During the return journey Evans began to deteriorate mentally as well as physically, suffering from frostbite to his fingers, nose and cheeks. Evans had cut his hand in an accident as they were nearing the pole, and the wound did not heal properly. Their return journey soon became a desperate affair. Eleven weeks after setting off from base camp, the Polar party reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to discover that Roald Amundsen's five-man party had beaten them to the Pole by five weeks. Scott described Evans as "a giant worker-he is responsible for every sledge, every sledge-fitting, tents, sleeping-bags, harness, and when one cannot recall a single expression of dissatisfaction with any one of these items, it shows what an invaluable assistant he has been". Scott chose Evans as a member of his polar party, with Lieutenant Henry Robertson Bowers, Lawrence Oates, and Edward Adrian Wilson. However, held in high regard by Scott for "his resourcefulness, his strength and fund of anecdotes," Scott decided to overlook the incident. Evans was nearly left behind in New Zealand when he drunkenly fell into the water while boarding the ship. Scott's biographer Roland Huntford described Evans as "a huge, bull-necked beefy figure" and a "beery womanizer" who was "running a bit too fat" by the time of Scott's second expedition in Terra Nova. At the South Pole: Evans seated on the right