Scott was kind of loopy, wasn't he?

So, this was on Writers Alamnac today (not sure why, but they sometimes toss in a distinctly non-writerly entry):

It was on this day in 1911 that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people ever to reach the South Pole on the continent of Antarctica.

Amundsen had decided
to join the quest at the last minute, and his expedition was a full eight weeks behind Scott's, and when word got out that he was racing to beat the famous English explorer, most people thought Amundsen was crazy. But he had a secret weapon: a team of well-trained Greenland sled dogs. Scott had decided not to use dogs for transportation because, he said,

"No journey ever made with dogs can approach the height of that fine conception which is realized when men go forth to face hardships, dangers, and difficulties with their own unaided efforts."

As a result of Scott's aversion to dogs, Amundsen's team arrived at the South Pole more than a month before Scott's team did. And Scott's team perished in a snowstorm on their way home.

"Fine conception". I bet that kept them warm in the snowstorm.

Why the heck did Scott bother to dress and use tools? "Own unaided efforts" indeed.