Why we’re doing this.
In 1915, Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Endurance set sail from South America to be the first expedition to cross the empty Antarctic continent. It was to be a grueling 1,900 mile overland journey.
Meanwhile, on the far side of the Antarctica, a group of 28 men were arriving on the ship Aurora to begin to help Shackleton’s team achieve their mission. Mooring in the icy Ross Sea, their plan was to set a series of life-sustaining supply caches along Shackleton's proposed route.
But nothing on either expedition went according to plan.
While none of the men in Shackleton’s expedition ever set foot in Antarctica, several men from the Ross Sea Party would never return home from it.
While Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice and eventually sunk in the Weddell Sea, the Ross Sea Party faced their own disaster.
Stranded when their own ship, the Aurora, broke free and drifted away, ten men were left to survive nearly two years in Antarctica. Despite starvation, the loss of nearly every sled dog, and the deaths of three teammates, they completed their mission—hauling thousands of pounds of untouched supplies for a crossing that would never happen.
Their final supply depot at Mount Hope, still frozen in place after more than a century, stands as one of the most selfless acts in the history of polar exploration.
AND WE’RE GOING TO FIND IT.
Three uniquely qualified explorers and an award-winning film crew will undertake and document a challenge never-before attempted: to locate the southernmost Ross Sea Party cache at S 83° latitude and complete Shackleton’s vision for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
Our expedition team and film crew will traverse to the documented location of the Last Cache at the base of Mount Hope where we will use ground penetrating radar and other methods to locate the 1600 lb cache.
