Henry Worsley: Doomed explorers still have the power to capture our imaginations

The world would be a boring place if we decided humanity had seen it all

A photo taken by Henry Worsley during his 71-day trek to the South Pole

Pause for a moment to consider the human spirit’s capacity to astound. What drives a man alone across a continent for 71 days?

Henry Worsley, the former army officer who has died in the footsteps of Shackleton, was not some maverick who set off solo across the Antarctic on a whim. He was meticulous, focused, experienced, and has raised over £100,000 for the Endeavour Fund that supports injured servicemen and women. The world would be a boring place if we decided humanity had seen it all.

Yet the elements haven’t changed in Antarctica for a century. With no dogs, kites, supply drops or team members, Mr Worsley set off at a roaring pace, covering 913 miles in appalling conditions, only to falter 30 miles from the end of his quest as temperatures fell below -40C.

“My summit is just out of reach,” he told supporters in a final audio message, before being airlifted to hospital in Chile, where he died. “Having been a career soldier for 36 years and recently retired, it has been a way of giving back to those far less fortunate than me.”

Major Tim Peake, currently orbiting the Earth at 17,100mph in the space station, called Mr Worsley “a true explorer, adventurer and inspiration to many”. Something about doomed explorers captures our imaginations. We glamourise their fates. Mr Worsley once said of Captain Scott’s luckless expedition to the South Pole: “Their footsteps have long since disappeared but they echo through eternity.”

To undertake such an expedition without the practical and spiritual help of comrades requires courage and a disregard for self-preservation rarely found.

It is worth remembering, in these days of charity ocean-rowing, recreational mountaineering and crossing the Australian Outback by penny-farthing, that Earth, population 7.4 billion, still contains vast and real wilderness. Worsley’s death humbles us, and reminds us of our individual insignificance when faced by Nature’s might.