In 1910, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott embarked on an ambitious expedition to Antarctica, aiming to explore uncharted wastelands, conduct scientific studies and above all else, become the first person to reach the South Pole.

He had competition. Ernest Shackleton had come within 100 miles of the pole the previous year, and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen also had his sights set on reaching it first.

After securing public and private funding, the British Antarctic Expedition (more popularly called the Terra Nova Expedition, after the name of its supply ship) set out for Antarctica.

In January 1911, the ship made landfall in the Ross Dependency, a slice of the frozen continent south of New Zealand dominated by the Ross Ice Shelf, known by many at the time as the “Great Ice Barrier."

At the edge of the barrier, on the volcanic shores of Ross Island, the expedition’s shore party unloaded sled dogs, ponies, motorized sledges and a prefabricated 50-by-25-foot wooden hut with quilted-seaweed insulation.