Before Mackintosh, Joyce and Wild could head back from Rocky Mountain Depot, a blizzard “thick as a hedge” trapped them in their tents. 150 miles from Hut Point with ten days’ provisions, the men had to cover fifteen miles a day. Their average so far was just five.

Now they travelled in winter, waiting out blizzards in temperatures down to minus fifty. The starving dogs ate their own harnesses and, one by one, lay down in the snow to die. At Bluff, Mackintosh was dismayed to find the supplies there hadn’t been topped up. His worries grew when he realised the depot had to be moved four miles east. They had just finished when another blizzard forced them to camp, still 75 miles from Hut Point. Each delay meant another cut in rations*. First they ate just one meal a day. Days later they were down to biscuit crumbs. By 24 March even the crumbs were gone.

When they reached Hut Point the next day, they looked “ghastly”. And with no ‘Aurora’ waiting to take them to Cape Evans they couldn’t escape the primitive hut until the sea ice froze in June. In the meantime, they set about getting their strength back on a diet of seal meat. But as the seals went north for winter, food ran short and tensions ran high. At the end of a disappointing season, only 263 pounds of supplies had been laid at planned depots. And sixteen dogs had died, leaving only one team for next year’s demanding work.