Talk:Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

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I'm lead to believe the CTAE mission lasted from 1955 to 1958 although thus far I have only come across info on the major accomplishment — the first overland crossing of the continent. RedWolf 06:21, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious 3,473 km

That's likely incorrect. Yes, 2,158 miles. But not likely 2,158 statute miles.

Check out the many hits for this Google search (just an "and" search, not specific phrase:[1]

  • Fuchs 4000 km [72,300 hits]

Gene Nygaard 00:47, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Note that 4000/1.853184 = 2,158 (i.e., divide by Admiralty mile = 6080 ft × 0.3048 m/ft × 1 km/1000 m). Gene Nygaard 00:54, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

P.S. Encyclopædia Britannica uses 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles). But even though I know quite well that Britannica is not all that reliable with numbers such as this, I'd sure hate it if in this particular case Britannica has it right and Wikipedia has it wrong. Gene Nygaard 01:07, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
  • I took that distance from Fuchs' own account in The Crossing of Antarctica, which says "We had travelled 2,158 statute miles from Shackleton to Scott Base via the South Pole." On this evidence I believe the figure to be correct, and I have removed the "dubious" tag. Matt 15:06, 17 December 2007 (UTC). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.157.196.113 (talk)

"Saw an opportunity to beat the British"! Hillary was supposed to be part of a team. Yet having been supported by the rest of the team, he decided to upstage them for his own egotistical reasons. Just as he had claimed credit for being the first to climb Everest, and downplayed the support of the 1953 British team. I could never understand why people thought Hillary was modest.124.197.15.138 (talk) 04:32, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Thoughts

At the time it was vehemently denied that there was any "race to the pole" but I ever since been suspicious that Hilary always intended to get to the pole first.

In his original 1953 film "Conquest of Everest" there was plenty of footage about Hilary, some about Tenzing Norgay, but precious little about the back up teams. The contributor who thought that Hilary was never modest was probably correct. AT Kunene (talk) 13:45, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] the vehicles

The Sno-Cat and weasel vehicles seem to performed reasonably under Antarctic conditions as they later formed the basis of a series of successful British Army vehicles for use in NATO.AT Kunene (talk) 13:49, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

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