Shackleton.

“Many upsets. Commenced to blow. Depoted sledge, started to tramp it. Fell 100ds of times, bruised all over dead tired lost bearings. Arrived hut 11 a.m. nearly dead… very thankful to be back.”
— Eric Marshall

“We were struggling for some time, mostly on our hands and knees. There was no breath for talking. Occasionally we came to blows, but these were dealt accidentally by a long armed finnesko-shod cramponless sledger, who whirled his arms like a windmill in his desperate efforts to keep his balance after slipping.”
— Edgeworth David

Prospice

FEAR death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
  The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
  I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
  The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
  Yet the strong man must go:
For the journey is done and the summit attain’d,
  And the barriers fall,
Though a battle’s to fight ere the guerdon be gain’d,
  The reward of it all.
I was ever a fighter, so—one fight more,
  The best and the last!
I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
  And bade me creep past.
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
  The heroes of old,
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life’s arrears
  Of pain, darkness and cold.
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,
  The black minute’s at end,
And the elements’ rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
  Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain.
  Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
  And with God be the rest!

— Robert Browning, 1861; publ. 1864

“I felt keenly the probable ending of the whole expedition & laid the whole thing before [Shackleton], the shortage of coal — the futility of trying to reach K.E. Land for I knew then that we should have to return and — though it cut him terribly he saw I was right & was reluctantly compelled by his duty to the Expn. to return & break his word to Scott. I felt for him & for his feelings but I had to speak as I thought & I knew the probable disaster if [he] did not.”
— Rupert England, Captain of the Nimrod