By Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Together Sir Ranulph Fiennes & Dr. Mike Stroud crossed Antarctica unsupported. They towed all their supplies with them, 400lbs each, on sleighs. They were the first to do so. They did so for science and for charity.
I have a lot of respect for them, pushing themselves to their limits on this journey. Ranulph lost 40lbs and was badly frost bitten.
It's difficult to explain my respect. There had to be better ways to raise money for charity than to risk life and limb. Was the science that important?
Ranulph has done some good thinking on leadership. How democratic should a leader be? Ranulph says you should listen to everyone, but don't hesitate to ignore them if they group chooses a path you disagree with. Ranulph pointed out that many leaders have stocked their teams with people they knew would not challenge them. I've never thought about team building that way. I've always focused only on skills.
Ranulph also has thoughts on the type of people it takes for extreme endurance journeys in Arctic or Antarctic. One weird qualification-- the team should be physically about the same size. Someone who is too big will need many more calories than someone smaller. In the Arctic, after weeks of traveling, everyone will be very hungry. It's hard to regularly give the bigger guy more food without causing hard feelings. If the bigger guy needs more food, shouldn't he carry more weight too? More hard feelings.
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