Sunday, 3 December 1911

Scott

"Our luck in weather is preposterous," wrote Scott. "It was thick and snowy, yet we could have got on; but at breakfast the wind increased, and by 4.30 it was blowing a full gale from the south. The pony wall blew down, huge drifts collected, and the sledges were quickly buried. It was the strongest wind I have known here in summer." [1] By eleven it had begun to clear, and they had lunch and prepared to start.

"We were off at 2 P.M., the land showing all round, and, but for some cloud to the S.E., everything promising. At 2.15 I saw the south-easterly cloud spreading up; it blotted out the land 30 miles away at 2.30 and was on us before 3. The sun went out, snow fell thickly, and marching conditions became horrible. The wind increased from the S.E., changed to S.W., where it hung for a time, and suddenly shifted to W.N.W. and then N.N.W., from which direction it is now blowing with falling and drifting snow. The changes of conditions are inconceivably rapid, perfectly bewildering. In spite of all these difficulties we have managed to get 11 1/2 miles south and to this camp at 7 P.M. -- the conditions of marching simply horrible."

"The man-haulers," he added, "led out 6 miles (geo.) and then camped. I think they had had enough of leading. We passed them, Bowers and I ahead on ski."


Amundsen

A 1965 map of part of the Queen Maud range and the edge of the Polar plateau, from aerial photographs taken 1960-1964 by the USGS. The top of the Axel Heiberg Glacier is near the centre at the right edge of the map; the Devil's Glacier and Ballroom are not marked. [2]

At the edge of the plateau, they came upon what they called "The Devil's Dance-Floor" (later called the Devil's Ballroom).

"First we had to cross ... mirror-smooth ice with filled crevasses here and there," wrote Amundsen in his diary. "This ... was not difficult to cross.... Naturally, there was no question of using ski. We all had to support the sledges and help the dogs. The next terrain offered good going, and we congratulated ourselves on having overcome all difficulties. But no! We were not going to get off so lightly. [We encountered] a violent disturbance [in the ice]. Suddenly one of the runners of Wisting's sledge broke through to a bottomless crevasse.... We were able to hoist it up again without damage.... We got through safe and sound and climbed up on a rise. This again consisted of bare ice, but then we discovered it to be filled with hidden crevasses, where we could not set our foot anywhere without breaking through." [3]

"Luckily most of the crevasses were filled, but some were dangerous enough. It was hard work for the dogs. Bjaaland fell through, but managed to hold on to his sledge, otherwise he would have been irrevocably lost.... We finally got over, and little by little [the terrain] changed to the real plateau, without any disturbance.... No more chasms or crevasses --"


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 3 December, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.
[2] United States Geological Survey, "Liv Glacier" map.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, 4 December, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987, p.127.

Tuesday, 28 November 1911

Scott

"The most dismal start imaginable," Scott wrote. "Thick as a hedge, snow falling and drifting with keen southerly wind…. Things got better half way; the sky showed signs of clearing and the steering improved. Now, at lunch, it is getting thick again. When will the wretched blizzard be over? The walking is better for ponies, worse for men; there is nearly everywhere a hard crust some 3 to 6 inches down. Towards the end of the march we crossed a succession of high hard south-easterly sastrugi, widely dispersed. I don't know what to make of these." [1]

"Bowers tells me that the barometer was phenomenally low both during this blizzard and the last. This has certainly been the most unexpected and trying summer blizzard yet experienced in this region. I only trust it is over."

"Chinaman died tonight of senile decay complicated by the presence of a bullet in the brain," Wright wrote in his diary. "Poor old devil, he never shirked and was capable of reaching the Beardmore. Dogs had to be fed was the trouble." [2]


Amundsen

"Fog, fog and fog again," wrote Amundsen, "and in addition fine snow crystals that make the going impossible. Poor beasts, they have struggled hard to get the sledges forward today." [3]

Every time the fog lifted momentarily, it seemed, another surprise was revealed -- glaciers, mountains -- and two great ranges, named, continuing the previous laconic theme, F range and G range (now the group of mountains at the top of the Norway Glacier, and the Nilsen Plateau, respectively, in the Queen Maud Mountains).

"The biggest and most unpleasant surprise was however an enormous, mighty glacier running E-W from F. range, as far as the eye could see. In other words, right across our course."

Arriving at this glacier, in a thick fog, they had to inch their way along, Hassel and Amundsen roped together for safety, and the others following behind. "After climbing a few hundred feet, we encountered such confusion, that we were forced to stop and make camp with crevasses and chasms on all sides."

But, Bjaaland wrote, "It was a lovely sight when the fog lifted again, and mountains and glacier came through in the most wonderful tints, no artist could ever achieve anything so magical; the blue green reflection in the fog ...." [4]

Pretrud's Eastern party reached 77° 32'. "It cannot be denied that at this juncture I began to entertain a certain doubt of the existence of bare land in this quarter." [5]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 28 November, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[2] Charles Wright, diary, 28 November, 1911, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.465.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, 29 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.150-151.
[4] Olav Bjaaland, diary, 29 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.456.
[5] Kristian Prestrud, "The Eastern Sledge Journey", in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole, ch.15. Note that the date here is given as 29th November; see Hinks' note on dates in "The Observations of Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole" (The Geographical Journal, April 1944, p.169).

Monday, 27 November 1911

Scott

Poor surfaces and snowfall made the going heavy. "A tired animal makes a tired man, I find," Scott wrote, "and none of us are very bright now after the day's march, though we have had ample sleep of late." [1]


Amundsen

A 1966 map of the Nilsen Plateau and surrounding area, from aerial photographs taken 1960-1964 by the USGS. The nearby Amundsen Glacier was discovered and named on Byrd's 1929 flight. The Axel Heiberg Glacier is to the north-west, on a separate map. [2]

The going was still through fog and blizzard. The glimpse of a dark mass to the E.S.E. was the discovery of what was later called the Nilsen Plateau after the Fram's captain. Another sighting, of what Amundsen afterwards described in a letter to Helland-Hansen as "a gloriously beautiful mountain, in fact two, in the distant, wonderfully lovely land around the Pole which I have given you" [3], proved -- albeit only many years later -- to have been an illusion, sparked not only by the deceptive play of light in that area but Amundsen's own disinterest in geographic surveys. [4]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 27 November, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition : the Journals, v.1.
[2] United States Geological Survey, "Nilsen Plateau" map.
[3] Roald Amundsen, letter to Bjørn Helland-Hansen, [date not given], quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.454.
[4] See Roland Huntford, Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.454. Amundsen made only sketchy drawings and took few photographs, but it should be pointed out that his dead-reckoning position of the Butcher's Shop, for example, proved later to have been within a mile of its true bearing. His navigational precision is not in question, only his lack of interest in "minor" details.

Friday, 10 November 1911

Amundsen

In the distance over the horizon ahead, they could now see the peaks of a high mountain range. Later, Amundsen called it the Queen Maud Range. It was his first undoubted discovery, but at the time he merely sketched them in his notebook with the labels A, B, C, D, and so on, adding laconically, "A climb will apparently be unavoidable." [1]

Back in King Edward VII Land, Prestrud's party came in sight of the two cairns from the previous journey.

"We made straight for them, thinking we might possibly find some trace of the southern party. So we did, though in a very different way from what we expected. We were, perhaps, about a mile off when we all three suddenly halted and stared at the huts. 'There are men,' said Stubberud. At any rate there was something black that moved, and after confused thoughts of Japanese, Englishmen, and the like had flashed through our minds, we at last got out the glasses. It was not men, but a dog. Well, the presence of a live dog here, seventy-five miles up the Barrier, was in itself a remarkable thing. It must, of course, be one of the southern party’s dogs, but how the runaway had kept himself alive all that time was for the present a mystery. On coming to closer quarters we soon found that it was one of Hassel’s dogs, Peary by name. He was a little shy to begin with, but when he heard his name he quickly understood that we were friends come on a visit, and no longer hesitated to approach us. He was fat and round, and evidently pleased to see us again." [2]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen, diary, 11 November, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.438.
[2] Kristian Prestrud, "The Eastern Sledge Journey", in Roald Amundsen's The South Pole, ch.15. Note that the date is given as 11th November; see Hinks' note on dates in "The Observations of Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole" (The Geographical Journal, April 1944, p.169).