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Continued...
To Weber's protestations,
Landry says he has only one response. "Did Peary ski? No, Peary didn't
ski. If you want to criticize Peary and you want to have credibility,
get some dog sledding experience," Landry says. "Get some experience
living with Inuit and understand what they're capable of doing. Get some
experience seeing what the dogs are capable of doing. And then I will
listen to you."
Returning
Home a Big Motivator, and Reason for Increased Speed
Landry says he doesn't doubt that Peary made better time on his trip back
to Bartlett Camp. Landry and Crowley returned to 89 degrees from the Pole,
where they were picked up and flown home by airplane, and in those 100 kilometers
Landry said the duo's speed increased 25 per cent. "It
was very easy," Landry says. "The dogs were keen and motivated
and there was no route finding. The dogs were following their trail. They
pee along the way and they pick up on that smell."
Landry also believes
Peary was impelled by fear to cover those great distances. Peary saw in
1906 the havoc changing ice conditions could wreak, and was pushing as
hard as he could to get back to the Roosevelt before he was stranded by
another huge lead, Landry says. "Peary knew that the ice starts to
move on the full moon in April, so he had to get back. This was life or
death with those guys. To put in 20-hour days, that's what he had to do,"
Landry says. "Peary had made the Pole, he had realized his lifelong
dream. All he needed to do was share it with the rest of the world. He
and the rest of the men did not want to die there. So they gave it all
they had. No one can put themselves into the same emotional, psychological
and mental situation that Peary and his men were in."
Landry feels Peary's
accomplishments are attacked, in part, because of the American explorer's
boorish character. In The North Pole, Peary repeatedly refers to the Inuit
and Henson. as members of an "inferior" race. And in his expedition
diary entries, Peary seems riveted by the potential wealth and fame a
successful North Pole assault would bring him. Notations in his journal
show he intended to sell ivory-mounted snowshoes. He planned to have his
eyeglasses "gold mounted for constant use." He schemed to sell
his story for $100,000, twice as much as Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian
Arctic explorer who first crossed Greenland's polar ice cap in 1888, fetched
for his.
Peary also felt compelled
to discredit his rival explorer Frederick Cook, a more likable man whose
claim of reaching the Pole in 1908 is almost universally considered to
be fraudulent. Landry does not dispute Peary's sketchy character, but
he says no one could match the American's vision when it came to High
Arctic exploration. "Peary has been criticized by a number of people,
but he was way ahead of his time. He adopted Inuit travel methods, he
used Inuit as guides, he used the Inuit dog, he slept in igloos in his
Inuit clothing," Landry says... "Because Peary was so ahead
of his time, it was difficult for people to grasp what he was doing and
understand his success."
Landry said he and
Crowley, a lawyer and the executive director of the Nunavut Social Development
Council, do not plan to sell their story to the highest bidder, the way
Peary did. "The memories I hold of our trip are not of being at the
Pole. It was exciting, but it looked the way the ice had looked like for
42 days," he says. "I remember little things: beautiful sunsets
that went on for 10 hours, little dog stories where they get all excited
because they see a chunk of ice that looks like a person. The friendship
that Paul and I developed and the efficiencies of our traveling —
that's what I'll remember."
He
hopes, above all, that his trek rekindles the debate over Peary's
infamous journey. "Do I think Peary made it? I think he came
within the vicinity, whether that's five miles or 10 miles or right on
the Pole, I can't say," Landry says. "The point is, I think he could
have made it. And if our trip adds more fuel to the fire, that's
great."
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