Severin's Expeditions: Cape Evans

At the beginning of the 20th century, one of the craziest attempts and races of mankind began. The epic race to reach the geographical south pole. One of the early explorers/adventurers who attempted this feat was a British explorer named Robert Falcon Scott. His party brought there boats right on into McMurdo Sound here, and they set up camp, and built themselves a winter hut, just a few miles north of McMurdo. This hut was built in 1911. Scott's party failed to reach the south pole. They turned around and attempted to make it back to this hut when they were within 100 miles of the pole. They had to turn around due to a shortage of food. Scott ended up losing his life on his return trip along with all of those with him. The hut was left and due to the cold down here, it is almost 'perfectly' preserved. Things down here do not deteriorate or decompose since there are little to no bacteria to break things down.

It was about an hour drive to get out to the hut. Only about 7 miles, but we can't travel too fast. We rode in the large vehicle you see below called a Delta.

On this trip I also got to see my first penguin. It was an Adelie penguin. They are smaller than the more well known emperors. It was pretty interesting. We got out of the delta to observe a seal that was hauled out on the ice. The penguin was about 1/4 mile off in the distance. We could just barely see him standing out against the horizon. He began coming towards us, and just kept coming. They are very curious little creatures. They have no natural predators on land, so they are rather bold and inquisitive.

We also had a really good view of Mt. Erebus this day. Erebus is our local active volcano. It is at the center of our island, Ross Island. It is 12,451 feet high, and its base is at sea level. Rather impressive. Although the landscape down here is so big, it doesn't appear to be that tall at all. Yes, it is active. In fact Erebus is one of only three volcanoes in the world that has an open lava lake that is observable from the rim. Much research is done here on Erebus because of this. The other two volcanoes with such phenomenon are located in the Congo in central Africa, but due to political unrest it is more difficult to support such scientific research there than it is down here, despite the frigid temperatures here.