Henry Worsley: the last battle of the conqueror of Antarctica

 

Harsh times, when explorers of the Antarctic and the Arctic were exposed in their expeditions to the risk of death, is by no means gone. About it we were reminded tragically ended the story of Henry Worsley – 55-year-old British traveler.

Worsley is intended to fulfill the dream of Ernest Shackleton, the famous Irish traveller of the 20th century who was going to cross Antarctica but was not able to do before reaching its goal of about 150 kilometers. Currently, people do it all the time, but the less assistance you have, the harder it is to do it. Henry Worsley was going to do something that simply is impossible: to cross Antarctica alone, without any additional assistance. From the point of view of thermodynamics this is an almost impossible task, and here's why.

 


 

The whole point of survival is, ultimately, comes down to the question: is there enough man warmly do him food and water. And when it comes to survival in Antarctica, we can assume that the problem of keeping warm is vital. But freezing to death is not the biggest risk. Hypothermia is not the main problem with people who are traveling to very cold places, provided that they are well protected. Cold, of course, complicates survival, but does not take all chances for him.

 

   

 



 

– she covered all around, but her prey turns into a hellish flour in Antarctica. Remember, Antarctica is a desert, and Alpine desert. Worsley spent part of his journey, rising to a height of 3000 meters. Every breath felt like sandpaper, dry air from the lungs takes away precious moisture. In addition, the water goes from then. To recover such a terrible plagopterus, you should drink up to 6 litres of water per day, which, incidentally, cannot be obtained by simply scooping up snow from a nearby snow Bank. Every drop of water must be melted over the stove.

 

   

 



 

But the real stumbling block is food. You are unable to take this amount of food to cross the entire continent. It's a vicious circle: the more supplies you take with you, the more weight you drag, and therefore energy expenditure is also growing.

Many researchers have solved this problem by pre-arranging caches of food on the way to the destination. In addition, they used dog sleds as means of transportation, thus saving your energy reserves. Worsley, who decided to do solely on their own, can only rely on their internal energy reserves stored in body as fat.

 

   

 



 

Henry Worsley, participant of many expeditions to the South pole, knew about all the difficulties awaiting him. To the ending it prematurely terminated the expedition (until the end of the road had to go 50 kilometers), he was very exhausted and hungry, tired of the terrible weather, standing almost all the time. But destroyed it is not. Due to chronic starvation and dehydration of the bacterial microflora in the intestine is seriously disrupted, which has led to the development of peritonitis. On the 71st day of his journey Worsley called to the rescue, informing them that "can no longer rearrange skiing". 21 Jan it was picked up by the rescue team and taken to a hospital in Chile, where he died three days later.

 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

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Source: dnpmag.com/2016/02/03/genri-uorsli-poslednee-srazhenie-pokoritelya-antarktidy/