing so, became the only person to have completed the classic Antarctic routes of Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen.
He seems like a giant of a man, cut from the same cloth as his Antarctic heroes. I think if many of us had achieved even a fraction of what he's done we'd consider our time well spent.

In reply to dread-i:

It was most certainly not meant in a derogatory way, my use of words was aimed at how sad it was that he should lose his life when he was so close to succeeding in the latest challenge he had set himself..

In reply to andyjohnson0:

It wasn't at all a criticism! I was lamenting the fact that in these huge endurance challenges with razor thin safety margins, it must be hard to know where the line of suffering should not be crossed. With so many stories of people almost dying but achieving their goal this must make it harder to relent, as others have said with fatigue and starvation clouding your judgement.

This was the picture that came to mind when I first heard of his total organ shutdown (GRAPHIC: http://tinyurl.com/gnwewr5 ). It would be hard to see this, look at yourself, and not think - "just one more day"...

In reply to dread-i:

The statement he makes in the link in the OP would certainly suggest that. I'll quote it here:

"Greetings everybody.
It's Friday the 22nd of January, day 70.
When my hero Ernest Shackleton walked 97 miles from the South Pole, on the morning of January the 9th 1909 he said he'd shot his bolt. Well today I have to inform you, with some sadness, that I too have shot my bolt.
My journey is at an end. I have run out of time, physical endurance, and a simple sheer inability to slide one ski in front of the other to travel the distance required to reach my goal.
Many mountaineers battle away and fail to reach the summit.
My summit is just out of reach."

Pretty poignant stuff. RIP.

In reply to Trangia:

The only thing that is sad is that I've only just heard about this mans exploits now. What an inspiring man and life he has led. Are there any books he's written?

In reply

>Who said that?

I have the utmost respect for his achievements as I'm sure most other people do.

To quote Dumbledore.
"To the well organised mind death is but the next great adventure"

In reply to Trangia:

I've not seen the tv news stuff at the moment (which I suspect may be the usual OTT reporting) but I'm quite sad that he was so close and yet so far. I'm pretty sure he won't be sorry he went in this fashion rather than in a more mundane way back in blighty but I'm also sure his family won't necessarily feel the same. Still, without people like this, what do the rest of us aspire to? Otherwise, we merely make up the numbers as the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Well done that man. RIP.

In reply to Skyfall:

This

If I aspire to anything its to go out like this. To keep pushing the limits until one day I don't come back. I suspect that when that day comes, I'll likely not want to go as I'd want more time with my family but if its my time then this would be preferable to a miserable existence of hanging on.

I wish the world didn't deal cruel blows like this but we know it does however I am extremely grateful for people like Henry Worsley because he reminds me how much better a person I could be.