January 1911. Two expeditions land on the edge of the Great Ice Barrier, 400 miles apart. Both want the South Pole. Nobody has ever stood there. The ship will come back for you in a year.

Lay depots before the sun sets in April. Live through four months of night. In spring, race 700 miles across the ice, up a glacier and over a frozen plateau, two miles high. Then walk all the way back. Reaching the Pole is half the journey.

How to survive

• Goal: reach the South Pole, then get back to your hut alive. Being first is glory; coming home is everything.
• The calendar is real. You land in January 1911. The sun sets in late April and comes back in late August. Nobody leaves the hut in the polar night.
• Depots. Nobody can carry enough for 1,400 miles. Before winter, sledge supplies south and leave them in depots. On the polar journey, leave food and fuel at each camp for the way back. Mark a depot with a line of flags, or you may never find it again in a whiteout.
• The sledge. Everything has weight: rations, paraffin, dog food, fodder. Dogs and ponies pull; if they cannot pull it all, the men put on harness too. Man-hauling wears men down every single day.
• Dogs are fast and can be eaten: by the men, and by other dogs. Ponies pull huge loads but cannot climb glaciers and suffer in the cold. Motor sledges break down. Men are slow, but they go anywhere.
• Paraffin melts snow for water. No fuel means no water, and that kills in days. Tins with leather washers leak in depots.
• Scurvy comes after two or three months without fresh meat. Seal, pony or dog meat keeps it away.
• Support parties. Take extra men and animals, then send them home when the loads are lighter. They take their own food for the way back.
• Winter projects. In the polar night, pick one project a month: ski training, lighter sledges, better boots, soldered fuel tins...
• The rivals are real. Amundsen reached the Pole on 14 December 1911; Scott on 17 January 1912. Their dates stay fixed: beat them if you can. The log tells you what really happened on each date.
• 💡 Advice tells you what a careful expedition leader would do next. Keys: Space pauses marching, 1–4 choose, Enter continues.