The men were sledging almost continuously during a period of six months; they suffered from frost- bite, scurvy, snow-blindness, and the utter weariness of overtaxed bodies.

But the they placed the depots in the required positions, and if the Weddell Sea party had been able to make the crossing of the Antarctic continent, the stores and fuel would have been waiting for us where we expected to find them.
The position on October 9 was that the nine men at Hut Point had with them the stores required for the depots and for their own maintenance throughout the summer.

The remaining dogs were at Cape Evans with Gaze, who had a sore heel and had been replaced temporarily by Stevens in the sledging party.

A small quantity of stores had been conveyed already to Safety Camp on the edge of the Barrier beyond Hut Point.
Mackintosh intended to form a large depot off Minna Bluff, seventy miles out from Hut Point.

This would necessitate several trips with heavy loads.