Mind Over Matter

Mind Over Matter is the death-defying and bone-chilling account of Fiennes’s most remarkable achievement. For 1,350 miles at a rate of 14 miles a day, Fiennes and his partner Dr. Michael Stroud trudged across Antarctica.

But the expedition’s world records for both the longest unsupported polar journey and the first unsupported crossing of Antarctica came at an incredible cost. Each pulling a 500-pound sled while encountering cavernous crevasses and bitter blizzards with temperatures at -86[degree]F, the two men faced gangrene, altitude sickness, starvation, hypothermia, and equipment failure that nearly claimed their lives long before they reached the South Pole. The tortuous trek took a mental toll as well. Tensions turned to frustrations that were taken out on each other, and by journey’s end the two good friends were deeply antagonistic.

With an honest and vivid narrative, Fiennes takes the reader through the coldest land on earth and describes what it takes to survive a monumental physical and mental challenge.