When you take a quick look at the two expeditions, one led by Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica and the other led by Arlene Blum to climb Annapurna, you can make a quick conclusion that Blum succeeded in his expedition and Shackleton failed. But this is a superficial view, without considering the nuances and real experiences of travel. Ernest Shackleton set out with his crew in 1915 to be the first expedition to cross Antarctica, but he never actually set foot on the continent. While he failed in his initial objective, he was a highly successful leader and kept his 28 men safe for nearly two years, while they were trapped on the ice floe and then, after the ice gave way, when they were rowing hundreds of miles across open sea on small wooden lifeboats. He then completed the perilous journey across South Georgia Island to reach a town and the resources needed to save his remaining men. All of his men were rescued alive and safe and all were able to return home to their families. By comparison, Arlene Blum set out from the United States in 1978 with 9 of her teammates as the American Women's Himalayan Expedition, the first all-female group to attempt to climb Annapurna. Although their expedition was too often dangerous, it did not have the same level of urgency, because at any point of the climb the group was free to descend. Blum struggled with her role as the leader of this group of highly independent women. Too often he hesitated and showed his lack of confidence, which in turn led to many problems within the group and with the hired Sherpas. On October 15, 1978, two members of the expedition, together with two Sherpas, reached the summit of Annapurna, achieving the group's goal. However, two days later, in October… midway through the paper… on the verge of being trapped in the ice, he excelled at making his decisions. He did not believe that one should look back on past mistakes and waste time with regrets, indeed, "Shackleton never wasted time or energy lamenting things that were in the past or that he could not change (Morell, pp. 145)." As Shackleton himself said: “A man must fashion himself after a new mark as soon as the old one goes to earth (Morell, pp. 145).” This ability to quickly change and react to new circumstances served him and his crew members well and allowed them all to escape from their frozen trap. As Dennis Perkins says in his book Leading at the Edge, in reference to the last leg of Shackleton's expedition, “Their heroic voyage across South Georgia Island had saved their shipmates. It remains a tribute to the incessant effort and tenacious creativity of The Edge (pp. 148).”