Following a brief stop at the Macquarie Island wireless station, the ‘Aurora’ made her way into the Ross Sea and out of wireless contact. On 14 January, she reached Cape Evans in the McMurdo Sound. Close by was a large and fairly comfortable shelter, built for Scott’s well-funded ‘Terra Nova’ expedition and still stocked with hundreds of pounds of provisions.

The Ross Sea Party was now two weeks behind schedule. The only time to travel in Antarctica is during the brief summer, which lasts from November till mid-February. Shackleton had given instruction to lay five depots in all: one each at 79º, 80º, 81º, 82º south and a final one beyond 83º at Mount Hope – not far from the South Pole.

The distance between each of the planned depots was around sixty miles, or ninety-seven km. And a single round trip to Mount Hope was around 828 miles or about 1333 km. Including the food and fuel they needed themselves for the trip, they’d be moving a total of over 4000 pounds, or 1814 kg of supplies.

The most that could be easily pulled on one sledge was around 800 pounds. So they would have to relay stores from one depot to the next, going back to fetch more as the depots filled up. All in all, they would have to cover at least 1500 miles of ice and snow in temperatures down to minus fifty degrees. And just ten miles could easily take a whole day’s sledging.