North Face is the English title of the film Nordwand, originally released to theaters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2008. It is based on the true story of two German mountain climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, who in 1936 braved the dreaded north face of the Eiger. The only one of the film’s stars who may be familiar to American audiences is Benno Fürmann, who appeared in The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin, 2000). (more…)
Tag: white heroism
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Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary
The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955–1958
London: Cassell, 1958After Ernest Shackleton’s attempt at crossing Antarctica during the Great War, it would be nearly half a century before a new transantarctic bid would be made. (more…)
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December 12, 2010 Alex Kurtagić
Roald Amundsen’s The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram, 1910–1912
Roald Amundsen
The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram, 1910–1912
London: Hurst & Company, 2001
(First Published in 1912 by John Murray)Having reviewed Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s account of Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, and having over the Yuletide read Scott’s diaries from the latter, I deemed it opportune to read Roald Amundsen’s account of his pioneering journey to the South Pole. (more…)
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2,403 words
Aviation and astronautics were once my prime interests. As a student pilot, at the age of 20, when aviation was much more dangerous than it is today, I concluded that if I could fly for ten years before being killed in a crash, I would be willing to trade an ordinary lifetime for that experience. In the ’30s, I assisted Robert Goddard, the father of spatial conquests. (more…)
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October 16, 2010 Alex Kurtagić
Shackleton’s Forgotten Men
Lennard Bickel
Shackleton’s Forgotten Men:
The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic
London: Pimlico, 2001The heroic age of Antarctic exploration ended with Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition of 1914–1916. And this, no doubt because of the relatively recent film starring Kenneth Branagh, is nowadays probably the best known of the many incredible adventures experienced by the early Antarctic explorers. (more…)
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October 15, 2010 Alex Kurtagić
The Worst Journey in the World
2,240 words
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
The Worst Journey in the World
London: Pimlico, 2003I remember watching the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic at some point in the early 1990s and marveling both at its grimness and the sheer Englishness of its sensibilities. (more…)