Mountains of Madness: A Scientist's Odyssey in Antarctica

This extraordinary book is the first-person account of John Long's two unforgettable "summers" on the southern continent. Told in a highly accessible and entertaining style, Mountains of Madness is the account of his three-month long fossil hunt. As the story unfolds, we learn of both the highs of scientific discovery as well as the grueling yet essential routines that must be practiced every day just to stay alive in one of the harshest environments on our planet. Alternating with the author's wonder at the intense beauty of his surroundings are his immense frustration and boredom that stem from being completely at the mercy of the elements.

Throughout the course of the expedition, danger is never far off in this inhospitable land. Despite having been trained in the art of building snow caves and practiced in the skill of traversing glaciers, Long tells of two brushes with death in just one afternoon. The hair-raising escape from a deep crevasse is fraught with tension-only to be followed by yet another encounter with sudden disaster when the crash of an avalanche buries Long deep in the snow.

• Front Matter
• A Strange and Hostile Land
• Of Heroes, Rocks, and Fossils
• Survival Training: Tekapo, New Zealand
• Arrival in Antarctica
• Antics on Ice
• A Very Good Christmas
• Dry Valleys, Sand Dunes, and Rivers
• Back to the Great White South
• Cape Evans and Cape Royds
• A Flight of Discovery
• On Mr. Darwin's Glacier
• The First Worst Day of My Life
• Dancing on the Gorgon's Head
• Up the McCleary Glacier
• A Room at the Fish Hotel
• The Skua
• The Ascent of Mt. Gudmundson
• Over the Mulock Glacier
• Mt. Ritchie and Deception Glacier
• Onwards to Escalade Peak
• 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'
• On the Snout of the Alligator
• Long Day's Journey into Night
• Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Year
• Working on the Portal
• At the Crucible of Shark Evolution
• Pick-Up Day Problems
• Base Blues and Arrival Home in Australia
• So Much for the Afterglow
• Reflections from the Ice
• Epilogue
• Appendices
• References and Source Material
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Color Plates