First expedition to the South Pole: Moving tale behind the tent in today’s Google Doodle

The drawing shows perhaps the most important, and dangerous, camp ever set up

A little tent moves in the wind, under a harsh sky. That cartoon tent depicts perhaps one of the most important and dangerous places anyone has ever slept.

Google’s Doodle celebrates the work of Roald Amundsen shows his camp at the South Pole, where he pitched his tent after becoming the first human ever to reach it.

The tent was the temporary home of the pioneering crew who pitched the first ever tent – or anything else – at the South Pole. And after that it served as short respite for the crew of Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole – a journey that they would die attempting to return from.

It was Scott’s crew that took the last ever picture of the camp, and who saw it for the last ever time. Since they left, 105 years ago, the tent hasn’t ever been seen – and probably won’t be seen ever again.

Working out where the tent actually was left is tough work – and work that might never actually be able to happen. It involves not only working out exactly where Amundsen left his tent, but also offsetting the changes in the flow of ice and the burial by snow that has fallen since.

Scientist Olav Orheim published a paper in 2011 arguing that he had found the location of the tent, with a roughly 0.3km amount of uncertainty. He said that the tent was between 1.8 and 2.5km from the South Pole, and that it was buried 17-metres below the surface.

The tent and the camp surrounding it were given the name Polheim, or “Home at the Pole”, by Amundsen. It was pitched on 14 December 1911, as close to the South Pole as the men could work out they could be.

Working that out was tough, and required a range of calculations. But those were very important, because Amundsen was worried that there might be a dispute over whether he actually had reached the South Pole – so making sure was key, given the huge rush to actually get there.

Planting the flag at that same point, Amundsen declared “So we plant you, dear flag, on the South Pole, and give the plain on which it lies the name King Haakon VII's Plateau”.

In that same tent, Amundsen and his crew left equipment and messages for Scott. He would eventually get there and pick them up – but not make his way safely back, dying on his return.

Scott’s crew would take the last ever picture seen of the tent.

An Amundsen camp does live on at the South Pole, and is among the most visible things there. The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is a US-run research station right near the South Pole.

The first of ten was but in 1956, and it became the first permanent human structure at the South Pole, setting down some of the first human presence on the entire continent. The original station has been demolished and upgraded a number of times in those last 60 years, but it has retained its name as a tribute to the men who raced to reach the place it now stands.

Work there for the 50 to 200 people who do so might be easier than it was for Amundsen and his men, but not by much. Those living and working on the station have the sun continuously up for six months of the year and then for the other six, and temperatures that move around just as extremely.