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Chapter 7 - Motor Sledges and Mountains

Scott had two motor sledges now. They were the first motor sledges in the Antarctic - the first on earth. On October 24th, the motor sledges started south from Cape Evans. Four men went with them, but Scott stayed at Cape Evans for another week.

Oates was unhappy. He wrote to his mother: We had a very bad winter here. 1 don’t like Scott. We were here all winter, but he didn’t learn to ski, or to drive dogs. Our equipment is bad, and he doesn’t think about other people. I’m going to sleep in his tent on the journey, but I don’t want to.

On November 1st Scott and Oates and six more men left Cape Evans with eight sledges and eight ponies. The ponies walked slowly because their feet went down into the snow. It was hard work for them and they got tired very quickly. They travelled thirteen or fourteen kilometres in a day.

Behind the ponies came Meares with one sledge and some dogs. Meares knew how to drive dogs. Every day, Meares started two hours after the ponies, and arrived two hours before them.

After five days, they found the motor sledges.

The Norwegians began again on October 20th. There were five men this time - Amundsen, Bjaaland, Wisting, Hassel, and Hanssen. They had four sledges, and forty-eight dogs.

There was a lot of wind and fog. On the first day, Wisting’s sledge suddenly stopped, and the back went down. ‘Come on, you dogs’ he said angrily. ‘Pull! Pull!’ At first nothing happened; then, slowly, the sledge moved again. Wisting looked down, over the side of the sledge. Under the snow, there was a fifty metre hole.

‘Did you see that’ Amundsen said. ‘The ice wants to eat us - men, dogs, sledges, everything.’

On the fourth day they reached the depot at 80’ South. There was a bad snowstorm, but they found the flags easily. Next day the men stayed in their tents, and the dogs played in their holes under the snow. They were all happy. They had a lot of food, they had good equipment, and they were warm. They could travel fast.

Next morning, the snowstorm stopped, and the journey began again. Today,everything is wonderful, Bjaaland wrote in his diary. But where is Scott? In front of us, or behind?

There was no one with the motor sledges; they were broken.

Scott looked at them angrily.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘Teddy Evans and his men are in front of us. They’re good men - they’re pulling their sledges themselves. We can get to the Pole on foot.’

Oates looked at Meares. Oates and the ponies were tired, but Meares and his dogs were not. The snow was home for them.

That night, Oates wrote: Three motor sledges at £1,000 each, 19 ponies at £5 each, 32 dogs at L1/50 each. Well, it’s not my money, it’s Scott’s.

On November 21st, one of the ponies died.

On November llth, the Norwegians saw the mountains.

The mountains were very high - some of the highest on earth. Bjaaland smiled.

‘There is good skiing up there, Roald,’ he said. ‘But can dogs get up there too?’

‘Of course they can,’ Amundsen said. ‘Come on.’

They left Hanssen with the dogs, and skied a little way up the mountains. It was difficult, but the mountains were big and beautiful. Behind the mountains, Amundsen thought there was a high plateau of ice. ‘That’s it,’ Amundsen said. ‘That’s the road to the Pole.

Tomorrow, we can bring the dogs and sledges up here. But now, let’s have a ski race. Who can get back to camp first?’

They laughed, and skied happily down the white snow. ‘This is like home,’ Bjaaland thought. ‘But it’s bigger than Norway, and better.’

In the next four days, the dogs pulled the sledges eighty-one kilometres, and went up 3,000 metres. At last, Amundsen and Bjaaland stood on the plateau behind the mountains. They were tired, happy men.

Bjaaland looked back at the mountains. ‘Can a motor sledge get up here’ he asked.

Amundsen smiled. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t think so. And Scott doesn’t like dogs. So his men are going to pull their sledges up these mountains themselves. Would you like to do that, Olav?’

Bjaaland didn’t answer. He smiled, and skied happily away across the snow.