When Antarctica’s Discovery Hut was built for Robert Falcon Scott’s first expedition in 1901, no one expected that it would survive until the next century.
The little building became a refuge for many more explorers during the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, including Ernest Shackleton.
The YouTube channel Out There Learning takes a tour of the hut with Lizzie Meek of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. Meek helps conserve the building, along with other huts in the McMurdo area. These structures offer a glimpse into the hardship and heroism of polar explorers in Antarctica.
Meek also details the many improvements that have recently been made to the hut. Likely, it will continue to survive the continent’s brutal weather for many years.
“For me it’s got a feeling of desolation, or an attempt to make a home in a desolate place,” the video’s interviewer says.
But Meek offered a different perspective.
“The other way could look at it is: How wonderful it would have been to see this after weeks and weeks of sledging. We’ve just come from a modern-day, lovely, warm base. But when this was the only shelter in the landscape, it suddenly takes on a whole new significance and meaning.”
