2007, Piran, Slovenia

Environmental Ergonomics XII
Igor B. Mekjavic, Stelios N. Kounalakis & Nigel A.S. Taylor (Eds.), © BIOMED, Ljubljana 2007
RACE TO THE SOUTH POLE – SCOTT AND AMUNDSEN’S
CLOTHING REVISITED
George Havenith and Lucy Dorman
Protective and Performance Clothing Research Centre, Loughborough University,
UK
Contact person: G.Havenith@lboro.ac.uk
INTRODUCTION
On December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, beating Robert
Falcon Scott by about a month in the race to be the first person to reach this landmark.
Scott and his team perished during their return journey. Many theories have been
developed on why Scott lost the race and perished, with unusually extreme cold
weather postulated as major or contributing cause.
Their race to the pole was re-enacted in the context of a television programme, where
two teams were formed, and playing the role of either Scott or Amundsen, using
similar equipment, food, clothing etc. to that used in the original expeditions. As dogs
are no longer allowed in Antarctica, the race took place in Greenland, covering the
same distance as the original journey. For this purpose, the clothing of both teams was
reconstructed by the organisers, based on historical archives, and made available for
investigation to the Protective and Performance Clothing Research Centre at
Loughborough University. This clothing was tested together with modern arctic
explorer clothing (i.e. the film crew’s clothing).
METHODS
All three clothing systems were measured for their thermal insulation on a thermal
manikin (‘Newton’, MTNW Seattle), in conditions with and without wind. In addition
the clothing was assessed for the effect it would have on metabolic rate and thus on
energy requirements, using recently obtained knowledge in that area (Dorman, 2007).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Insulation values for the clothing types (with one variation for the Amundsen outer
coat) are presented in Figure 1. The modern clothing clearly outperformed the
explorer’s ensembles from last century, in terms of maximal insulation provided.
Given however that Scott’s team used man-hauling for their sledges, it should be
noted that they require less insulation during their activity. The difference between the
historic and modern clothing is best illustrated when the insulation for weight ratio
was determined. This is shown in Figure 2. The modern clothing here shows about
double the performance level of the older systems.
In the race reconstruction, an important problem with Scott’s team was demonstrated:
they were unable to keep up their energy intake with their energy requirement. This
caused 19% weight loss over the period of the race, and most surprising, despite the
heavy exercise, 60% of this weight loss was muscle mass. In recent work, Dorman
(2007) charted the effect of protective clothing on energy requirements. Based on her
work, extra energy requirements caused by wearing the arctic ensembles could be
determined. These are shown in Figure 3.
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