Monday, 4 December 1911

Scott

As the party neared the edge of the Barrier, Oates wrote in his diary, "Saw several enormous glaciers coming down between the mountains, and some of the chasms which stopped Shackleton. And now one is here one can realise what a wonderful journey his was and the daring which prompted him to strike up the glacier instead of following the coastline." [1]

"The dogs came up with us as we camped last night," Scott wrote, "and the man-haulers arrived this morning as we finished the pony wall. So we are all together again. The latter had great difficulty in following our tracks, and say they could not have steered a course without them. It is utterly impossible to push ahead in this weather, and one is at a complete loss to account for it. The barometer rose from 29.4 to 29.9 last night, a phenomenal rise. Evidently there is very great disturbance of atmospheric conditions. Well, one must stick it out, that is all, and hope for better things, but it makes me feel a little bitter to contrast such weather with that experienced by our predecessors." [2]

Scott had got from Priestley Frank Wild's diary of their polar journey, and based his own times, weights, and rations on that performance. Priestley recalled much later, "I've always thought of Shackleton acting as a ghostly pace-maker for Scott, and that diary having a considerable psychological effect." [3]

Bowers was "prognosticating good signs out of everything to cheer up Captain Scott, who naturally feels a bit down on his luck.... The Owner was in quite a paddy with the weather, and said we had not had a piece of good luck since we started." [4]

"We have only lost 5 or 6 miles on these two wretched days," Scott wrote, "but the disturbed condition of the weather makes me anxious with regard to the Glacier, where more than anywhere we shall need fine days. One has a horrid feeling that this is a real bad season. However, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. We are practically through with the first stage of our journey. Looking from the last camp towards the S.S.E., where the farthest land can be seen, it seemed more than probable that a very high latitude could be reached on the Barrier, and if Amundsen journeying that way has a stroke of luck, he may well find his summit journey reduced to 100 miles or so. In any case it is a fascinating direction for next year's work if only fresh transport arrives." [5]

Bowers, though, wrote, "Amundsen has probably reached the Pole by now. I hope he has not, as I regard him as a sneaking, back-handed ruffian." [6]

Cherry's pony Michael was shot after they made evening camp.


Amundsen

"Have gone completely blind all day," wrote Amundsen. "Breeze from N. with thick drift, and greater, more constant snowfall than I have yet seen in these regions." Despite large sastrugi that capsized the sledges a number of times, "we have worked our way ahead by 20 nautical miles in this impenetrable weather, and at the moment are 10,200 ft. asl. [above sea level, 3109 m] by boiling point." [7]


Notes:

[1] L.E.G. Oates, diary, 4 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.428.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 4 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[3] Raymond Priestley, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.467.
[4] H.R. Bowers, diary, 4 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.462.
[5] R.F. Scott, diary, 4 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[6] H.R. Bowers, diary, [date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.462.
[7] Roald Amundsen, diary, 5 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.164.