The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration

Mawson's polar exploration accomplishments equal or exceed Shackleton and Amundson! He was an explorer to his core. His survival was part miracle and part refusal to die. An amazing story - and true.

Starts off strong but quickly runs off in many directions loosing its way. Struggled to finish the book. Many quotes scattered throughout book, and the quotes from Madigan author seems to discredit over and over. Would have probably been better if these quotes were left out if they are not reliable or taken out of context.

This was fabulous. I plan on visiting Australia and the museum. In fact I am so excited after reading the book that I plan on getting the book of Frank Hurley photographs, if I can find it and his book Argonauts of the South. I highly recommend this book.

One of the most amazing stories of bravery and fortitude written by an author that seems to have done his homework in putting the event within the context of historical and personal accounts. Great photos complement the text. Drags in some places that would benefit from more careful editing but overall a good read. One that belongs in a collection on Antarctica.

Devastating account of Australian explorers in Antarctica. Perhaps too many storms, etc., but their will to survive amazed even the survivors after deaths of fellow explorers and many sled dogs into huge crevasses. It was a relief when they were finally rescued....for the reader, too!

David Roberts book, 'Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration' is a thoroughly fascinating and tremendously exhaustive account (for both the reader, as it most certainly was for Mr. Roberts) of the story of the Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic Sir Douglas Mawson.

Many will recall the exploits of Roald Amundsen, leader of the 'Antarctic Expedition' (1910-12) to discover the South Pole along with numerous other arctic exploits, Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated 'Terra Nova Expedition' (1910-13), which took the lives of Scott and four comrades, and Ernest Shackleton's `heroic' account of his 'Endurance Expedition' (1914-17), which has perhaps become the most widely known account of an amazing sequence of events and the ultimate escape from death by an expedition in the Antarctic with no loss of life. Two films have been made of this epic drama, and a museum display with actual film footage shot during the expedition has been on the museum circuit around the world. I saw it while I lived in Anchorage, Alaska.

Yet, the story of Douglas Mawson's 'Australasian Antarctic Expedition' (1911-13), though written about several times prior to this book, has finally been told by Mr. Roberts with his usual expertise and in a most thorough manner, documenting yes "The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration."

The cast of characters covered in this book is overwhelming from the expedition members who accompanied Mawson, to the explorers before and after, to the loved ones who waited for their return, to the offspring and friends of those pioneers who lived to a ripe old age, and who were able to provide tidbits of information related to this magnificent adventure. Mr. Roberts has done a most thorough job of relating the facts, and he has done it in such a manner the reader feels compelled to hear the whole story long after Mawson's `survival tale' has been told, which is not the climax his book.

I believe Mr. Roberts has done so to bring this story into the limelight of today's so-called elite adventurers, who often seem more interested in pursuing a career as an adventurer solely to support their own adventures. One such modern day athlete, in the context of Mr. Robert's book chooses to recreate Mawson's journey, and at the same time have the whole thing filmed and made into a television show, comparing what was done in the `golden days' of Antarctic exploration with what the modern explorer under simulated circumstances could achieve today. It is an interesting paradox, which Mr. Roberts seems to be toying with.

Perhaps today's adventurers as well as their admirers have lost perspective, and for whatever reason have tried to push the envelope beyond the exploits of those men in whose footsteps they now follow.

I am one of those `modern day' explorers, who attempted to follow in the footsteps of those pioneer explorers on Mount McKinley in 1910-1913, who were ironically seeking their goals during the same time frame that Douglas Mawson and his team of hearty explorers were attempting their miraculous expedition. I am still in awe of what those golden age explorers accomplished, and because of my experiences during a mere 68-day expedition on Denali, my respect and admiration for what those men achieved will be with me until the day I die.

My admiration for writers like David Roberts is also felt in a similar vein, since Mr. Robert's life has not only been dedicated to a life of exploration and adventure, he has more importantly taken the time to document and record the fascinating history of those men and women, in whose footsteps he and other modern day adventurers have chosen to follow.

Jeffrey T. Babcock, author 'Should I Not Return'

I have read a majority of Roberts' books and delight in most. However, this one, along with the Geronimo book, have left me reading only 10 to 20 pages a night instead of the sometimes endless with his truly memorable ones - In Search of the Old Ones and Mount Deborah. I do not argue that this was indeed the most daring of the Antarctic explorations but, as Roberts portrays it, the most boring to read about.

This incredible true story ranks right up there with Sir Douglas Mawson's "Mawson's Will." If the reader is looking for a truly awesome read of hardship, courage, and personal effort, this book has none to equal it. Clearly, the author shouldn't be alive today. An incredible story of human endurance!

Freaking awesome story of survival. The hell they all went through is amazing. Also sheds some new light on other Antarctic explorers. Men suffer because of the leaders' obsessions and ambitions. The leader, of course, gets all the glory, while the men who signed up are forgotten.

Enjoyed reading this detailed story of the Australian Antarctic Expedition lead by Douglas Mawson.
The hardships faced by Mawson and his two colleagues who died on their trek is another one of the
many examples of survival shown by the this generation of great explorers in the early 20th century.

Most enjoyable and informative. The author had obviously done a great deal of research including the study of the explorers diarys. As opposed to Mawsons own "The home of the blizzard" he digs into it in more detail and puts meat on the bones.

Easy quick read. Great survival story. You have to marvel at the hardships and suffering these explorers were willing to endure. The time commitment away from the comfort of civilization is truly extraordinary.

This is one of the epic stories of Antarctic exploration by a hero who went south for scientific discovery not for fame and glory. David Roberts' telling of Mawson's story leavens Mawson's own writings with details from the diaries of his companions, and contains some wonderful photos, some of which have historically been credited to Shackleton's and Scotts expeditions. I really enjoyed it.

After reading Endurance and other books about Antarctic explorations, this one kept me up late at night, took to work to share iwth my students and makes me want to go explore anywhere just to learn new stuff!

Above all else, this is a very well written take. Plenty of information and background is provided, without spending too much time on any one aspect of Mawson's expedition. The best book I have read all year!

An amazing adventure story. These men were true explorers and the hardships they endured make our lives a walk in the park. After surviving the Antarctica, many of them when on to fight and die in World War I.

There's something about the cold which strikes us on a visceral level. Not only does cold have the power to drain our energy and blister our flesh, it can also make even the simplest tasks incredibly difficult. Nevertheless, during the first decades of the twentieth century, several cadres of heroic men surmounted their natural aversion to the cold and made valiant attempts to explore the most foreboding continent on earth: Antarctica. One of these attempts was the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1913, which is the subject of David Roberts' new book "Alone On The Ice."

The AAE was led by a young scholar and university professor named Douglas Mawson. Roberts does a brilliant job of chronicling Mawson's life story and describing Mawson's affinity for adventure. As Roberts portrays him, Mawson was an all-around Renaissance Man, whose adroitness at surviving in the Antarctic was equaled by his brilliance as a scientist. In addition to providing a detailed narrative of Mawson's life, Roberts also succeeds in humanizing the men with whom Mawson traveled on his expeditions. All and all, the biographic sections of "Alone On The Ice" are outstanding.

While the backstories of Mawson and his fellow adventurers are intriguing, "Alone On The Ice" is a tedious read in many ways. The biggest problem with the book is its pacing. Instead of telling the story of the AAE as a crisp, streamlined narrative (as Alfred Lansing did in his similarly themed work "Endurance"), Roberts allows the minutiae of his research to slow the story down. For example, throughout the book, Roberts uses an excessive number of quotes from the diaries of Mawson and his fellow adventurers to bolster his points. A few well-placed diary quotes would've enhanced the story of the AAE. However, Roberts' approach to using diary quotes killed the book's momentum. Just as the reader becomes interested in a sequence of events, Roberts will throw in several large blocks of diary quotes which do little more than rehash what has already been written. After a while, working one's way through these pointless diary quotes starts to feel like working one's way across the frozen Antarctic landscape against a fierce, unrelenting wind.

The bottom line: "Alone On The Ice" is not a terrible book. It's clear that Roberts spent a significant amount of time researching the backstory of the AAE and the lives of those involved with it. The tragedy, however, is that Roberts' excellent research is bogged down by his inclusion of excessive and superfluous diary quotes. A more laconic account would've driven home the harrowing circumstances of the AAE much more effectively, and made for a much more interesting read.

Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration by David Roberts is a detailed account to the Antarctic of 1913. A brief description of other trips and the men who went there is in here also. Then the details of little things I would never have thought about being trapped in a tent with other people and how an A personality and a B personality could really get on each others nerves and how they dealt with it. Small things, but magnified when you are trapped in a tent for hours. Survival techniques are discussed, in the tent and out, amazing things they did. I would die for sure because I would never have thought of these things. Other more unpleasant things they did to live, ugh! It is all very fascinating, especially if you love history or exploration. If you don't then this would be a long dull read for you. The amazing trek Mawson made, by himself after his team mates died, and he almost died, to go back to camp and hope they hadn't left him. It took 37 days alone, falling in deep abyss, no food, feet in near shreds, deep despair, no tools and starving. Some men had waited for him as the ship had just sailed off a couple of hours before. It is a very interesting read.

This is an excellent book about the Australian explorer Douglas Mawson, with a particular focus on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1912, which Mawson organized and led. I had previously read the book “Mawson’s Will,” by Lennard Bickel and Sir Edmund Hillary, (published in 1977), so I knew a little bit about Mawson’s struggle to survive after his three-man sledge team met with disaster on the high ice in Antarctica. I was, in fact, concerned that this book would be little more than a rehash of the earlier work.

Happily, however this book is a far more expansive and complete account of Mawson’s expedition, containing among other things, information about the other the men involved. For me, one of the most remarkable revelations was that when six of Mawson’s team were forced to over-winter in Antarctica for a second year, one of them became mentally ill, developing severe symptoms of psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia. Thus, Mawson and his companions spent nine harrowing months confined in a tiny cabin with a madman. Yowza.

I read a lot of histories and biographies, and have found that there are two types of authors: the ones who clearly differentiate between known facts and speculation, and those who glibly co-mingle the two, sometimes even going so far as to invent entire scenes and conversations from whole cloth. I love the former style, and detest the latter; I have no interest in historical fiction. Fortunately, Roberts is squarely in the first camp. He is careful to explain what is known and what is not known. If he speculates at all, he does so only by weighing the evidence in favor of one or more possible scenarios, before suggesting what he considers to be the most plausible. Thus, the book is a real treat: a factual account of one of the most incredible survival stories of all time, with a breadth and depth that leaves all previous works on this subject behind. Highly recommended.

As an avid reader of polar expeditions I rather enjoyed this book. I didn't rank it a five because it wasn't quite on par with the "Endurance" but it was a great, true story. The beginning really draws the reader in by immediately placing them in the middle of the expedition then drifts back to cover the preparation of the trip, background information on some key members of the party, and several sledging trips that headed off in other directions (geographically speaking). The story didn't really pick up again until roughly 3/4 of the way through the book. I found the information presented in the middle to be somewhat necessary in order to fully educate the reader but at times became a bit mundane or confusing (when describing multiple sledging parties). However, in the author's defense even the main character of the book Robert Mawson has trouble telling this story himself in his own diary because of the number of people and events taking place simultaneously on the ice. Overall, a good read and I would definitely recommend.

Author of The Mountain Of Fear, David Roberts delivers one of the most remarkable survival stories ever told. This heart-racing adventure of courage, strength, and the will to live is indeed a book that will keep you awake all night, impossible to put down! Within the first few chapters, the reader will begin to feel almost as if caffeine is pumping through their blood as we read about near-death situations. Douglas Mawson, a great explorer and expedition leader of the Australasian Antarctic finds himself starving, crawling, and escaping dangerous situations in extreme cold weather situations. His team of men were against all odds in surviving the almost impossible horrifying events that were thrown upon them with no food, no first-aid, and no supplies to help them in their amazing journey. As those who managed to survive had to battle with fear in near-misses, and the only thing that kept them alive was their incredible spirit. This adventure is chilling from beginning to end with colorful characters, stunning photos, and an eye-opener story of courage. Entertaining, riveting, heart-pounding, and impressive. Highly recommended!

This book is interesting, but only about 70 or so pages are dedicated to the story of the writer being the sole survivor of his team and his journey back to the safety of the main camp. Granted, it is too much to expect the author to keep his journey each day has his struggles mount, but I felt by the time I reached this point of the book, it felt like the author hurried the story to the end. Great pictures at the end, but they would have been better inserted within the specific chapters to give readers a better sense of what was happening.

Gets 4.5 stars for thoroughly describing Antartic exploration by the various teams deployed at the time. But the book describes itself around the drama about the incredible tail of one man who survived against all of the odds. Here's the deal, that incredible tail is told in 2 chapters, the set up is the first chapter, and the conclusion is one of the last chapters. The rest of the book is other stuff that while relevant, ain't the incredible story. If they had just described the book accurately, it might have gotten a better rating from me. This wasn't an all nighter for me.

I feel like somebody (either the author himself or the publisher) did themselves a great disfavor by putting such an opinionated claim on the cover of a book. Whether talking about searching for the South pole or the northwest passage, all of these stories are remarkably similar. A guy and his colleagues go to some godforsaken ice hell on an expedition of discovery only to be humbled by nature. Some people die. Some people survive. This book is not unique, nor was this expedition. However, this book is well worth your time if discovery,adventure, and survival is your cup of tea. I think there are much better books of discovery out there (INTO AFRICA, JUNGLELAND, BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST just to name a few. Even though those books take place in Africa not some icy hell hole.) but that should not deter you from enjoying this book nor minimizing the plight which these explorers endured.

Overall a good read. The amount of names and quotes thrown around, along with the jumping between stories of expeditions can make it a little hard to follow,

Mawson was on the forefront of Antarctic exploration, and this book gives you insight into what true exploration is, without even the most humble of technology we take for granted.

Mawson's life story and adventurous spirit comes through, and you can't help but gain an appreciation for his bravery and strength of will.

Well worth a read.

A tremendously thorough and often gripping accounting of one of the least known but most harrowing and productive expeditions to the Antarctic that ever occurred. The story alone is an epic tale of early 20th Century adventure at its finest - hard men enduring extreme climate and conditions in pursuit of natural science and personal fame. Add to it, expedition leader Douglas Mawson's near superhuman tale of solo survival and the near miss with his ship that leads to another overwintering in one of the most hostile places on earth alone add Hollywood level drama to the story. On top of this, Roberts weaves a thorough presentation of the expedition's scientific goals and activities, its logistics, and its inevitable human dimension of fortitude, cooperation, and resilience. A powerful book and wonderful contribution to the impressive library of exploration literature.

This is an interesting account of explorers in Antarctica. It explains many things that are left out in other accounts. It explains the trips by Scott, Shackleton, and others. Good history of explorations in the early 1900s.

Poor knowledge of geography by the narrator when he repeatedly uses degrees followed by feet when it is degrees then minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude. You can not shoot the sun with a sextant & get a result that is in feet.

Fantastic story, but the author focuses a large portion of the book on things that don't have much to do with Mawson's solitary trek back to base. I will agree that certain aspects of a backstory can provide insight into significant events. In the case of this book, however, most of the backstory contributes little to Mawson's heroic effort. Chapters 1, 5, and 6 are sufficient to be moved by this inspiring true story. 5 stars for those chapters.