January 17, 2012
Second to the South Pole
Exactly 100 years ago today, Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott wrote, 'The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. We have had a horrible day‹add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a temperature -22°, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.'
Scott and his four companions had successfully reached the South Pole, but only to find that the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, and his team had beaten him by five weeks.
In our world where tweets, status updates and texts speed back and forth in milliseconds, five weeks seems like a lifetime. But in terms of 19th and early 20th century expedition travel, those 35 days must have passed by in the snap of a finger. Captain Scott's crew was gone for THREE YEARS! And after years of planning, months of sailing, nearly a half year in the perpetual darkness of Antarctic winter, months of laying depots and then two and a half months of slow and steady slog, Scott's effort to become the first to reach Geographic South Pole failed. Unfortunately for Scott and his team, it was about to get way worse.
One by one Scott and his companions would die on the return trip. Exhausted, starving and frostbitten, Scott would perish only 11 miles from a supply depot.
'Great God! this is an awful place,' Scott had written. '...and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.'
I've thought of that phrase a lot while sitting in a tent in Antarctica. After all, I've spent nearly six months of my life skiing toward the South Pole on one expedition or another. Antarctica is awful place at times. But it can be somewhat benign and comfortable, too. There have been more than a few days where I've skied without gloves and wearing only my Terramar Baselayer.
Upon his return, Amundsen's support team stationed at the Bay of Whales was surprised to see how fit and healthy he looked - almost to the point of thinking he hadn't reached the pole!
There are few, if any, things that Scott got right in my opinion. Tractors, ponies, inadequate food, the last minute addition of a fifth team member, the choice not to use sled dogs - or skis for that matter. Polar travel is like a chess game. You need to make your first moves very very carefully and meter your energy.
Still, it's hard for me not to be a bit sympathetic toward Scott. He tried. And in my mind that's the most important part. It's way to easy to give up even before you start. Besides, and I have to admit, I've been on a few expeditions where I've felt a under prepared and overwhelmed. In 2005, my expedition partner and I were trying to cross the Arctic Ocean in summer. The conditions were terrible, I kept falling through the ice and it seemed like every polar bear in a 100 mile radius wanted to eat us for lunch. After just two weeks, we pulled the plug and called for a helicopter pick up.
There was no way out for Scott except to keep moving forward. No phone, no helicopter, no gps, no Gore-Tex... 100 years ago today, the consequences of failure were much more severe than mine.
Image: A much different South Pole than the one Scott saw exactly 100 years ago!
Scott and his four companions had successfully reached the South Pole, but only to find that the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, and his team had beaten him by five weeks.
In our world where tweets, status updates and texts speed back and forth in milliseconds, five weeks seems like a lifetime. But in terms of 19th and early 20th century expedition travel, those 35 days must have passed by in the snap of a finger. Captain Scott's crew was gone for THREE YEARS! And after years of planning, months of sailing, nearly a half year in the perpetual darkness of Antarctic winter, months of laying depots and then two and a half months of slow and steady slog, Scott's effort to become the first to reach Geographic South Pole failed. Unfortunately for Scott and his team, it was about to get way worse.
One by one Scott and his companions would die on the return trip. Exhausted, starving and frostbitten, Scott would perish only 11 miles from a supply depot.
'Great God! this is an awful place,' Scott had written. '...and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.'
I've thought of that phrase a lot while sitting in a tent in Antarctica. After all, I've spent nearly six months of my life skiing toward the South Pole on one expedition or another. Antarctica is awful place at times. But it can be somewhat benign and comfortable, too. There have been more than a few days where I've skied without gloves and wearing only my Terramar Baselayer.
Upon his return, Amundsen's support team stationed at the Bay of Whales was surprised to see how fit and healthy he looked - almost to the point of thinking he hadn't reached the pole!
There are few, if any, things that Scott got right in my opinion. Tractors, ponies, inadequate food, the last minute addition of a fifth team member, the choice not to use sled dogs - or skis for that matter. Polar travel is like a chess game. You need to make your first moves very very carefully and meter your energy.
Still, it's hard for me not to be a bit sympathetic toward Scott. He tried. And in my mind that's the most important part. It's way to easy to give up even before you start. Besides, and I have to admit, I've been on a few expeditions where I've felt a under prepared and overwhelmed. In 2005, my expedition partner and I were trying to cross the Arctic Ocean in summer. The conditions were terrible, I kept falling through the ice and it seemed like every polar bear in a 100 mile radius wanted to eat us for lunch. After just two weeks, we pulled the plug and called for a helicopter pick up.
There was no way out for Scott except to keep moving forward. No phone, no helicopter, no gps, no Gore-Tex... 100 years ago today, the consequences of failure were much more severe than mine.
Image: A much different South Pole than the one Scott saw exactly 100 years ago!