 The son of a textile machinery manufacturer , Mertz studied patent law at the University of Bern , and science at the University of Lausanne , specialising in glacier and mountain formations . While a student , Mertz became active as a skier , competing in national competitions , and as a mountaineer , climbing many of the highest peaks in the Alps . In early 1911 , Mertz was hired by geologist and explorer Douglas Mawson for his Australasian Antarctic Expedition . He was initially employed as a ski instructor , but in Antarctica Mertz instead joined Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis in the care of the expedition 's Greenland Huskies . 
