[curiousgal]

Tangent.

I once met a guy who told be about a historical book of, as far as I can remember, 2 or 3 explorers who were friends (?) and were racing to explore Antarctica. Does anyone happen to know the name of said book? It's been my white whale.

[aedocw]

Not the book the guy told you about, but one of the finest memoirs ever written about exploring Antarctica - The Worst Journey In The World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World

It's a fantastic read, written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard who was part of Scott's expedition. Such an amazing story, and to think they were doing this in a day where sat phones and GPS were not a thing (not even flashlights!)

[robaato]

Off topic, but was given a brief guided tour of the egg collection at Natural History Museum at Tring when we donated my father-in-laws collection a couple of months ago - we were shown the 3 Emperor Penguin eggs collected by Cherry-Garrard and donated - fascinating! Here they are in a presentation by Douglas Russell, curator (who also showed us round).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdBT670fiCQ

[LeifCarrotson]

If it was about Antarctica, it might be Lansing's "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage": I recall that it opened with some chapters describing the preparations and some descriptions of the spirit of camaraderie among Arctic and Antarctic explorers of various nationalities. It's set just after the race to reach the pole. It was a best seller, and they made a movie about it in 2000, so it had reach enough to be mentioned.

It's definitely not a story about 3 friends racing to explore Antarcica - for one, while it takes a few small creative liberties, it's an historical narrative, and only one of the three are significantly included.

But it is a fantastic read, and even if it isn't the one you're looking for it is both well worth your and it is concerning the same topic.

[gregtaleck]

Scott and Amundsen

"The race to the South Pole, 1911. In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen went head to head to be the first to reach the South Pole. In the early 20th century, the race was on to reach the South Pole, with a number of explorers setting out to claim it for their own."

https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/race-south-pole-1911

[atiffany]

Maybe it’s a book on Shackleton?

[lostlogin]

His own book, ‘South’, is truely epic and ranks up there as one of the best books I’ve ever read.

[drharby]

Shackletons Way is more of a 'leadership under adversity' book. IIRC there wasn't a mention of a race with others.