Scott Reached South Pole 100 Years Ago

Discovery News/ Kieran Mulvaney


The words conveyed an unmistakable pain, the deep hurt and disappointment of having battled for weeks in the most inhospitable place on Earth, only to be beaten to the ultimate goal.
"Great God!" wrote Robert Falcon Scott as he surveyed the area around the South Pole, "this is a terrible place."
Two days earlier, on January 15, 1912, Scott and his four companions - Edward Wilson, Henry 'Birdie' Bowers, Laurence 'Titus' Oates, and Edgar Evans - were within 30 miles of the Pole, and despite the hardships they had endured, and the difficulties they had experienced, in battling south, Scott's journal conveyed a rare moment of qualified optimism: "It is wonderful to think that two long marches would land us at the Pole," he wrote, before adding ominously that, "it ought to be a certain thing now, and the only appalling possibility the sight of the Norwegian flag forestalling ours."  More >>