A Site Worth Saving at the South Pole

Few tourists make it to the ends of the Earth, but the thousand or so who visit Ross Island, on the edge of the vast continent of Antarctica, usually pay a call at the loneliest house in the world. And even in small numbers, they pose a threat to the site that Capt. Robert Falcon Scott used as a base camp for his ill-fated journey to the South Pole in 1912.

The frozen camp has been uninhabited for more than 80 years, but remains almost exactly the way Scott and his four companions left it. In the kitchen, supplies are neatly stacked on shelves, most still fresh and perfectly edible because of the deep-freeze climate.

But Antarctica’s climate has started to warm slightly. That means that the temperature inside the hut is no longer reliably below freezing all the time. There is enough water around for metal to rust and fabrics to rot.

Then there are the tourists. Dave Geddes of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust says: “When people come in they breathe and create condensation, and you can see the effect that is having on the tins and the other metal items.”

This season, 14 ships are expected off Antarctica (in the lower hemisphere it is now summer, the prime visiting time), carrying about 8,000 people. Not all will visit this side of the continent, but those who come here want to see Scott’s hut. The trust now allows no more than 12 people at a time inside, and no one is allowed to touch anything.

The Scott party reached their destination only to discover a tent flying the Norwegian flag. Roald Amundsen’s team had beaten the British expedition by more than a month. All five British died before making it back to base camp. Today, a signpost honors both Scott and Amundsen. Thirty feet away was the object of their quest--the geographic South Pole.