ABOVE: (from top to bottom) Discovery Hut, as viewed from McMurdo Station. Views from inside the hut, including a lamp box stamped with the expedition name, the kitchen, complete with a meal that still waits to be cooked (What are those strange lumps in the frying pan? Seal meat?), and two pairs of pants hung up to dry in the kitchen.Discovery Hut was built by British explorer Robert Scott for the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904). The expedition wintered over in 1902 because their ship became locked in the sea ice. The original plan was to utilize the hut, but it was found to be very difficult to heat. As a result, many of the expeditioners preferred to live on the ice-locked ship. The hut was built on one of the most exposed points on Ross Island. Why? Because this is one of the few places that remains snow free. Unfortunately, the reason the area remains snow-free is because it lies exposed to strong winds that sweep the snow away. The hut was subsequently used as a staging post and/or storage area by later expeditions of Shackleton and Scott, and was abandoned in 1913.
The hut is an interesting place to visit. It is a protected site, so we needed to find a guide to let us in and show us around. It was like stepping into a time machine. The food, cooking gear, and other items are laid out as if we can expect the explorers to come back at any moment. Seal blubber, used for heating, cooking, and lighting, lies trimmed and stacked neatly in the front room. The walls and ceiling are stained black with the soot. The lamp box pictured above is stamped with the expedition information from Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, on which he and the other members died while making their way from the South Pole. From the hut, the memorial cross for Scott is visible on Observation Hill, which overlooks McMurdo Station.
The most common food items in the hut are digestive biscuits, dog biscuits, oatmeal, and cocoa. I've never seen so many biscuits in one place. There are even a few lying around with bites taken out of them. There are also a couple of carcases hanging in the larder. The food is apparently still edible, and has remained this way because of the extreme cold and aridity. There are some folks down here studying this phenomenon in order to learn more about long-term food storage.
