[cconcepts]

The Book "South" which is something like an edited version of Shackelton's diary, has this journey in reasonable detail. It had a profound impact on me; that people could be that tough and resilient against massive odds. I think about it often when I am feeling stressed - how would someone like Shackelton handle this so the fear didn't impair their judgement.

[gherkinnn]

The ordeal he and his men went through is truly outlandish.

A memorable element was the mens’ reaction to WW1. Them asking “who won?” felt awfully like one would ask about a football game.

But I found Ernest endlessly describing every depth measurement and the stomach contents of every penguin they killed hard to get through.

[cconcepts]

There were a couple of points I keep thinking about:

SPOILER ALERT

1) Where they are navigating broken ice on a heaving ocean and Shackelton casually mentions that he hadn't slept for over 100 hours as he was trying to pick a safe route through the ice (I expect people would argue that is highly likely to kill/drive you insane).

2) Where a wave breaks on top of their small boat that is so high that they can't hear it yet and Shackelton initially thinks the white crest way above them is actually a break in the sky indicating clearing weather.

And I have a sore neck because my keyboard/monitor arrangement isn't optimized.

[selimthegrim]

The adrenaline receptors in his brain were probably stuck wide open throttles at that point