Poles Apart
What a difference a hundred years or so can make. The Tom Avery-led five person team (that included an American woman, thereby giving it news relevance) re-created Admiral Robert Peary’s 1909 run to the North Pole, cutting a little less than five hours off Peary’s time. Exhausted, they made it.
Avery said they did it partly to put to rest the 96 year complaint that Peary couldn’t have done it in that amount of time. When I compare the clothing Peary and Henson wore on their expedition with the modern expedition-wear, I picture the Peary expedition’s thirty-seven days struggling against nature in skins and furs compared to the Avery party’s Gore-Tex and down. Not to disparage Tom and his group, their trip kept to required detail such as wood and skin sleds, powered only by dogs and human strength. It was an awesome piece of work.
Before it became mired in the controversy of imposter Fred Cook, who claimed to have preceded Peary to the Pole, the expedition by Admiral Peary event fired…