Racing home to save their lives...

This picture of Matt was taken immediately after he came back to the ship, the Roosevelt. Look carefully at his painful expression, the deep lines of stress in his face
 		 To get home they had to travel back over 400+ miles of dangerous, icy trails. Getting to the Pole was one thing. Getting back alive was another. In fact, many groups of people have adventured to the North Pole by walking or riding dog sledges—but they only go one way!

Peary & Henson knew that the sea ice would begin to break up with the spring thaw. The leads would open up and they could be stranded from land by open water without any way to be rescued. So they marched harder on the way back—it was a race to get to the safety of land. They used the Igloos and camps were waiting for them, the trail from the supply teams could be followed. But they were in a race to survive and so they only slept a few hours a day to keep on marching. Their bodies were becoming exhausted as they stumbled on day after day to get back to the safety of Cape Columbia.

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