Antarctica, a mysterious, unruly, frozen goatee on the chin of the planet,

an area we dared not comb through until the face of the earth was sufficiently covered.

As the century turned from the 19th to the 20th, so did the age who had become a

legendary explorer and scientist in Douglas Mawson. A degree in engineering hit his hand in 1902,

and the tall, athletic, young academic, took off running as if that bachelors were a baton.

He quickly made a name for himself

with a lucrative field of mining,

and by 1907 was ready to set his icy blue stairs south,

not in pursuit of warm weather, no.

Mawson, the Australian,

sought the adventure and expedition to a widely uncharted Antarctica would provide.

It's from here that Mossa began an improbable journey that would freeze and snap the will of most.

Even if one were tough enough to survive, the ground underfoot was always a threat to drop out,

into an impossibly deep, crevasse.

In Sir Douglas Mawson's time, he would be instrumental in Australia claiming some 2,500,000 square miles of the Antarctic continent, a place that

nearly claimed him. In return, Welcome to Marooned.

Stories of the Catastrifically Lost.

I'm Jack Luna.

This is Aaron Hable.

Aaron, this is a gargantuan topic, and I'm thankful that you broke down much of the research for us.

There are so many compelling side stories and overarching themes here, but we don't want to get too far off track.

We want to travel with Mawson today.

...