Originally Posted by
luresalive
First of all let me just say this is a brilliant thread and exactly the sort of thing we should be debating on a bushcraft/survival forum.
The weather played important factors in all Antarctic trips including Shackletons - when he left the ice cap, the problems getting to Elephant island, the problems getting off it, getting to south Georgia which is still classed as one of the greatest feats of navigation ever accomplished and the final gruelling walk to the whaling station, there was always bad weather!
Scott had been to the Antarctic before, he knew of the potential conditions yet he did not prepare for them, there is no excuse for that!
Also lets remember he never got to the pole until the 18th January, Amundsen never left the bay of Whales until the 30th, so Amundsen was still in the Antarctic at the same time as Scott when the weather struck yet he had no fatalities at that time, again the weather cannot be used as an excuse!
Scott was a very brave but very foolish individual who risked and lost his own life and those of his men, That should never have happened, no other polar expedition met with such chronic failure, his stubbornness cost him his life.
There was due to be a revival of the Scott legacy very soon, even Fiennes himself has said that in interviews, the British love an antihero always have, so it was only a matter of time before this came around.. the next generation will review and exhalt Shackleton all over again, that's the way history works, it's cyclical.
We as outdoor men should take something from this, bushcraft/survival is all about knowledge and being prepared so we of all people should be able to relate in a very small way to what these men faced..
Lets face it, if you were to choose whom you'd rather have went to the Antarctic with, Scott would be bottom of the list, way behind Shackleton and Amundsen, for obvious reasons.