Negative Positive
Title: Cold, yes, but...
Review: Solomon's is a well-written book that begs the question: How many ways are there to say that it is cold in winter at Antarctica?Solomon builds a molehill of meteorological data that pales in comparison to mountains of other evidence. Scott's lack of provisions, inadequate marking of depots, splitting of teams, depoting of ski and evaporation of stored fuel are not the only problems with his journey.Scott apologists lay the journey's failure and death of the party on the bad weather encountered at the end. They fail to note that 2 companions had already died by the last encampment and the last (Evans) party barely made it back 3 weeks earlier (for the same reasons listed above).The sheer fact of the matter is, that on a journey of over FOUR MONTHS, Scott had barely FOUR DAYS of extra rations for a job requiring 5000 calories per man per day.A 3% margin of error in the coldest, windiest, least hospitable corner of the globe is hoping on more than luck...
Is the review positive or negative? 