Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
134
three tons—nearly three times the cache that Scott had laid at his main depot 150 miles
south of Hut Point.
With winter approaching, the nine Norwegians settled into a productive routine at
Framheim. Once the last seals had left, the dogs were let loose during the day and then
chained before feeding for the night. Separate maternity quarters were constructed for
each of the pregnant bitches, which produced a substantial number of pups during the
winter. From experiences gained on the three depot-laying traverses, almost all of the
equipment was overhauled. Seven of the sledges were reduced in weight from 163 pounds
to 53 pounds. The three-man tents that the expedition had started with were modified to
five-man tents by cutting out the fronts of two smaller tents and sewing them together.
The ski boots were made larger and softer.
For all of his careful planning, one critical item that Amundsen had forgotten to in-
clude was a snow shovel. Consequently, a large drift formed beside the main hut without
the means of removing it. In due course, Bjaaland fashioned a set of shovels from a supply
of steel plates, but the men, instead of digging away the drift, tunneled out a set of rooms
from within it, all connected back to the main hut. These included a carpentry shop, a
petroleum cellar, a passage to the coal stores, a clothing store, a sewing room, a room for
pendulum observations, and the “Crystal Palace,” where ski and sledging equipment was
stored.
Anxious to set oV as early as possible in the spring, Amundsen had the sledges loaded
and staged at the starting point on the south side of the Bay of Whales before the sun
returned in late August. With the air temperature rising to minus 20° F on September 6
and minus 7° on the 7th, the Norwegians sprang from their base the following day. The
expedition included eight men each with a team of twelve dogs, wild to be on the trail—
so much so that two of the teams escaped their handlers and ran oV before reaching the
loaded sledges at the starting point.
The optimistic reading of the temperature was premature. A week later the ther-
mometer had plummeted to minus 68° F. The shivering dogs were unable to keep warm,
so Amundsen decided to leave most of the party's load at the 80° S depot and return to
Framheim to wait until the season truly turned. The inward march was severe, with three
dogs lost and three of the men suVering frostbite in their heels. Each team ran at its own
pace, and all were back to the base by September 17.
During the next month, while the frostbite ran its course and a flock of petrels sig-
naled the return of spring, Amundsen made the decision to streamline his polar party to
five, and to have the other three men—Prestrud, Stubberud, and Johansen—go exploring
in King Edward VII Land.
The polar party (Amundsen, Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel, and Oscar Wisting), set
oV on October 19, 1911, with four sleds, each pulled by a team of thirteen dogs. With
the light loads, the men rode on the sledges and covered more than twenty-five miles
per day, reaching the 80° S depot in four days. Even with the sledges loaded, the dogs
were strong enough to tow the men on skis as well; the men rode behind the entire
way to the edge of the Barrier. Between 80° and 82° S the party kept to a strict and easy
seventeen-miles-per-day schedule with a mandated two-day rest period at 81° S.
From 80° 23′ S all the way to the pole, the party compulsively built lines of snow bea-
