Trekking to the Top

By Jeffrey Gangemi

On Tom Arnold's first day in Antarctica, he found himself part of a team undertaking the daunting task of constructing a snow wall to shield the group's tents from the bone-chilling wind. Struggling to perform the job on their own, the builders wondered why the others weren't helping. Afterward, it dawned on the five or six builders that the rest of the group had no clue as to what their roles should be. Arnold decided his own lack of planning had alienated those who wanted to help but didn't know how. "It increased the stress of people who already felt out of their element," he says.