On the return trip, word arrived that Amundsen had set up camp in the Bay of Whales, which was 60 miles nearer the Pole than Scott’s camp at Cape Evans. Due to the climate of their home country, the Norwegians were much more experienced in working on the ice and in handling dog teams. Scott, remembering his own fiasco with dogs during his first attempt to reach the Pole, actually placed greater reliance on ponies, which ultimately proved entirely unsuitable for polar conditions. Hopeful but realistic, Scott remarked: I think two parties are very likely to reach the pole next year, but God only knows which will get there first.

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During the Antarctic winter, Scott concentrated on the scientific goals of the expedition and only planning the strategy for the trek to the Pole. By spring he had privately decided that a race was hopeless and that, rather than risk disaster by rushing ahead, he would be methodical and hope that Amundsen , by racing onward with less preparation, would fall short of his goal.

The British expedition’s advance party set out on 24th October, 1911. The one innovation that Captain Scott might have counted on to offset Amundsen’s many advantages was a pair of motorized tractors, primitive and small but capable of hauling supplies up steep slopes. These proved a complete failure, however, breaking down only a few days out from camp. The ponies and dogs kept going somewhat longer, but for most of the 1,600-mile round trip Scott and his companions again dragged the supplies along themselves. The weather was particularly severe during the first half of the trip, but despite the conditions, Scott reached Ernest Shackleton’s furthest south on 6th January. He had outdone his old rival, but grew pessimistic about his progress in relation to the Norwegians.

The final supporting party turned back north on the third day of 1912, leaving five men to make the final trek to the Pole–Scott, Captain Lawrence Oates, Dr. Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers, and Petty Officer Edgar Evans. For two more weeks these five marched on alone, fatigued but heartened by their proximity to the Pole. Then, on 16th January, just a day’s march from their goal, Scott’s pessimism turned to despair. The worst has happened, he recorded in his journal. About the second hour of the day Bowers’ sharp eyes detected what he thought was a cairn….We marched on, found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge bearer; near by the remains of a camp. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the pole.

Scott’s party scrambled across the last few miles between themselves and the Pole and examined the remains of Amundsen’s camp. Among the items left behind by the Norwegians, Captain Scott found a letter from Amundsen to the Norwegian king. As a precaution that was to prove tragically ironic, Amundsen had left it for Scott to deliver in case the Norwegians did not survive their return journey. By the time Scott found the letter, his rival was nearly back to his base camp, but the five-man British party was 800 miles from safety. Before setting off on the return trip, the five British explorers posed for a photograph, which clearly shows the disappointment in their faces despite their heroic achievement.

The wind was at their backs as they headed north and they fixed a sail to the sledge to make the going easier, but the epic journey took a terrible toll on all of them. On 7th February, they reached the top of the glacier that connected the Antarctic continent to the frozen surface of the ice shelf. When they had traversed about half the length of the glacier, and were thus about halfway back to camp, Petty Officer Evans died from the effects of the cold.

The survivors continued on, struggling to get from one supply depot to the next before exhaustion and hunger overwhelmed them. By the beginning of March, Scott’s party was halfway across the ice shelf, but was now averaging only six or seven miles a day and the Antarctic winter was drawing near. All four knew their chances now were slim. Captain Oates, the most severely afflicted, knew he was holding the others back and voluntarily sacrificed himself by wandering off into a blizzard. On severely frostbitten legs, the remaining three pushed on, through high winds and temperatures reaching 40 degrees below zero, to within 11 miles of One Ton Depot, the large supply cache Scott had prudently established the previous year, but which he had been forced to place 20 miles north of its intended location. Here, within a few miles of safety, a blizzard prevented them from going any farther. Day after day they remained confined in their tent while they depleted all their supplies.

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