In 1897, a Swedish explorer named SA Andree attempted to be the first man to reach the north pole.
Unusually, instead of travelling by boat or a sled pulled by dogs, he opted to travel across hundreds of miles of Arctic ice by hydrogen balloon.
The expedition did not go well. Andree did not reach the pole.
In fact, neither he or his two colleagues ever returned home.
Using the expedition's diaries and photographs - dramatically recovered in the ice 33 years later - Alec Wilkinson's Ice Balloon recounts an epic and ultimately doomed tale of Arctic adventure. He spoke to the BBC about his book.
Photographs courtesy the Grenna Museum, Sweden/The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
AusNorman on October 9th, 2018 at 22:16 UTC »
Ballooning in the frozen Arctic. If that's not a sign of balls I dont know what is.
Serious question, how were they planning to balloon back? As just drifting with hydrogen balloon?
Sylvester_Scott on October 9th, 2018 at 20:41 UTC »
Born too late to die in a arctic balloon debacle, yet born too soon to die on Mars. (probably)
Djentleman5000 on October 9th, 2018 at 20:08 UTC »
After they crashed they were faced with the fact that they were basically already dead with no one coming to rescue them. How fucking depressing.