All language subtitles for Tales.From.The.Explorers.Club.S01E02.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

Glory awaits Explorers Club
members Robert Peary
and Matthew Henson

at the top of the world.

But so did the extreme dangers
of the Arctic.

Decades later, Naomi Uemura
attempts to reach
the North Pole solo...

[animal growling]

...before something wild
ends his expedition
and his life.

And fate puts the dreams
of Ernest Shackleton on ice,

but ignites one of history's
greatest tales of survival.

At Earth's frigid poles,
human endurance is stretched
to its absolute limit.

Welcome to the world famous
Explorers Club.

For over 100 years,

this has been a gathering
place for trailblazers.

The people who dare
to venture higher...

...further...

...and faster.

As a member
of this exclusive club,

I'm bringing one-of-a-kind
access to its archives...

This is incredible!

...artifacts...

Oh, my word!

...and, my fellow explorers.

This is actual lunar dust.

Unbelievable.

The expeditions planned here
have tested the boundaries
of human possibility.

Its flag has flown on
death-defying voyages
into the unknown

that forever
changed our world.

These are the greatest
adventurers of all time.

These are...

...Tales From
The Explorers Club.

120 years ago,

Earth had no greater
undiscovered prize
than the North Pole.

For centuries,
the Arctic's deadly cold
and gauntlet of ice

made it impossible to reach.

Hundreds had died trying.

Whoever finally planted
a flag there

would have to be an insanely
driven individual
with a colossal ego.

A navy engineer named
Robert Peary was one such man.

This portrait of Peary
was painted

on an actual deck piece
from the S.S. Roosevelt,

the ship he used on his way
to becoming
an Explorers Club legend.

His tale is one of obsession,
courage, sacrifice,
and enduring controversy.

The object of Peary's
obsession isn't a piece
of land,

but the point
in the Arctic Ocean

where Earth's axis meets
its surface.

The North Pole's latitude
is 90 degrees north.

All lines of longitude
meet there,

and every direction one turns
is south.

Vast ice sheets cover
the Arctic,

and the temperature
at the Pole can plunge
to 65 degrees below zero.

In the quest for
firsthand knowledge at
the Explorers Club,

sometimes you have to go
straight to the top.

Here, even the club president
takes on

some of the most
inhospitable places
on the planet.

Richard Garriott
has been to both Poles.

The crazy cold might lead you
to believe that the Arctic ice
is thick, hard, and smooth,

but Garriott knows
from experience

the true hazards
of Arctic ice.

That entire ocean of ice
is subjected to the currents

that are moving the water
underneath it,

as well as the wind pushing
around on top.

And the pressure is pushing
these giant ridges

up these tumbled and broken
chunks of ice.

And, these often are 20, 30,
40 feet tall walls.

Big walls, and often in,
uh, groups.

They're huge.

You know, as tall as
four-story buildings.

So, these are major obstacles
that have to be overcome.

[Josh] Pressure ridges cover
25 percent of the Arctic's
icy surface.

But another natural pitfall
is even more daunting.

Linear cracks in the ice
called leads.

They form when ice sheets
diverge or splinter,

leaving channels of water
ranging in width from
a few feet to a mile.

One misstep into
these frigid waters,

and you'll be facing
certain death within minutes.

In 1886,
30 year old Robert Peary

is eager to take on
these Arctic hazards,

believing destiny has chosen
him to be the first to conquer
the North Pole.

That year,
he goes to Greenland

on a warm-up mission,
practicing in
Arctic conditions

to determine
the best techniques
for his polar assault.

He returns to America
with a horde of animal pelts,
looking for a buyer.

Tell the owner I have
three crates of these pelts.

[Josh] In the shop
of a Baltimore furrier,

he finds someone even better.

Excellent quality, sir.

Where'd you bag 'em?

-Disko Bay.
-Greenland? Did you
visit Nuuk?

You've been to Greenland?

No, to my regret.

I just sailed nearby.

[Josh] Though he's only 20,
the store's clerk
Matthew Henson

has an adventurer's resume.

He's spent all
his teenage years at sea,

traveling from China
to North Africa
to the Black Sea.

In him,
Peary finds the ideal ally

who shares his compulsion
to push exploration's limits.

I could use
a personal assistant,
if you're interested.

[Josh] This chance encounter
is the beginning
of a 23 year partnership,

that will lead both men
to the top of the world.

Over the next two decades,
Peary and Henson

will mount six expeditions
to the Arctic.

Yet, each time, be repulsed
short of the Pole.

Even so, they make history.

They discover the northern
coast of Greenland,
confirming it's an island,

recover three
giant meteorites,

and come within 174 miles
of the Pole,

closer than any other
explorers to that time.

July 6th, 1908 marks
the beginning
of assault number seven.

Peary, Henson,
and the rest of their team

sail from New York harbor
aboard a state of the art
icebreaker, theRoosevelt.

The same ship from which
a piece of decking hangs
on the Explorer Club walls.

It has a powerful
steam engine,

generating 1,000 horsepower,
and a wooden hull
nearly three feet thick.

The design enables the ship
to plow through ice instead
of being crushed by it.

TheRoosevelt steams north,
breaking a path
toward the Pole

off the western coast
of Greenland.

After a two month voyage,
it reaches one of the closest
points of land

to the North Pole,
Cape Sheridan,
on Canada's Ellesmere Island.

The Pole is 520 miles away.

Dozens of the Arctic's
indigenous people, the Inuit,

help Peary prepare for
a spring assault on the Pole.

Many will accompany him
on the expedition.

Now 52,
Peary has paid a high price
for his obsession,

losing eight toes
to frostbite.

This is his final shot
at immortality.

He will either conquer
the Pole, or die trying.

Many explorers of this time
didn't lose just toes or legs,

but often crewmembers
or lost the entire crew
in these expeditions.

Right, these guys are really
willing to risk everything
for these goals.

That's exactly right,
and Peary was chief
among them.

The risks he was facing,
literally losing body parts
along the way,

-[Josh] Yeah.
-Uh, you know, I'm not sure
I would have the fortitude

to turn right around
and go back.

[Josh] Over the years,
Peary and Henson have adopted
the Inuit's survival skills.

From the fur suits they wear,
to the dog sledges
they use to travel.

Henson not only builds
the sledges the team leaders
will drive,

but also teaches
the less experienced

how to handle the huskies
hauling them.

Henson may be one
of the most interesting
accomplished people

that hasn't fully gotten
his due, I think.

Yeah, you know, in fact,
one of the things

I'm really proud of at
the Explorers Club

is we were actually
one of the first
international organizations

to really recognize
that he was, you know,

somebody who should be
seen, really, side by side
with Peary...

-Right.
-...on this
incredible adventure.

[Josh] Peary realizes
his best chance
at success will come

if he fully utilizes his team.

To pave the way for
his hopeful march to the Pole,

he's devised an inventive
supply chain system
for traversing the ice.

Fine work, my friend.
Fine work.

-Thank you, sir.
-Carry on.

[Josh] He will divide his team
of 26 men and 133 dogs
into six groups.

Five of the units will work
to make the travel easier
for the sixth.

The five teams will
move out first,
establishing the route.

At regular intervals,
they'll build igloos
and set up supply depots.

One by one, they'll return
to the expedition's
starting point.

Then, the sixth team,
led by Peary and Henson,

will take advantage of
the pre-stock checkpoints

without the need
to carry excessive supplies.

Peary's first team begins
their trek
on February 28th, 1909.

The temperature when Peary
and Henson set out

was a bone-chilling
50 degrees below zero.

Brandy in a bottle under
Peary's deerskin coat
froze solid.

Hate when that happens.

And on day one,
that was just the start
of Peary's headaches.

The reason is those
pesky pressure ridges
I mentioned earlier.

The only solution is to push
the heavy sledges over them,
a laborious chore.

But the delay is nothing
compared to what lies ahead
on day four.

An enormous lead has stopped
all of Peary's teams
dead in their tracks.

The water
is a quarter mile wide,

and extends east and west
as far as they can see.

Damn!

It's gonna take weeks
for it to freeze over.

If we're lucky.

[Josh] No explorer likes
playing the waiting game,

and few tortures are worse
than playing it in the Arctic.

Two days pass,

then three...

...four, five.

Among the many things
Peary's team members
do to survive

is eat every explorer's
go-to source of protein...

...pemmican.

Ever heard of pemmican?

It is a greasy mixture
of rendered fat,
dried meat, and berries

that lasts for decades
and can provide

life-saving nutrition
to explorers in the Arctic.

Now, luckily,
the Explorers Club here

has a world-class kitchen,
and I'm told
that Chef Bill here

makes a pemmican recipe
that's to die for.

Absolutely, Josh.

Does that mean
it's gonna kill me?

Probably won't kill you.

Why don't you try some?

Okay. I notice you're
not eating any.

-I had some before,
and I feel fine.
-Sure.

Sure, here we go.
All right, pemmican.

-I gotta say...
-Pretty good?

-It's pretty great.
-All it is is beef
and blueberries.

I mean, it tastes
like I'm eating a...
a sweet steak.

It's definitely fatty,
but pretty sweet.

Pretty delicious.

You can have all of it.

Pemmican, who knew?

-Pretty great.
Thank you, Josh.
-Bill... amazing job.

-Thank you so much.
-Thank you.

[Josh] After a one week
delay on the Arctic's
precarious ice,

the pemmican and Peary's
patience are nearly exhausted.

But the barrier of water
has finally
frozen sufficiently

to allow the expedition
to cross.

Advance!

[Josh] Over the next
three weeks, the group
makes steady progress.

And one by one, as planned,
the five trailblazing
teams retreat.

This leaves
the Pole assault team,

Peary, Henson
and four Inuit hunters
133 miles from the North Pole.

As Peary continues,
his hunger
for glory intensifies.

The farther north he pushes,
the more possessed he becomes,

urging his team
to quicken their pace.

Matthew Henson also senses
that history is calling.

But this is the Arctic,
where a man's fate
is always on thin ice.

[Henson screaming]

[Josh] Glory may be near,

but Henson would trade it
in a heartbeat
for one helping hand.

[Henson grunting]

In 1909,
Commander Robert Peary
and his right hand man

Matthew Henson were just shy
of the North Pole
when a crisis struck.

[ice cracking]

[Henson grunting]

[Josh] Henson plunged through
the Arctic ice,

and was fighting for his life.

On his flailing hands
were sealskin mittens.

These mittens.

The fact that they
are right here nearly
a century later

is absolutely mind-boggling.

They are one of the club's
most prized artifacts,

a tangible piece
of exploration history.

And the reason they survived
is because when Henson
fell through that ice

and reached out for help,
help was there.

Henson's rescuer is Ootah,
one of the four Inuit hunters

hand-picked for the assault
on the Pole.

Over the past two decades,
Henson has established

a close relation
with the Inuit.

And on this day,
he reaps its benefits.

After Henson's close call,
the dash to the Pole resumes.

On April 2nd, the six men
pulled by 40 dogs

race an average
of 26 miles per day.

Explorers Club archivist
Lacey Flint tells me

she's got a special surprise
in store that will help

better understand how Peary
and his team accomplished
such a feat.

Okay, so? What is it?

You're never
gonna believe this.

We have the sledge
that Henson and Peary
took to the North Pole.

Their actual sledge?

[Lacey] Actual sledge.

Where is it?

Ah! Unbelievable,
look at that!

-[Lacey] A floating sledge!
-Can we bring it down?

Josh, it's 113 years old!

-Is that a no?
-Hard no, we're going up.

-We're going up?
-Get the ladders.

We're goin' up.

A closer look at Peary's
sledge reveals a simple,
but ingenious design.

Lacey, I can't help but notice
a slight disparity in our
ladder sizes here.

You know what, Josh?
I am shorter than you.

So we had to even the scales.

[Josh] Yeah, not anymore.

First of all,
for folks who don't know,

what's the difference between
a sled and a sledge?

So, quite simply,
it's the size.

-A sledge is bigger.
-[Josh] Sledge is bigger.

What is it about the sledge
that makes it the go-to
vehicle for Arctic travel?

Because this is the sledge
that got them
to the North Pole, right?

That's right, yeah.
It's this sledge
in particular.

So, it's the runners,
quite frankly.

And it's this new design.

The original runners on
their sledges
from earlier attempts,

-much more narrow,
much thinner, right?
-[Josh] Okay.

This sledge, with the runners
you'll notice...

-Much wider. Yeah.
-[Lacey] Wider, right?

Uh, and they're curved
on both ends,

which means very importantly,
you can go forwards
and backwards.

-Otherwise you couldn't...
it would totally get stuck...
-[Josh] Got it.

[Lacey] ...when you're
in the back up.

-So, this is the equivalent
of a reverse gear.
-[Lacey] Absolutely.

The other thing that's really
important to note

is the actual platform,
or plinth.

So, earlier sledges had one
sort of singular platform

-for the cargo, for the things
they were carrying.
-Okay.

This, you'll notice...

-...has these slatted
runners, right?
-[Josh] Right.

[Lacey] The difference there
is that they're bound together
with sealskin leather.

[Josh] All of this
is sealskin?

[Lacey] All of it is sealskin.

-[Josh] Amazing.
-And at the time, it would've
been really malleable,

-which means you have
a built-in shock system...
-[Josh] Uh-huh.

...essentially, to navigate
those uneven ice floes.

This sledge can carry
how much weight?

[Lacey] Up to 600 pounds,
and it'd be pulled by up
to eight sled dogs,

but the other important thing
to note about this sledge

is it could also be manned
and driven by just one person
if it needed to be.

Wow, so really versatile.

Absolutely, this was cutting
edge technology.

Awesome.

Along the way,
Peary determines
their location

using a sextant,
which calculates latitude
and longitude,

by measuring the angle
between the sun
and the horizon.

On April 6th,
Peary and Henson both suspect

their party is close
to the Pole,

but the sun is obscured
by mist.

Peary cannot get
an accurate reading.

He orders the group
to construct their igloos

and retire for some
much-needed sleep.

At noon the following day,
the mist lifts,

and Peary is finally able
to determine their location.

We're here.

[chuckles]

[excitedly] Get me Henson!

[Josh] On April 6th, 1909,
Peary claims the North Pole
is conquered.

He commemorates his life's
crowning achievement on film.

You'd think that this moment
of triumph caps off the story,

but history is rarely
that neat.

Controversy hounds Peary
when Matthew Henson offers
the press a version of events

conflicting with his own.

Henson claims that he,
not Peary,

had arrived at the Pole
first while scouting a trail.

I mean, Peary must
just have been furious.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

This is his seventh
attempt at this.

-And yes,
they're on the same team.
-Yeah.

But clearly, this guy...
Peary is the kind of guy

-who... wants this glory.
-[Richard] Yeah.

Absolutely. This has been
his life's passion
for a long time.

And these two guys
who have been, like,

brothers on these expeditions
for 23 years.

What happens to them
in the wake of this?

Well, this is basically
the end of their relationship.

-I mean, Peary basically
never talks to Henson again.
-[Josh] Wow.

It's... He's that wounded?

Yeah, completely.

And one final layer
to this intrigue...

There's a possibility
that neither of them
made it, right?

[Richard] Oh, absolutely true.

People who have gone back
to try to reconcile the data
from their expedition

about how far they traveled
and what their sightings

were to determine
their location...

...a lot of people believe
they actually

didn't quite make it
to the North Pole at all.

[Josh] Among Peary's
supporters and his doubters,

there is one point
of agreement.

That for decades,
history neglected
Matthew Henson's role

in Peary's polar exploits.

In 1937, the Explorers Club
recognizes his achievements,

making him the first
African American member
inducted into the club.

Like North Pole explorers
before and after them,

Peary and Henson faced
frigid temperatures,

howling winds,
unpredictable ice,
and deadly waters.

But what they
and their Inuit partners
could always count on

throughout the journey
was each other.

Then, in 1978,
one Explorers Club member

decided to take the ultimate
trip north to an insane
new level,

by going solo.

But, as Naomi Uemura
would quickly find out,

just because you're
by yourself,

doesn't mean you're
always alone.

The date is March 9th, 1978.

37 year old Naomi Uemura
is four days

into his solo trek
across the Arctic ice.

Like Peary, he travels
by dog sledge.

Five foot three
and 130 pounds,

Uemura says he became
an explorer to cure
an inferiority complex.

Nearly everywhere he goes,
he goes alone...

...including the summits
of Mont Blanc,

Mount Kilimanjaro, and Denali.

The journey so far
has been arduous.

He looks forward
to a good night's sleep.

[dogs barking]

[dogs howling]

[Josh] But at dawn,
Uemura hears the last thing

a man alone in the Arctic
wants to hear.

[dogs barking in background]

There are an estimated
20,000 polar bears

There are an estimated
20,000 polar bears
in the Arctic in 1978.

One of them is
just a few feet
outside Uemura's tent,

devouring his supply
of frozen seal
and whale blubber.

Uemura fears it's
only a matter of seconds

before the bear sniffs out
fresher meat.

[polar bear roars]

[Josh] If so,
his solo North Pole trek
will come to a grizzly end

on only its fourth day.

[polar bear growls]

In 1978, Explorers Club
member Naomi Uemura

was trying to do
what no explorer
had done before,

complete a solo journey
to the North Pole.

Early on, a hungry polar bear
threatened to take a bite
out of that dream.

Now, taxidermied specimens
like this

are no longer accepted
by The Explorers Club,

but they remain as
valuable educational tools
from conservations past.

Calling the fight unfair
is an understatement.

Uemura weighed 130 pounds.

A polar bear can weigh
up to 1,300.

This is one of those moments
when the only tools
of survival

are guts, ingenuity
and a little luck.

[polar bear roaring]

[dogs yelping]

[dogs barking]

[polar bear roars]

[roaring continues]

[polar bear sniffing]

[polar bear roars]

[Josh] If he goes for his gun,
the bear will tear him apart
before he can fire.

If he runs, he's easy prey
on the ice.

Uemura's only chance
is to remain perfectly still.

[polar bear roaring]

[Josh] This is the stuff
an explorer's nightmares
are made of.

After this
way-too-close encounter,

for reasons known
only to the polar bear,
it retreats.

[sighs in relief]

[Josh] A day later,
the bear reappears,

but this time,
Uemura is ready.

-[rifle fires]
-[polar bear roars]

[Josh] He feeds it
to his hungry huskies.

The life of a solo explorer
is perilous,

but for Uemura, the rewards
outweigh the risks.

In 1971, two climbing
adventures in the Alps
and on Mount Everest

soured him
on group expeditions.

He enjoyed the camaraderie,
but inefficiency
and infighting

caused both to unravel.

The more Uemura
ventures out alone,

the more he realizes
he thrives on self-reliance.

Seeking the ultimate
solo trek,

he turns his focus
to the North Pole.

Like Peary, he sets out
from Ellesmere Island
in Canada, 500 miles away.

His loaded dog sledge
weighs 882 pounds

and carries
a battery-driven beacon,

sending a tracking signal
to a support team.

GPS as we know it
is years away,

so the transmissions
are picked up

by a weather satellite
passing over the Pole,

then relayed to Uemura's team
from a NASA tracking station
in Alaska.

This allows the team
to coordinate a series
of air drops

to keep Uemura supplied.

He packs
a 35-milimeter camera,

which he uses to take selfies
the old-fashioned way...

with a tripod and a timer.

Like Peary and Henson,
he must navigate his sledge

through a gauntlet
of pressure ridges,

but unlike them,
since he's alone,

he doesn't have the muscle
to climb over
the tallest ridges,

which soar as high as 30 feet.

So instead of going
over the ice,
he burrows through it.

An exhausting
and time-consuming chore,

adding two weeks
to his journey.

Beyond the pressure ridges,
Uemura makes swift progress.

But on day 35
of his expedition,

he learns that the Arctic's
flat expanses of ice

hold a different kind
of peril.

Uemura realizes he's floating
on an island of ice

just a few hundred feet
across, that has broken free
from the main ice sheet.

[ice creaking]

[Josh] Like Peary and Henson
70 years earlier,
all he can do is wait.

But this time around,
fate isn't so patient.

[ice cracking]

[ice cracking]

Uemura's tiny island
is breaking apart
right under his feet.

He had no time to think,
just act.

And so, as Uemura
rushed to his dog sledge,

he noticed
that a drifting chunk of ice

had wedged itself
between his disintegrating
island and the main ice sheet.

It formed a tenuous bridge
about three-feet wide.

He raced his dogs over it
to safety.

Uemura must have felt
at home in the Arctic

because he had ice
in his veins.

Like Peary in 1909,
Uemura sets
a scorching pace

in his journey's final phase.

He travels 25 miles
in one day, 37 in another.

The date is now April 29th,
1978.

Uemura takes the last
of many sextant readings
to confirm his location.

At last, he is sure.

After 57 harrowing days...

he's at the top of the world.

[laughs happily]

[Josh] The first man
to reach the North Pole alone
across the frozen Arctic.

-[laughing]
-[Josh] In celebration,

he gets busy doing
what any elated explorer does
at a moment like this...

hoisting the flags
of the nations
that lent their support.

Something Uemura has kept
close to himself
on his entire journey

is another type of flag,
not tied to
a sovereign nation.

Explorers Club Flag
number 193.

The Explorers Club Flag
is only reserved for
select expeditions.

Only a small percentage
are granted one.

Six years later, the perils of
Uemura's daring type
of exploration

catch up with him.

On his 43rd birthday,
he completes the first solo
winter ascent

of Mount McKinley,
now known as Denali.

During his descent,
he vanishes without a trace.

He dies as he loved
to explore...

alone.

A change in poles
means a change in wildlife.

So we transition from
the towering polar bear
to the mighty penguin.

And while the penguin
may seem friendlier
than the bear,

as we'll see,
the dangers of the Antarctic
are just as lethal.

And just as Naomi Uemura
and Robert Peary

couldn't resist the allure
of the North Pole,

other explorers were obsessed
with conquering its twin
to the south.

Explorers Club member
Roald Amundsen won the race
to the South Pole in 1911.

This photo was taken
a year later.

That's Amundsen on the left,
standing next to Robert Peary.

The two polar champions.

Notice that the globe
is angled

so the poles they conquered
are facing each of them.

But it's the Explorers Club
member in the middle
who really intrigues me...

a British adventurer
who lost out to Amundsen...

and it turns out failure
is a powerful motivator.

He vowed to compensate
for his defeat

with a wildly monumental
achievement.

Fate had different plans,
but it couldn't stop
Ernest Shackleton

from becoming a legend.

The place is
South Georgia Island
in the Atlantic Ocean...

1,200 miles east of
the lower tip
of South America.

Few locations on Earth
are more isolated.

Ernest Shackleton
and his two companions

have long been given up
for dead.

The last anyone saw of them,
and 25 others,
was 17 months ago.

They had been
hopelessly trapped
in an ice flow,

lost at sea and have traversed
inhospitable frigid terrain.

But if they don't
find help now,

their journey
will come to an end for good.

The story Ernest Shackleton
had to tell

when he stumbled into
an island whaling outpost

was unlike any
in the history of exploration.

It started in 1914,
when he put an ad
in a British newspaper

that sounds a lot like
a job posting for one of
my shows.

[Josh reading]

"Honor and recognition
in case of success."

That last part
doesn't sound like me,
but the rest of it...

Amazingly, 27 men responded.
Shackleton had his team.

The ad, of course,
didn't specify
the expedition's objective,

which was ambitious
to the point of insanity.

Shackleton's plan is to outdo
Amundsen's conquest
of the South Pole.

His team will sail
from England to Antarctica,

travel by dog sledge
to the Pole,

then continue
to the opposite coast
over unmapped territory.

The total transcontinental
crossing is 1,800 miles,

un unprecedented
Antarctic journey.

On August 1st, 1914,
Shackleton and his team
set sail aboard the Endurance,

named after
his family's motto,
"By endurance, we conquer."

Three months later,
they drop anchor
for provisions

at South Georgia,
the same island

where Shackleton
will find himself desperate
and starving

a year and a half later.

He could have avoided
that fate if he'd heeded
the warning

of South Georgia's whalers.

They told him
the ice surrounding Antarctica
that season

was worse than
they'd ever seen it
and cautioned him not to go...

but he sailed on.

With every mile,
the Endurance advanced
slower and slower,

then came to a screeching halt
93 miles from
the Antarctic mainland.

For the next 10 months,
the Endurance drifts
slowly north.

Shackleton bolsters
his men's morale by organizing
everything from sing-alongs

to soccer matches.

[men's voices chattering]

Frank Worsley,
the Endurance's captain,

said that Shackleton had
a genius for keeping his men
in high spirits.

Worsley said
he loved Shackleton
like a brother.

The crew affectionately
called him "the Boss."

In October, the Boss
and his men face a new crisis,

when rising temperatures
fracture the ice
encasing the ship.

Its timbers groan
and snap from the strain...

forcing Shackleton
to order the Endurance
abandoned.

A month later, she sinks.

Shackleton and his men
are now shipless
and drifting.

As April approaches,
food isn't the only thing
rapidly vanishing.

So is the ice
beneath their feet.

The only refuge for the men
is three 23-foot lifeboats
salvaged from the Endurance,

but at least now
there's open water
and the chance for escape.

On April 9th, they row north
on the stormy sea,

not knowing when, or if,
they will see land again.

Six days later,
they reach uninhabited
Elephant Island,

a 20-mile chunk of desolation
in the Drake passage,

the waterway separating
South America from Antarctica.

None of us know,
until put to the test,
what we can really endure.

He decided the only chance
he had to get his 27 men
back to civilization

was to cross more ocean.

Of all the challenges
they'd faced over the past
17 months,

this, by far,
would be the toughest.

On April 24th,
Shackleton and five others
sail for South Georgia

to get help, the island
where they'd stopped
for supplies

on the eve of their ordeal.

The odds of success
are as low as
the Arctic temperature.

South Georgia is a tiny dot
800 miles away,

roughly the distance
from St. Louis to Houston.

Without pinpoint navigation,
they'll miss their mark

and be lost in the vast
South Atlantic.

That's my cue
to navigate my way

to Explorers Club archivist
Lacey Flint,

guardian of the indispensable
tools Shackleton relied on
during the voyage.

Okay.

I'm, like, afraid to ask
because I feel like
I'm gonna freak out.

What is this?

You might freak out.

These are Ernest Shackleton's
actual tools.

I know. This is his sextant

and this is the compass
that they had with them
on the Endurance.

They used it aboard
the James Caird to sail

to South Georgia Island,
with that compass.

-That actual compass?
-This actual compass.

From what is one of
the most harrowing...

survival stories
and incredible
accomplishments.

-It's iconic, yeah.
-Yeah, I mean...

-That's insane.
-This story is referenced
all the time

because of leadership,
because of survival,

because of teamwork,
all of that.

This is one of the tools
that helped them get there.

And one of the most
remarkable parts
of this story

is the fact that these guys
have to travel,

like, 800 miles
in frigid open water

and they have to reach
this tiny spec of land
at South Georgia

and if they're off
even a little,

they're gonna miss it
completely.

Absolutely. The conditions
are terrible, weather is bad.

There's little-to-no
visibility.

The seas are really choppy.

So, Frank Worsley,
captain of the James Caird,

would have used a sextant
just like this

aboard the lifeboat,
figuring out where they
need to go.

Now, what you have to realize
about these things is
they're incredibly delicate...

and so, any bad weather,
choppy seas,

you're not gonna be able
to get what you need
out of this thing.

It took them 16 days
to make this crossing

and in that time,
Worsley was only able
to get four readings.

-Unbelievable.
-Mmm-hmm.

[Josh] Day after day
passes on the roughest waters
on Earth.

Ice five-inches thick
forms on the boat,

forcing the men
to hack off the ice
to keep them from sinking.

But on their 17th day at sea,
they sight South Georgia.

Worsley's navigation
has been perfect.

The island is rimmed
mostly by steep cliffs,
making landing a nightmare.

They finally reach shore,
but discover they still have
one big problem.

They're on the wrong side
of the island.

Nearly 30 miles
of snow-covered mountains
loom between them

and the whaling outposts
on South Georgia's
northern shore.

No one has ever crossed them.

Three of the men
were too exhausted
to continue,

so Shackleton and the others
set off into the island's
foreboding interior.

They climbed 3,000 feet,
through hip-deep snow,

to the mountain range's
summit.

By then, the sun was setting
and the temperature
was plummeting.

Shackleton realized
if they waited until morning
to descend,

they'd freeze to death,

but climbing down
in the dark
would be equally fatal.

They need a quick way down
and the resourceful
Shackleton finds it.

Coil the rope!

[man] I don't understand?

We won't climb down!

We'll slide!

[man] What about the rocks?

We'll have to chance it.

To support and showcase
new scientific achievement,

Discovery has pledged
nearly two million dollars

to fund Explorers Club
expeditions.

Geophysicist Jamin Greenbaum
recently returned from
one such endeavor

in Antarctica.

On the western coast,
he studied
the Thwaites Glacier,

a massive slab of ice
the size of Florida.

Thwaites is worrying
scientists worldwide

because it's thawing
faster than expected.

Many warn
that if it completely melts,

global sea levels
could rise more than two feet,

the effects of which
would be catastrophic.

Greenbaum used helicopters
to drop sensors into the water
surrounding the glacier

to measure its temperature
and salinity,

trying to determine if
freshwater, hidden deep
beneath the mass of ice,

might be accelerating
the process.

Greenbaum's work
reminds us that Antarctica,

one of the coldest places
on Earth,

continues to be
a global hotspot
in climate research.

Ernest Shackleton and his men
find themselves in
a do-or-die situation.

Either they descend
the rugged terrain rapidly,
threatening life and limb,

or they risk freezing to death
in the extreme Antarctic
temperatures.

Shackleton decides
that making camp
is not an option.

Coil the rope!

-[man] I don't understand?
-We won't climb down.

We'll slide!

[man] What about the rocks?

We'll have to chance it.

We can do this, lads!

Let's go!

Shackleton and the others
planned to slide
down this mountain?

-It sounds nuts.
-It is.

It's shockingly unsafe.

What they did is
they basically took a long
length of rope that they had

and coiled it up to make,
basically, a big toboggan

that they could all sit on
and slide from
these mountain tops...

down into the valleys,
into the mists,
hoping not to go over a cliff,

you know, in order
to get down quickly

and make it back
to civilization.

This seems like
a really good way to,
you know, break a limb, die.

Yeah, but in this case,
they had no choice.

They had no camping gear.

They couldn't have spent
the night, you know, out,
exposed like that

and so, they just did
what they had to do.

[Josh] The previous 17 months
have been a nightmare.

The next two minutes will be
an adrenaline junkie's dream.

Ready?

One...

Two...

Three!

[men all yelling]

[Josh] On the steepest part
of their descent,

the men slide
at nearly 60 miles per hour.

Overall, they plummet
3,000 feet

and travel one mile
for an average speed of 30

and, miraculously,
they hit no obstacles
and reach the bottom safely.

Like, all parts
of the Shackleton story...

this guy just keeps going.

Like, he's unstoppable.

There's parts of it
where it seems to be
good planning.

-Yeah.
-You know, he,
on one expedition

with Scott, he turned back
just 100 miles short
of the South Pole

because, by calculations,
they would run out of food
and they made it out.

Scott went back later
without him, ran out of food
and they all died.

Right.

But there's also these moments

-where they were just
damn lucky.
-Right.

Like getting down
off that mountain, you know...

Modern explorers today
would never face that risk.

[Josh] Exhaustion slows
Shackleton and his men as
they continue their march,

but deliverance
is closer than they think.

[ship whistles]

The whistle from one of
the island's whaling stations

is their first encounter
with civilization in
a year and a half.

Their comrades on
the other side
of South Georgia

will be rescued
the next day...

and though it takes
four months to break through
the pack ice...

Shackleton leads
a rescue mission
back to Elephant Island.

Not a single man is lost.

The sunken Endurance
remains hidden

in its watery grave
for 106 years...

...then is found in 2022...

10,000 feet beneath
the icy Weddell Sea.

The same bitter cold
that sank her also kept her
remarkably well-preserved.

The recovery expedition
is led by Explorers Club
member Mensun Bound,

carrying flag number 35.

The Endurance's watery grave
reminds us of
humanity's limits

in Earth's most hostile
environments.

So why have the poles,
the most inhospitable
places on Earth,

been such an irresistible lure
for members of
the Explorers Club?

Perhaps it's because
the higher we set the bar,

the harder we push ourselves
to clear it.

Ernest Shackleton himself
summed it up best,

"When things are easy,
I hate it."