Once ashore, however, Shackleton realised that help was still far away, across the island's uncharted interior of lofty peaks and glacial moraines.

ECONOMIST: Antarctic exploration

In other pictures, forests have flourished on formerly barren moraines, and glaciers that grew for hundreds of thousands of years have disappeared like smoke.

WSJ: Photographic Balancing Acts | Swiss Alpine Museum | He Cut a Fresh Path in Mountain Photography | By Michael J. Ybarra