the explorers journal the global adventure issue - The Explorers Club

Self-portrait, facing page, endurance, aboveto walk to the North Pole. Unlike Edmund Hillary’sfirst ascent of Everest or Roald Amundsen’s attainmentof the South Pole, Sir Wally’s achievement hastaken longer to pass into the annals of exploration.Maybe it was because events at the top of theworld were overshadowed by the lunar landings,or by the contested claims of Admiral Robert E.Peary or Dr. Frederick A. Cook, but recognitionfor the success of Sir Wally and his men has beena slow burner. In the 1980s, he took matters intohis own hands when he published the meticulouslyresearched Noose of Laurels, an analysisof Peary’s claims concluding that the commanderhad not reached the pole. The polar communitynow accepts that April 6, 1969, is the date thatcounts, a date Sir Wally hammered home in histhe explorers journal