He Watched His Friend Die, Then Walked Alone Across Antarctica — With Almost Nothing Left to Keep Him Alive

He Watched His Friend Die, Then Walked Alone Across Antarctica — With Almost Nothing Left to Keep Him Alive

Douglas Mawson was hundreds of miles from safety when Antarctica began taking everything from him. In late 1912, the Australian geologist was leading a three-man sledging party deep into the unexplored wilderness of King George V Land with Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz. They were traveling across an enormous frozen landscape with sled dogs and supplies, believing they could eventually return safely to their base at Cape Denison. But on December 14, their expedition turned into a fight for survival when Ninnis suddenly disappeared through a snow bridge and plunged into a deep crevasse. He took the team's best dogs, their sled and most of their food with him. Mawson and Mertz searched desperately, but Ninnis was dead, and the two surviving men were left with barely enough supplies to make the long journey home.

They turned back toward Cape Denison, more than 300 miles away, carrying what little remained. As their food disappeared, they were forced to kill and eat their remaining sled dogs. The journey became increasingly desperate as their bodies weakened and the Antarctic cold continued to punish them. Mertz eventually became gravely ill and died on January 8, 1913. A later medical analysis suggested that vitamin-A poisoning from consuming dog liver may have contributed to his death, although the exact cause was not established with certainty at the time. Mawson was now completely alone, with more than 100 miles still separating him from the safety of the expedition's base.

What followed was one of the most extraordinary solo survival journeys in Antarctic history. Mawson continued dragging himself across the ice while his body deteriorated. His skin began peeling, his hair fell out in patches, and his clothing and equipment were becoming increasingly damaged. At one point, he broke through a crevasse and found himself hanging over the darkness below, held only by his harness and rope. Somehow, he managed to climb back onto the surface and continue. He had no companion left to help him, no dogs to pull his sled and very little food remaining. Every mile toward the coast was another mile he had to somehow force his weakened body to travel.

Then, on January 28, when Mawson was approaching the absolute limits of his endurance, something almost impossible appeared through the endless white. In the distance, he noticed what looked like a small mound of snow with a piece of black cloth attached to it. It was a food cache that a search party had constructed along the route. They had passed through that exact area only hours earlier and left supplies behind for him. Inside were food and directions that could lead him toward another supply cache known as Aladdin's Cave. After weeks of starvation and isolation, Mawson had stumbled upon help at precisely the moment he needed it most. In a landscape where a person could disappear without leaving a trace, missing that tiny marker could have meant death.

The supplies gave him enough strength to continue. Eventually, after everything Antarctica had thrown at him, Mawson reached the final stretch toward Cape Denison. But there was one final shock waiting for him. When he arrived on February 8, he saw the expedition's ship, Aurora, preparing to leave for the winter. After surviving the deaths of both companions, starvation, extreme cold and a fall into a crevasse, he had seemingly arrived just in time to watch the only obvious route home disappear over the horizon.

Then came the detail that saved his life.

Six men had remained behind.

They had refused to leave without knowing whether Mawson was still alive, and their decision meant that the exhausted explorer would not be abandoned in Antarctica after surviving the journey that had already killed his two companions.

Mawson had walked out of the Antarctic wilderness alone, but he did not survive entirely by himself. At several points, his survival depended on circumstances so narrowly timed that a small change in weather, direction or timing could have produced a very different ending.