Rating: 
Summary: True strange and stressful circumstances beyond belief
Review: This is an account of isolated winter and several traverses, suffering from mechanical problems, crevasses, whiteouts, blizzards, lack of privacy, physical and emotional malaise, arguments (even fist fights), boredome--in short, the whole list of problems associated with living in an extreme, unusual isolated and confined environment.To his credit, Doumani is open about describing these difficulties. This is among the every few accounts I have seen that deal with the embarrassment and discomfort attendant upon having to defectae when one is living in a polar vehicle without a latrine, and that give the true feeling of traveling for weeks or months in a small, cramped vehicle with a group of other men, none of whom has washed or changed his clothes during the trip. By the same token we get glimpses of the excitement, joy, and even ecstansy of going where no man has ever gone before, of collecting truly unique scientific data and specimens, of climbing up rocks, sliding down glaciers, and generally feeling as if one were in a brand new, challenging and intriguing world. Doumani's book is especially impressive in touching upon many of the topics that figure large in the psychological literature on stressful environments. Such topics as the effects of age differences, the combination of isolation and lack of privacy, the relationship between educational level and the ability to counteract boredom without use of alcohol, the importance of food as a palliative, the swings from good fellowship to withdrawal or hostility, the role of communications with home, and the imprtance of patience and humor, are presented with great insight. In fact, I found it very reinforcing that a geologist would thus pinpoint the very concerns that psychologists doing research in such environments have identified as important. Most unusual of all, Doumani's final chapter deals with re-entry to home and family. This is a major issue, generally ignored in the psychological literature as well as in memoirs: The family, having reorganized itself according to new roles, structures, and procedures, must now reintegrate a long-absent member who expects everything to be just as it was when he left. Less exciting than the heroic narratives of famed explorers, this well-written book is more forthright than many, and can be more useful as a guide for future research.
Rating:
Summary: Hell...Frozen Over
Review: This is not a reading for the casual reader or for one looking to be entertained by a commercial wordsmith. It requires an appreciation of a type of adventurer that looks upon his profession as a science committed to exploring the undefined and, in the process of filling that void with exciting discoveries and knowledge, records in very personal terms and prose the human elements of the adventure. It is the singular human perspective of the explorer that separates this work from others. The reader has but one peephole and that peephole is the sensitivity of the author. Whether the vignette is that of daily group interchange or the personal fear that comes with the probability of death in isolation, it is told in unfettered reality of the individual living it. Although the author's work presents itself as a collection of situations and happennings, the reader should not anticipate coming away with a 'picture' memory of '...Life and Exploration in Antarctica.' Rather, look forward to an emotional appreciation of the insidious hell of frozen isolation in the words of one who braved it.
Rating:
Summary: Hell...Frozen Over
Review: This is not a reading for the casual reader or for one looking to be entertained by a commercial wordsmith. It requires an appreciation of a type of adventurer that looks upon his profession as a science committed to exploring the undefined and, in the process of filling that void with exciting discoveries and knowledge, records in very personal terms and prose the human elements of the adventure. It is the singular human perspective of the explorer that separates this work from others. The reader has but one peephole and that peephole is the sensitivity of the author. Whether the vignette is that of daily group interchange or the personal fear that comes with the probability of death in isolation, it is told in unfettered reality of the individual living it. Although the author's work presents itself as a collection of situations and happennings, the reader should not anticipate coming away with a 'picture' memory of '...Life and Exploration in Antarctica.' Rather, look forward to an emotional appreciation of the insidious hell of frozen isolation in the words of one who braved it.
Rating:
Summary: Close-up of high adventure, hard science in the Antarctic
Review: Those of us who have followed Admiral Byrd and other Antarctic explorers with admiration, will greatly enjoy scientist George Doumani's remarkable epic tales of polar research. They are told in the vivid setting of his day-to-day trials of survival in and on the desolate ice sheets and mountains of Antarctica. Much of the book is devoted to the extraordinary methods and means of performing simple tasks - how to stay clean and sanitary at 25 degrees below zero, the trials of awaiting snowbound resupply planes for days and days, and the business of sleeping, dressing, walking, cooking, and staying warm. George Doumani experienced five Antarctic research expeditions. Through unwavering determination in the midst of the icy chaos of Antarctic weather, Doumani emerged with a scientific triumph: a confirmation of the then uncertain theory of continental drift. Doumani describes hair-raising forays from wretchedly minimal life support systems (storm-torn tents and sledge-mounted shelters) during which he walked through crevasses and drove SnoCats into badly mapped uncharted terrain and treacherous research sites, then performed rock climbing feats in sub-sub zero temperatures and blinding blizzards. He collected a 350 million year old fossil assemblage-- the missing link in the chain that connected Antarctica with South America and Africa. The fossils were indeed of identical species and in identical rock layers in all three continents, confirming the continental drift theory. The book reminds one of the trials of Apollo 13, the nearly fatal trip to the moon, for when something went wrong in Antarctica, the consequences were dramatic and life-threatening. Not only were physical dangers of fire and frost bite encountered, but also a full measure of psychological hazards. These were overcome with ever-increasing skill by Doumani and his colleagues. After months of isolation, they found their way back through storm and snow to the shelter of Byrd Station. There, while awaiting outward-bound transportation, the Doumani team encountered the stresses and strains of adjusting to newcomers, of further deprivation from technical and bureaucratic failures, and of competitive science almost as hard to bear as their stressful existence in the wastelands of Antarctica. The Frigid Mistress is interesting and useful for it vividly places the rigid requirements of geological exploration procedures into a real-world, survival setting. The logistics of Antarctic research - housing, transport, specimen collection with statistical controls, are a useful reminder of just how difficult field work in the geosciences is to do. In these circumstances, Doumani accomplished scientific results I consider to be equal to Darwin's discovery of marine deposits at the top of the Andean massifs. (Darwin concluded the Andean upland was once at sea level instead of at several thousand feet elevation - an astonishing concept at the time.) Doumani, using a very similar technique (which he reports in this book), was able to conclude, and to sustain the conclusion, that Antarctica was a part of the ancient original single continent of the earth, Gondwanaland. While doing this work, Doumani kept his extraordinary rationality, courage, and philosophical good sense through the harrowing physical and mental stresses of his research. . Though the frigid mistress that is Antarctica is always beckoning and beguiling, the courtship rituals are deadly, but the outcome is very rewarding yet taxing It is interesting, scary, sad, humorous, informative -- worth the ticket for very chilling and captivating reading.
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