Endurance: Race to the Pole with Ben Fogle: The Nimrod Expedition 1907 – 1909 (Channel 5 Monday 9 October 2023)

Endurance: Race to the Pole with Ben Fogle: The Nimrod Expedition 1907 – 1909 airs Monday 9 October 2023 on Channel 5.

What is this episode about

Part two of a three-part documentary series that follows Ben Fogle and Dwayne Fields as they relive the dangers of the early twentieth-century race to the North Pole.

Ben and Dwayne put on period clothing, eat period food, and use period equipment to simulate the experiences of their Edwardian explorer heroes Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen. Some of the defining moments that led to Amundsen’s first pole landing, Shackleton’s maturation into a seasoned polar explorer, and Robert Falcon Scott’s untimely death on the return journey are experienced by the characters. This is a tale of tragedy, peril, and unsung heroes.

In the second episode, Shackleton, now Scott’s rival, leads his own “Nimrod” Expedition to Antarctica, picking up where Scott left off. He had the audacious goal of conquering the South Pole and laying claim to it for the British crown.

As Ben and Dwayne continue their journey into the great white wilderness, we travel alongside them as they surpass Scott’s previous farthest south and attempt to retrace some of the key moments from Shackleton’s second expedition. The formidable and unexplored Trans Antarctic Mountain Range presents Shackleton and his three-man team with their greatest challenge to date, and they eventually settle on a 160-kilometer route up the perilous Beardmore Glacier. Ben and Dwayne take on their own ice mountain challenge by attempting to climb to the barren and seemingly endless Polar Plateau, all the while navigating steep, slippery waves of blue ice, deadly crevasses, and relentless hauling up steep slopes.

Temperatures here drop to a mind-numbing -40C with windchill, and fierce winds threaten to stop Shackleton, Ben, and Dwayne in their tracks. While only 150 kilometres from the South Pole, Shackleton made the fateful decision to turn back and head home, saving his men and his own life but abandoning his dream of becoming the first person to reach the South Pole.

When can we see the episode

Endurance: Race to the Pole with Ben Fogle: The Nimrod Expedition 1907 – 1909 airs Monday 9 October 2023 at 9:00pm on Channel 5

Featured Image Credit: Channel 5