Pengguna:Stephanus Victor/bak pasir

The march began on 29 October 1908. Shackleton had calculated the return distance to the Pole as 1.494 mil laut (2.767 km; 1.719 mi). His initial plan allowed 91 days for the return journey, requiring a daily average distance of about 16 mil laut (30 km; 18 mi). After a slow start due to a combination of poor weather and lameness in the horses, Shackleton reduced the daily food allowance to extend the total available journey time to 110 days. This required a shorter daily average of around 13½ nautical miles. Between 9 and 21 November they made good progress, but the ponies suffered on the difficult Barrier surface, and the first of the four had to be shot when the party reached 81° S. On 26 November a new farthest south record was established as they passed the 82° 17' mark set by Scott's southern march in December 1902. Shackleton's party covered the distance in 29 days compared with Scott's 59, using a track considerably east of Scott's to avoid the surface problems the earlier journey had encountered.

As the group moved into unknown territory, the Barrier surface became increasingly disturbed and broken; two more ponies succumbed to the strain. The mountains to the west curved round to block their path southward, and the party's attention was caught by a "brilliant gleam of light" in the sky ahead. The reason for this phenomenon became clear on 3 December when, after a climb through the foothills of the mountain chain, they saw before them what Shackleton later described as "an open road to the south, [...] a great glacier, running almost south to north between two huge mountain ranges". Shackleton christened this glacier the "Beardmore" after the expedition's biggest sponsor.

Travel on the glacier surface proved to be a trial, especially for Socks, the remaining pony, who had great difficulty in finding secure footings. On 7 December, Socks disappeared down a deep crevasse, very nearly taking Wild with him. However, the pony's harness broke, and the sledge containing their supplies remained on the surface. For the rest of the southward journey and the whole of the return trip they had to rely on man-hauling.

As the journey continued, personal antagonisms emerged. Wild privately expressed the wish that Marshall would "fall down a crevasse about a thousand feet deep". Marshall wrote that following Shackleton to the Pole was "like following an old woman. Always panicking". However, Christmas Day was celebrated with crème de menthe and cigars. Their position was 85° 51' S, still 249 mil laut (461 km; 287 mi) from the Pole, and they were now carrying barely a month's supply of food, having stored the rest in depots for their return journey. They could not cover the remaining distance to the Pole and back with this amount of food. However, Shackleton was not yet prepared to admit that the Pole was beyond them and decided to go forward after cutting food rations further, and dumping all but the most essential equipment.

Pada Boxing Day the glacier ascent was at last completed, and the march on the polar plateau began. Conditions did not ease; Shackleton recorded 31 December as the "hardest day we have had". On the next day he noted that, having attained 87° 6½′ S, they had beaten North and South polar records. That day, referring to Marshall and Adams, Wild wrote: "if we only had Joyce and Marston here instead of those two grubscoffing useless beggars we would have done it [the Pole] easily." On 4 January 1909, Shackleton finally accepted that the Pole was beyond them and revised his goal to the symbolic achievement of getting within 100 geographical miles of the Pole. The party struggled on, at the borders of survival, until on 9 January 1909, after a last dash forward without the sledge or other equipment, the march ended. "We have shot our bolt", wrote Shackleton, "and the tale is 88° 23' S". They were 97.5 geographical miles from the South Pole. The Union Jack was duly planted, and Shackleton named the polar plateau after King Edward VII.