The deadly sprint to the south pole!

Everyone in this picture died shortly after it was taken. These are British explorers standing at the South Pole in January 1912. The image marks the finish line of the race into the unknown. Two teams, one British and one Norwegian, trekked 900 miles into brutal territory and had to return to safety before winter arrived. And at first glance it looks like a British triumph. Except it's the Norwegian flag. And it only gets worse from here. Robert Falcon Scott was a meticulous planner. And his dream was to be the first person to reach the South Pole.

He and his English researcher and research team conducted research in Antarctica and collected data on the seasonal changes of the continent for years. These lines show what they estimate the average temperature will be throughout the year, with the summer ranging from about 30 to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, with a huge drop around April. Remember this diagram because it will help us understand Scott's decisions later. Scott planned to use pony transport for the first 425 miles across the Ross Ice Shelf, shoot them at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier, and finish the rest on foot.

It involved a 125-mile trek on top of a glacier, another 350 miles to the pole and all the way back, hauling hundreds of pounds of gear. The use of ponies and brute force made sense to Scott at the time: British explorers had used that method to lift equipment in their previous project at the South Pole. In addition, the English had no experience with another good option: dog teams. And they believed that transporting people was the surest way to climb the heavy glacier and travel to Napatasango, where the South Pole is located. It was hard and slow work, but the path they made reached the plateau ahead and it seemed worth the effort. But Scott's team was not alone.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen camped nearby. And he wanted to come to the post office first. The Norwegian team, all experienced skiers, knew how to travel in cold conditions. And to make matters worse for the English, Amundsen had dogs - and he knew how to use them. The news of a last-minute offer from the Norwegians worried Scott, but he was still optimistic. Amundsen started about 60 miles closer to the pole, but chose a route that had not yet been proven valid.

Bumping into an unknown obstacle or falling into an unmarked crevasse may end his attempt prematurely. But that didn't happen. When Scott reached his destination, Amundsen's flag was waiting for him there. The Norwegians and their dogs had comfortably reached the Pole five weeks earlier and were almost back at their starting point when the English arrived. Scott and his team were sad. They took this picture outside Amundsen's tent on the day they started their long journey back. Scott wrote:

I left a note that I went to see the tent with some friends. Photos by Bowers and sketches by Wilson. We have now turned our backs on our ambitious goal and must face our 800-mile nature - and goodbye to most dreams! This is where the problems really begin. This picture is in mid-January - still the peak of the Antarctic summer. I said this chart would come back. According to their research, the group had about 3 months left before temperatures on the Ross Ice Shelf, the final leg of the return journey, dropped to deadly levels.

That left plenty of time for a long walk on foot. But in 1912 that did not happen. Again, this is an average, and these are the temperatures Scott's party has experienced this summer: consecutive days of around minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. These conditions cannot be maintained with prolonged exposure. The first person died here - he collapsed and soon fell into a coma after several falls on the glacier. The next man died about a month later when frostbite on his hands and feet began to hinder the team's progress and chances of survival. He left the tent and sacrificed himself to the blizzard because he could barely walk.

The last three, including Scott, made it here before a blizzard trapped them in tents, just 11 miles from the depot that would have saved their lives. The tent, bodies, diaries and photographs were found eight months later by a search team. Over time, Scott's legacy varied from that of a fearless explorer to that of a fool who tried to pony up Antarctica. But the thing is, his plan should have worked. Measurements from modern weather stations during his journey show that the predictions he relied on were amazingly accurate.

What Scott could not have known was that 1912 was an anomaly - the temperatures his party suffered occur about once every 15 years, making an already risky venture hopeless. The photo of Amundsen outside the tent was meant to be a gentlemanly admission of defeat at the end of a long race. But instead, it was the starting line of a race they didn't see coming—a desperate attempt to escape the coldest place on earth.

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