GREAT EXPLORATION HOAXES, by David Roberts; Random House; March 2001; 225 pages; $14.95.
Being the first — at all costs — is one of the main aspirations of outdoor explorers. It's no wonder then that some of the claims of "being the first" may actually be hoaxes.
Did Robert E. Peary reach the North Pole first? Was Richard E. Byrd the first to fly over it? Was Fredrick Cook the first to climb Mount McKinley? Was Cerro Torre, the "hardest mountain in the world," climbed in 1959? Did Captain Samuel Adams run the Colorado River before John Wesley Powell? These and five other questions are intricately examined in "Great Exploration Hoaxes" by David Roberts.
There are some serious doubts about all these claims, and that's why they fit in one volume so well. But Roberts is open-minded about the purported exploits and usually leaves it to the reader to make the final decision as to what is the truth.
Roberts uncovered solid evidence that Cook never climbed McKinley. Indeed, comparative photographs in the book indicate Cook only climbed a lump of rock and snow that was 15,000 feet lower than McKinley and 20 miles away.
The author also found compelling evidence that Cesare Maestri didn't climb the Patagonia peak in 1959 — or ever. Sure, he hauled an extremely heavy gas-powered compressed-air drill for placing bolts part way up the vertical cliff. But there's no evidence he completed the climb.
One of the purported hoaxes — Adams running the Colorado River — has ties to Utah. But although Adams did some risky river running, evidence suggests he didn't beat Powell.
What's frightening is that Roberts suggests there may be other great outdoor hoaxes, exploits that were pulled off so smoothly that no one has ever suspected.
It's intriguing, too, that all of the 10 men featured in the book are successful climbers or explorers. They certainly had the abilities to accomplish what they claimed.
"The men who perpetuated exploring hoaxes all wanted the genuine achievement very badly," Roberts writes. "Only when the goal was recognized to be unattainable did these men scrounge about and patch together the illusory data to support their hoaxes."
Peary, for example, had been on seven Arctic expeditions prior to reaching the North Pole and had lost all his toes to frostbite.
The author believes only one of the 10 hoaxes was in any way premeditated. Although British explorer Sebastian Cabot claimed to have set sail seeking a northwest passage to the Americas in the 1490s, it's likely he never left England. Roberts writes the other nine hoaxes were "last-ditch improvisations in the face of failure."
In researching to explorers' stories, Roberts unearthed a surprising common element: Nine of the 10 men lost a parent early in life. Roberts speculates that their exploits, in psychology terms, may have been on a quest to repair that fault.
"Failure was intolerable — a confirmation of all one's deepest fears about the self — and so the hoax was born," the author writes.
Roberts also discovered that none of the 10 ever confessed to a hoax, even on their death beds.
This is not an easy book to read. It's full of arguments and extensive detail. It may not suit everyone's tastes, but it will certainly be of great interest to those who enjoy reading about the outdoor adventures.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com