antartic expedition 2027
The Last
Cache
Retracing Shackleton’s forgotten support team
The Ross Sea Party
WHO ARE THE ROSS SEA PARTY?
History's greatest assist story
In 1915, Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Endurance set out to cross Antarctica. Everyone knows that story. What almost nobody knows is what happened on the other side of the continent at the same time.
Twenty-eight men arrived in the Ross Sea on the ship Aurora with one job: lay supply depots across the ice for Shackleton’s team. His ship was already crushed and sinking in the Weddell Sea. He would never need those depots. But the Ross Sea Party didn’t know that.
Their own ship broke free during a storm, leaving ten men stranded. Despite starvation, the deaths of three teammates and the loss of nearly all their sled dogs, they completed their mission hauling 3,800 pounds of supplies nearly 1,500 miles across the ice for a crossing that would never happen. Their final depot (the Last Cache) was laid at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier at 83°30′ south. That letter has sat in the ice, untouched, for over a century.
The Expedition
honouring their legacy
Mark first heard this story during his second season at Union Glacier. He has spent years studying the expedition journals, analysing satellite imagery of Mount Hope and applying his experience as a mountain guide to work out where the Last Cache might still be.
Unlike the other depots laid on moving glacial ice, the Mount Hope depot may still be there, buried under a century of snow.
our Team
The Explorers
Project Founder
Mark Reed
Modern-day explorer and mountain guide. Driven by an obsession to tell one of history’s greatest untold stories.
Expedition Lead
Devon McDiarmid
One of the most experienced polar guides alive. Has skied to the South Pole more than anyone on earth.
Polar Explorer
Maggie Flatland
Family ties to Fridtjof Nansen. Svalbard, Greenland and Antarctica.
Documentary Filmmaker
Katie Barrett Cleary
20+ years making films for National Geographic, Netflix, Smithsonian and Discovery.
Project Historian
Tennessee Blackmore
FRGS. A decade of polar expeditions. Antarctic history specialist.