Climbing the Pole - Edmund Hillary & the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958

This is an interesting one. The thing you need to remember when reading this book, is that Sir Ed Hillary was, and is constantly recognised in New Zealand as the most trustworthy of men, and probably the greatest New Zealander. Given he is not even a rugby player, this is noteworthy.

Thomson's book really cuts him down, and in the authors view, exposes him as sneak who undermined the Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Fuchs.

There is no doubt that this book sets up Hillary as the villain, in a situation where in reality this was the view of most people based outside New Zealand. Hillary, fresh from conquering Everest, was the high profile New Zealand name that Fuchs needed to get the support of both the British and New Zealand Governments, and make his expedition viable. In taking on a man such as Hillary, Fuchs must have had some expectation that setting up supply depots as a support party was probably not going to satisfy the ambitious kiwi. In fact much is made of the way Fuchs excluded Hillary from all of the high level planning and preparation meetings, something Hillary found frustrating, and possibly contributed to his actions on the ice.

Unfortunately this book uses repetition as a blunt tool. There is no single event mentioned only once in this short (140 page) report (the authors description, rather than book) - everything is teased over two or four times.

If you are unaware of the story, the expedition planned to make a land crossing of the Antarctic continent from the British base at the Weddell Sea to the South Pole, then on to the New Zealand base at McMurdo Sound. This was to be undertaken by the expedition leader Fuchs and his team in Sno-Cats. Hillary was the support team leader, and his role was to travel towards the South Pole from the other side, planning the route for Fuchs, and laying supply depots to ease their way. Hillary's team travelled in converted Massey Ferguson tractors and consisted on a number of dog sledge teams. As well as the land crossing, there was significant scientific research undertaken by both parties as they progressed.
Hillary set his supply depots, then instead of waiting some 500 miles from the pole, he carried on, beating Fuchs to be the first to reach the pole by land, since Amundsen (1911) and Scott (1912).

Hillary has maintained that the decision to press on was made when Fuchs was running far behind schedule, and it was a snap decision made because he had time and fuel to do so. This book presents evidence that this had been Hillary's goal from the beginning - or at least it had been his goal to be in a position to carry this out, if the circumstances allowed.

The early planning of the expedition was tainted with political decisions - I mentioned above that Fuchs needed the NZ government support. There was also a vocal call for New Zealand to mount their own expedition. New Zealand had not, until then established a permanent base on the ice, and was feeling pressure to do more to cement its involvement in Antarctica, which was being dominated by the USA, Australia and the British, among others. A strong case was put, with Hillary put forward as the leader, but the New Zealand Government favoured the British proposal, and gave their support, and a large sum of money to that. At that point Hillary made contact with Fuchs and offered his involvement, feeling quite rightly that if he was to make it to the ice, it would need to be this way.

Much of the evidence put forward in this book is archival diaries and letters from members of the team, an unpublished manuscript and the books written by expedition members. The author makes the point very clearly that many of those involved, including Hillary, refused to engage with the author or to make available any information. I am not sure I blame them, as it is apparent from the outset that the author was establishing the case against Hillary, who despite this incident, was a man of high standing both in New Zealand and internationally.

A quote from P84 from McKenzie:
“It could hardly be expected of a person of Hillary's background would, if he had the time and facilities at hand, tamely wait about kicking his heels when the South Pole was there fro the taking. Hillary's run to the South Pole was, following Everest, as natural as night following day...”

An interesting read, that could have been half the length without repetition.
Three and a half stars, rounded down.