Surviving the Force of Death in Antartica

It was during an eve of Christmas morning when Russian Ship M V Akademik Shokalskiy, reverted the anguish call over the radio after it was encircled by sea ice within the surface of East Antarctica. 

The ship that was caught on the middle was carrying 52 passengers in numbers and amongst them half of the numbers were observed by researchers, journalist and paying passengers. As per the source the ship was on a scientific mission which was funded privately. It was the spirit of Mawson - Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-14 - to rebuild the iconic journey that Australian explorer Douglas Mawson made from 1911 to 1913.

Although the rescue attempts which were made to save the life was really obstructed by bad weather condition. The expedition which was looking forward to create the history was led by voyage leader Chris Turney. 

The expedition which was off the sun from Auckland on November 28, 2013 was well on its way until it was galloped by heavy ice which started drizzling on Christmas day.  Now after getting stuck within the mist of snow the only hope they had was on Snow Dragon a smart rescue team who were already in their way to save the lives. 

Beside that they also appointed French ship to plan the mission but unfortunately the ship was obstructed by heavy pack ice. Another attempt was cover by Australian rescue ship, the Aurora Australis but even there the pack of ice and bad weather confronted against the rescue operation.

It was entirely weather that subdued entire mission to save the marks of Russian ship, Akademik Shokalskiy.  Now after the failure of sea route they thought about taking the sky route and many scout helicopters were sent to inspect the situation. The rescue team waited for weather to settle down and celebrated the eve of New Year abroad the ship and then trudged into ice in a group to form appropriate helipad. It was on January 2^nd when helicopter from Xue Long carried all the members of ships safely to the Aurora Australis.

Mawsons historic voyage to discover the vast stretch of the unexplored world that lay south of Australia and New Zealand. Amazingly the incident was mentioned by The Guardian's science journalist Alok Jha. Mawson who led a team to the Antarctic was accompanied by Bellgrave Ninnis, a British officer, and Xavier Mertz, a Swiss ski champion. They sat out within the ice of foot, with dog sleds. In the homepage of the Blizzard Mawson have mentioned about his painful story where he first lost Ninnis, who squandered into an ice crevasse and later an agony was followed by Mertz, who went through brutal spasm and died in his sleep. Mawson while describing the shore of Antarctic defines weather to be the worst factor and further describe it by quoting his condition where his skin was stripped by cold weather.

Though he made a tough voyage of over 500 miles to Commonwealth Bay, where he was to be escorted by boat but unfortunately he arrived too late and was asked to stay in the Antarctic for one more year.

Jha was among the 52 passengers, who survived the ferocity of death in Akademik Shokalskiy, which endeavoured to imitate Mawson's voyage to the eastern Antarctic, posting regular updates as the team collected climatic, biological and oceanographic data to evaluate with Mawson's expedition.

The Guardian's special reporting page, Antarctica Live, characterised these blogs. Expedition leader Turney and other members of the crew also posted expected updates on the authorized blog of the journey, which makes for an engrossing read.