Some Pride, Some Fall

Pride goeth before that legendary fall, doesn't it all too often? Well, there's no sense of satisfaction in these quarters reading that the initial foray of a bold and intrepid woman adventurer has been cut short due to an not entirely-anticipated event, but one that occurred and evidently couldn't have been avoided. By a woman who has had more than one person's share of adventures.

Meagan McGrath, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, on leave to embark on a 45-day solo journey across the coastline of Antarctica, can most certainly be described as experienced and courageous. She is one of those rare creatures who set about and successfully mounted all seven of the world's tallest summits. Mount Everest in 2007.

There had been a news item in yesterday's paper about her preparedness for her journey. She had decided to separate her expedition gear, and haul everything on two sleds instead of one, to ensure greater stability, and also, one might suppose, in case one was somehow lost she would not be entirely bereft of supplies.

In her photographs the young woman in her mid-30s, looks confident, happy and fully engaged with life. She departed from Hercules Inlet on the first day of December, hoping to have fairly decent weather along most of her route, although the temperature, she knew, would dip very low in places, closer she got to her destination, the South Pole.

She had travelled 19.4 kilometres the first day of her journey. The following day as she set out again, she fell into a crevasse. She spent eight fruitless hours attempting to extricate herself from her dilemma. She contacted a commercially operated base camp by satellite telephone for help. She was cold and wet, she informed them, and uninjured.

But doubtless frustrated beyond endurance, and feeling that this was not quite the experience she had psyched herself up for. After the fanfare of the news story, this humiliating impasse. She was rescued, transported back to Patriot Hills (site of the base camp) and given a medical check which revealed bruised ribs. A team member of the Patriot Hills base camp retrieved her expedition gear.

Now she must indulge in some heavy introspection; consider whether she feels prepared to resume her adventure. Her Antarctic Odyssey has been in the planning stages for a few years. That's one tough break on a tough woman. She's already accomplished, as an extraordinarily determined adventurer, more than most people in her physical shape and frame of mind, might ever presume to undertake.

More power to her.