“The next day we relayed the sledges up the slope which was about 700 feet high rising from a small bay.  It was so steep that the pony could only be led up and we had to put on crampons to grip the ice.  These are merely a sole of leather with light metal plates for foot and heel containing spikes. [These were altered afterwards.] They have leather beckets and a lanyard rove off for making them fast over the finnesko.  It took us all the morning to get everything up to the top and then it started to blow.  The camp was wonderfully sheltered.  Jimmy Pigg and Nobby were reunited after many weeks, and to show their friendliness the former bit the latter in the back of the neck as a first introduction.  Atkinson had gone to Hut Point to reassure Uncle Bill as to our safety and arrived again with Gran just as we got the last load up.  There was no sugar at the hut except what the dogs had brought in, so Gran, who was quite fresh, volunteered to get a couple of bags from the depot at Safety Camp, which could plainly be seen out on the Barrier.  We all went to the edge of the slope to see him go down it on ski.  He did it splendidly and must have been going with the speed of an express train down the incline, as he was on the Barrier in an incredibly short time compared to the hours we had dragged up the same slope with the loads.  Teddy, Titus and Keohane were left at the camp to be joined by Gran later.  Scott started off for Hut Point with Crean and Cherry on his sledge, while I followed with Forde and Atkinson.  The others helped us up several hundred feet of slope and left us under Castle Rock.

“It was here that they mistook their way in the blizzard and lost a man from the Discovery.  Though it was fine below it was blowing like anything on the heights.  I was too busily occupied to see much of the hills and snow-slopes which I got to know so well later.  It was about three miles direct to the hut, but very up and down hill.  At the last, however, you see the Bay in panorama with Cape Armitage on one side, and Hut Point on the other, where the Discovery lay two whole years.  It is a magnificent view from the heights and for wild desolate grandeur would take some beating; the Western Mountains and the great dome of Mount Discovery across the black strait of water, covered with dark frost smoke, and here and there an iceberg driving fast towards the sea.  About half a mile below us was the little hut and, on the left, the 800-feet pyramid of Observation Hill.  It is a perfect chaos of hills and extinct craters just here.

“It was blowing like fun.  We left one sledge on the top of ski-slope and just took what was necessary on the other, such as our bags, etc.  It was my first experience of steep downhill sledging.  Instead of anybody pulling forward we all had to hang back and guide the sledge down the slippery incline without letting it take charge or getting upset.  It is great fun.  On reaching the head of the Bay, however, we had quite a dangerous little bit