Captain Robert Scott’s failure to reach the South Pole before his fierce rival Roald Amundsen was down to his obsession with his personal activity tracker, researchers have claimed today.
The recent discovery of some Fitbit Charge 5 devices on the Ross Ice Shelf where Scott and his team perished in early 1912 have provided valuable new data about the final months of his ill-fated Antarctic expedition.
'Scott bulk-bought a load of Fitbits in an Amazon Black Friday sale in late 1911, to try and gain an edge in the race to the South Pole’, noted Simon Mike McBride, Professor of Really Cold Places at the University of Antarctica (Dubai campus).
'He’d insist on sticking rigidly to his target of 10,000 steps a day, ordering his team to set up their tent and chill out as soon as his device buzzed at him with that daft little firework display. With his steps in the bank by 10 in the morning, he would then presumably just catch up on a few emails and treat himself to a nice latte'.
Diary entries written by other explorers on the expedition also reveal their growing frustration with Scott:
'January 5, 1912. Scott being a twat. Again. Refuses to go any faster coz it will take him out of his f*!king fat-burning zone. FFS'
Inevitably falling off the pace, Scott's team eventually reached the South Pole 5 weeks after their Norwegian counterparts, the anguish of defeat made significantly worse by the sight of a flag in the Pole saying 'Amundsen - powered by Garmin'.
The news comes just weeks after researchers found evidence of Fitbits on the moon landing, with new video footage revealing Neil Armstrong stating: 'That's one small step for man, but the 7th consecutive day that I've climbed the equivalent of 25 floors - hashtag ripped'.’
image from pixabay