Jane, Friday 16 April 2010 Wind speed: 25 knots Temp with wind
chill: -50°C Condition 2 - Visibility less than 300m, or
sustained winds 89-100km/h, or windchill -60°C to -73°C Sunrise:
8.49 am Sunset: 5.00 pm It was from the expedition base at Cape
Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica that Scott left for the South
Pole in November 1911, after months of preparation. He used dogs
and ponies for the first part of the 1600 mile journey to haul
the sledges of provisions and equipment. By mid-December the
animals had either died or been shot, leaving Scott, along with
Evans, Oates, Wilson and Bowers, to haul the two 700lb sledges
themselves using harnesses. Bowers describes it as ‘the most
back breaking work I have ever come up against’. During last
summer conservators Lucy and Fran, while on site at Cape Evans,
excavated a harness from outside the hut which would have been
used for man-hauling. I was the lucky conservator that had the
pleasure of working on such an iconic artefact. The harness was
in quite poor conditio