X-Book

Alone on the Ice

Click Buy to Log in and see personalised pricing.

Send as a gift Get in the xigxag app

Listen to a sample

What to expect

His two companions were dead, his food and supplies had vanished in a crevasse, and Douglas Mawson was still one hundred miles from camp.

On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp. The dogs were gone. Now Mawson himself plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface.

Mawson was sometimes reduced to crawling, and one night he discovered that the soles of his feet had completely detached from the flesh beneath. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizably skeletal, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?"

This thrilling and almost unbelievable account establishes Mawson in his rightful place as one of the greatest polar explorers and expedition leaders.

Critics Review

u201cPainting a realistic portrait of Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson and his arduous trek through some of the most treacherous icy Antarctic terrain, Roberts gives the reader a very close look at the huge risks and preparations of the nearly impossible featu2026Harrowing, exciting and brutally real, Roberts provides a chilling backstory to polar explorer Mawsonu2019s bold solitary survival tale.u201d

n
Publishers Weekly

u201cMountaineer and prolific author Roberts returns with a vivid history of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson and his 1912 exploration of Antarcticau2026Roberts creates a full portrait of Mawson and does justice to what famed mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary would later call u2018the greatest survival story in the history of exploration.u2019u201d

Kirkus Reviews

u201cDouglas Mawson is not as well-known asnAmundsen, Scott, or Shackleton, but as this intense and thrilling epic shows, hendeserves a place on the pedestal next to these other great explorers of thenAntarcticu2026This fast-moving account earns for Mawson and his team anwell-deserved place of honor in the so-called heroic age of Antarcticnexploration.u201d

n
Booklist
Author David Roberts, David Roberts, Jenny Piening
Narrator Matthew Brenher
Duration 11 hours and 40 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781481593663
Format Audiobook
Publisher Blackstone Publishing
Genre Biography: adventurers and explorers, Biography: general, Biography: historical, political and military, General and world history, History, History of other geographical groupings and regions
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

About xigxag

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.