Exploration and the Harshness of Antarctica

If you’ve ever read the classic book Endurance, you probably shivered and shuddered as you wondered what it would have been like to have undertaken Ernest Shackleton’s famously arduous Antarctic rescue mission.

The adventurer Tim Jarvis did more than wonder. When Alexandra Shackleton challenged him to re-create her grandfather’s epic journey, he jumped at the chance to follow in the legendary explorer’s footsteps.

Today on the show, Tim, the author of Chasing Shackleton: Re-creating the World’s Greatest Journey of Survival, first shares the story of Shackleton’s heroic effort to save the crew of his failed Antarctic expedition. Tim then tells us how he and his own crew replicated Shackleton’s journey over land and sea, from taking the same kind of rowboat to eating the same kind of rations — and the lessons in resilience and leadership he learned along the way.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• Endurance by Alfred Lansing
• Shackleton’s apocryphal recruiting advertisement 
• AoM Article: Leadership Lessons from Ernest Shackleton
• AoM Article: What They Left and What They Kept — What an Antarctic Expedition Can Teach You About What’s Truly Valuable
• AoM Article: Alone — Lessons on Solitude From an Antarctic Explorer
• AoM Article: The Libraries of Famous Men — Ernest Shackleton

Connect With Tim Jarivs

• Tim’s website
• Tim on IG
• Tim on LinkedIn