On 21 January, the men landed the dogs and supplies at Cape Evans for the first stage of depot-laying. The twelve men split up into three parties. The first team of Joyce, Gaze and Jack set off on 24 January. Mackintosh, Spencer-Smith and Wild followed the next day. Hayward was in the third team of six men, led by Cope. The first two teams had dogs. The third had the benefit of a motor tractor, but was also given the bulk of the supplies to get in place.

Naïvely, Mackintosh overloaded the sledges. On leaving Hut Point, Joyce’s weighed 1079 pounds – 200 more than agreed and an almost impossible weight for beginners. After a surprisingly smooth start, it soon became bogged down in soft snow and they ended up relaying loads, sledging three miles to advance one.

Mackintosh’s team had an even worse time. Trapped in a blizzard even before reaching Hut Point, they headed off in the wrong direction. It soon became clear that the task ahead was much more difficult than the party had expected. They were eating just over half what men working so hard should have. And with big loads, faulty equipment, fighting dogs, mushy snow and regular blizzards, the depot laying became a constant, monotonous battle.

On top of these problems, an intense rivalry was flaring up between Mackintosh and Joyce – the leaders of the first two parties. This war of egos would lead to serious errors of judgement before their time in Antarctica was up.