Pat
Smithers' JournalPat Smithers
Pat is a tourist on vacation from a job as CEO of a large office supply firm located in Framingham, MA. Smithers has an impressive resume as an ice climber, mountaineer, extreme hiker, and spelunker, and is looking for an adventure, not just a vacation. Smithers has saved for this trip for an awfully long time and is very much looking forward to the opportunity to walk in the shoes of a lifelong hero, Sir Earnest Shackleton. Mostly, Pat is interested in doing what Shackleton would have done had he NOT failed. The tour company that has put this tour together has advertised it as being "as close to Shackleton without having to eat the dogs." They are taking the journey as an unsupported tour, meaning that they will live on whatever they bring or can collect, kill, or fabricate up to the South Pole, and from there they will pick up supply caches all the way to a rendezvous with their ship on the Ross Sea. They will have no contact with the outside world and no navigation devices except maps and compass. Like the Endurance journey, there will be only 27 other people on this trip with Smithers. To start the journey, the tour company leaves from New Zealand in December of 2000.
Pat
Smithers' Journal