South Pole News Archive

NGA expeditions...what was on in 2007-08...

 

Ronny Finsaas

set off from Pole on the afternoon of 20 January in an attempt to set a kiting record to PH. He made 190 miles in the first 2 days, and successfully made it to Hercules Inlet at midday on the 25th (SP times)--five days, or 60 hours of actual kiting, which included a record run of 312 miles in less than 24 hours. No website, but here is the thepoles.com article announcing his success. Ronny actually warmed up by starting at 87°S, 46°E (250 miles from Pole) between the 15th and 19th, with a rest day at Pole before the main venture.

South Pole 2007

...as a precursor to check out the course for the South Pole Race, Doug Stoup guided Brits James Fox and retired champion jockey Richard Dunwoody on an unsupported trek. They flew south from Cape Town to Novo on 29 November and then flew further southwest via DC-3 to the Herbert Mountains from where they started their trip on 1 December. James suffered from strain and altitude and was flown out on Christmas Day. Doug and Richard continued, as of 3 January they were at 86° 51' S. They reached the Pole late in the evening of the 18th, and were flown back to Novo. Here's a 26 October North Lake Tahoe (California) Bonanza article about Doug, who runs Truckee-based IceAxe Productions. And for some reason this page is still floating around. Hmmm. I wonder if Doug has found any more Hershey bars on this trip!

the Friluftsaktiviteter team

is leader Ine-Lillie Gabrielsen and Rita Glenne, two Norwegian women who planned a unique venture starting with a climb of Mt. Vinson, followed by an unsupported trip from the old Vinson base camp to Pole. Yes, a new route! They started from the base camp on 5 December; as of 16 January they were still 225 miles from Pole. But they made it on the 27th. Whew...ALE/ANI air support was supposed to end the 25th (Chilean time).

Vision South Pole (otherwise known as the Optical Express South Pole Challenge)

is doctor Cameron Hudson planning a 2007-08 venture in support of vision charities...the Cardiff (UK) eye researcher announced he'll participate in a 700-mile sledging trek as part of a group including guide John Huston (of Northwinds), Sumio Tsuzuki (who climbed Everest and Cho Oyu and starred in the Everest IMAX flick) and Peter Blaikie (age 70),starting at Hercules Inlet. Here is an early news article. The team left PA on 26 November, Peter decided to bag and was flown out on 8 December; they crossed 88°S on the 15th after shifting their schedule to 29-hour "days" in an effort to reach Pole before air support ended. They made it on 25 January.

The CANDU ANI Messner Route South Pole Expedition

started at the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf and followed the route used by the 1989-90 Messner/Fuchs expedition. The resupplied group is led by guide Eric Philips (Icetrek) of Australia, along with Merete Gjertsen (Norway), George Szwender (Canada) (blog), Alison Levine (USA) (blog), and Bernice Notenboom (Netherlands) (blog). They reached their starting point on 5 December; as of 4 January they were 125 miles away from that reflective ball. Which they reached on the 14th.

Sibusiso Vilane and Alex Harris

are 2 South Africans who tried an unsupported/unassisted trek. They started from the inlet on 16 November, they passed 87° on 4 January and made it to Pole on the 18th to be the first to do so from their country.

The ANI South Pole Quest

ended up consisting of:
Expedition Antarctica--Swiss climber Evelyne Binsack's plan for an 18-month effort to reach Pole starting with a bicycle trip across parts of Africa and the Americas beginning in September 2006, and then try a ski trip from PH to Pole beginning in November 2007. Evelyne was the first Swiss woman to summit Everest, in 2001 (German/French language site only; more preliminary info in English here).
Adrian Hayes, a former British Army Special Forces officer who's lived in Dubai for the past 10 years, doing motivational speaking and selling Airbuses among other things. Anyway, after climbing Everest in 2006, he decided to hit the poles in 2007, starting with a 4-man expedition to the North Pole from Ward Hunt Island this boreal spring, followed by this trek to the South Pole. This Times of Oman article addresses both of Adrian's polar ventures. They started at Hercules Inlet on 12 November, and reached Pole on 28 December. This site has a detailed log with many photos; thepoles.com identified this as the "ANI South Pole Quest" guided by Canadian Devon McDiarmed. Other team members include Norwegian cross-country skier Hans Foss and Lebanese climber Max Chaya. Max has made it up Everest and done previous last-degree ventures to both poles.

Hvitserk South Pole expedition (Norwegian language site)

is a 7-person unsupported/unassisted Norwegian trek led by guide Bengt Egil Rotmo. The others are Jens Kristian, Ann Trude, Gro Mette, Bjørn, Truls and Lars. They reached their starting point on 12 November and reached Pole on New Years Day (SP time).

Beyond Endurance

originally planned a 2007-08 3-person Irish venture following Shackleton's original planned route across the continent from the Weddell Sea to McMurdo. That was scaled back to a 4-person supported Pole trip from Hercules Inlet. They had considered continuing going some distance past Pole, but this trek extension was cancelled. The team members included leader Pat Falvey (website), Dr. Clare O’Leary, Shaun Menzies (trip blog), and Jonathon Bradshaw (trip blog). This 3-year project included a trek across South Georgia in 2006 (and another planned one in 2008). The successful SG crossing was led by climber Pat Falvey, as was a boreal 2007 summer crossing of southern Greenland via DYE 2. They started from the inlet on 12 November. On 5 January they were at about 89° 20', they reached Pole early in the morning of 9 January SP time.

Cancelled! Slovakian Peter Valusiak

again planned a continental crossing to McMurdo, this time starting from Novo. He just barely started when word came that his mother had suffered a stroke, he was airlifted out on about 20 November. This is his old website in Slovakian from last year and I still can't read it...

"Last Degree" ventures

included one from 89°S that started on 9 December, reaching Pole on the 16th. This one included Kevin Dempsey, Lance Ranger, Stefan Anders, and Armund Mussey, led by ALE guide Tim Hewette. This one is newsworthy because Kevin Dempsey continues to speculate about the station and the alien forces behind IceCube... :) Later, two separate "last 2 degree" groups were dropped off at 88° on about 10 January. They split up into 2 groups, one with Borge Ousland (guide): Nils Thomas Lien, Britt Thorstensen, Nicolas (Nick) Moga, Otto Kalvo, and Stephan Kucsko. The other was guided by Svante Strand: Adrian MacLaughlin, Andrew Pearce, Helen Turton, Rudi Jansen, and John Bourke. As of the 18th both groups were at 89 degrees. Borge's team made it to Pole on the 20th; Svante's group was flown to a point 8-1/2 miles from Pole, Borge went out to meet them as they came in. Yet another "last degree group" was the British venture Shackleton's Unfinished Journey which consisted of a group guided by vet Mike Thornewill and team co-leader Barry Harper, with Murray Howitt, Carolyn Aitchison, Deb Stevenson, Richard Durance, Lynsey Gawn, Dean (Woody) Woodcock, Jo Craig-Humphreys, and Mary ?. They were doing the "last 112 miles" that Shackleton didn't finish when he turned around at 88°23'S. They arrived at PH on 9 January, got flown to their starting point (well, latitude, not longitude) on the 11th, and made it to Pole on the 22nd.

What's off...cancelled, deferred, or forgotten...

 

Opération Pole Sud (French language site)

was Frenchman Charles Hedrich's solo attempt at a speed record from near the coast of Berkner Island, assisted by kites. He started on 2 December and made great speed for awhile--completing 350 miles through the 22nd, he had to abandon the trip due to a nagging urinary tract infection and fever. After waiting 5 days he was flown back to PH on the 27th. He's planning a new pole-to-pole 2009 venture...

Sub-Zero Antarctic Expedition

consists of Jason de Carteret (British) and Todd Carmichael (American) who are doing an unsupported unassisted trip from Hercules Inlet. They started on 28 November hoping to break the speed record of 40 days for this route. But Jason had suffered injuries during the first few days and was flown out on 5 December. Todd continued on until 23 December. Storms slowed his progress, and he decided to be picked up after pushing on to near 84°S. Todd was already planning a solo unassisted/unsupported try for next year.

Peter Valusiak

from Slovakia, had planned a solo crossing from Berkner Island to McM via Pole...which has been postponed until 2008. Not much that I can read on his Slovakian language web site, sorry.

Extreme South

is Robert Conway, a Type I diabetic who plans to be the first diabetic on insulin to reach Pole unsupported, and Toby Williams, another medical student from St. George's Hospital in SW London (a third team member, Doug Orr, backed out in 2006). Their previously planned trip to recreate part of the Scott/Shackleton route has been postponed until 2008-9 for financial reasons. By then they'll be doctors. They plan to use kites to help the otherwise unsupported trip from the top of the Beardmore to Pole and thence to Patriot Hills.

Icebird

is still planning their "kitesled" trip over a "new route," but they have been set back by the death of one of the original expedition members, Andrew McAuley, in a kayaking accident off the west coast of the South Island (NZ). They recently reworked their kitesled during a Norway trip, now they are trying to figure out how to finance their trip to a remote part of the continent, including provision for rescue. In the boreal 2008 summer they will venture along the shore ice of Hudson Bay.

Journey South 2007

was a planned 2007-08 four-man unsupported venture led by Briton Alex Hibbert, to be age 21 at the time of the expedition. Originally his plan was to be the youngest British person to reach the Pole and the youngest unsupported expedition leader. Later the plans were to do a new route from Halley to Pole. That was cancelled as well...latest plans are to do the North Pole in 2008.

South Pole Solo

is 24-year-old Mark Evison, from Dulwich (near London), he wanted to be the youngest person to walk to the Pole (from Hercules Inlet) alone and unsupported. But he's postponing things due to lack of funds for 2 years (well, looks like 2008-09) until he graduates from Sandhurst...

90° SOUTH

was the planned unsupported round trip from Berkner Island by Brits Ben Saunders and Tony Haile. They planned to pull sledges to Pole, and switch to backpacks for the return trip on skis. Hmmm...on 24 October they pushed this trip back to the 2008-09 season...in the meantime, this past March/April Ben attempted a solo speed record trip to the North Pole, which he had to abandon after only 8 days when his ski bindings failed. Now Ben is planning to accompany Alastair Humphries on his 1800-mile return venture in to Pole in 2008-09.

Hummers to hit Highway 90

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak announced he's planning to join an expedition of hydrogen-fuel-cell powered Hummers on a drive south from McMurdo in December 2007, along with astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Yeah right. The trip was to be filmed in 3D by Academy Award winner James Cameron. Another old story (scroll down). Presumably they intended to travel the much cussed-and-discussed "road to Pole," but they would first have to get their vehicles to McM. Hmmm.

Cynan Rhodes

has another green trip planned for the Antarctic, at least according to this news article. He's not going with the Hummer team, but will use an electric car to cross the continent. Right.

Okay, the October 2007 "soft opening" went down, with 5 of the 6 planned Basler flights. The first of these with new folks occurred on Thursday 18 October. In addition to 15 new faces and freshies, the aircraft also brought...flu shots (Heidi Lim). The Basler twin turbo had first landed at Pole Sunday 14 October (left, photo from Heidi) along with a Twin Otter. The Basler continued to McM and was to return to Pole Monday with the first 18 summer folks. And fly north with some w/o's. And repeat a few times. But bad weather in McM delayed the personnel changeout. It finally started on the 18th when 15 new people showed up and 2 left. The second Basler flight came the next day. The third didn't happen until 24 November. [Until now the earliest first flight was the 16 October 1999 LC-130 that came in to pick up Jerri Nielsen. But they didn't call that the "opening flight" either.]

What is a Basler? Basically a completely modified/rebuilt DC-3 (read, jack up the nameplate of a WWII DC-3 (or C-47, or R4-D or whatever) and rebuild and modify it). They've been to Pole before, here is more info on the previous visit and the aircraft. In any case, the plan is to get the population jacked up to 260 people by 5 November.

What will happen?? Well, the siding and "chamfer" project will continue, in an effort to save a few more BTUs and KWs as well as make the place look decent for THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW ELEVATED STATION scheduled for 12 January. With of course bunches of DVs scheduled in for a couple of double shuttles...not unlike the first station dedication was held at Pole in January 1975. Oh, yes, that means I must mention this bit of trivia: the actual first station dedication was held in early 1957 in MCMURDO, and the Polies didn't even find out about it until much later. Meanwhile, other construction activity will see erection of the base structure of the SPT ground shield, jacking of the last section of the arch (the old power plant section), removing the old Dome entrance and filling it in with arch connecting the old power plant and biomed arches, and beginning on the foundation work for the logistics facilities to be built inside this arch.

Update....the Norwegian-US Scientific Traverse is one of the more noteworthy International Polar Year (IPY) events. This is a 2-season international multidisciplinary return traverse, exploring the East Antarctic ice sheet, from the Norwegian Troll Station (where the team is now) to Pole. The first half happened in 2007-08, and it included a stop at the site of Plateau Station. Plateau was occupied for the 1966-1968 winters and featured a 30-meter met tower, similar to the one at Pole, although a late 80s event failed to find it. One of the participants is Colorado State researcher Glen Liston...who happens to be a 1983 winterover. Back then he was the maintenance mechanic. Their plans were to be at Plateau for 5-6 days drilling a 90m ice core. Well, it turns out they broke down a few miles away, but they still discovered the station only buried up to the roof...and the met tower. By the way, these folks have a great historic page about Plateau, with photos including one of that met tower. This traverse will also investigate some of those subglacial lakes which have become a big thing of late.

Would there there be a 300 Club in the 2007 winter? Well, no. Earlier this spring temps dropped briefly below -100°F a couple of times, but not long enough for anyone to gear up. Global warming?? Here's Heidi Lim's view of the scroll the first time the magic number popped up. So far in the 50+ years that folks have been at Pole, the only other winter that it didn't make it into 3 digits was 1964. And here were the dwindling odds that it might have happened (graph courtesy of the NOAA guys).

Before the sun came up, in early September the cardboard came off the windows (left, photo from Laura Rip), and the visible astronomical displays are gone. But not before the 28 August lunar eclipse got watched by me in Nevada and documented by Robert Schwarz (right) at Pole (scroll down to August). Otherwise things have been rather quiet of late, in part because satellite antenna problems have cut back on internet visibility. You may have noticed (if you noticed the site of the midwinter picture) that the old garage/gym/bar whatever along with the power plant are no more. Winfly has happened, and MacTown is swarming with early summer folks, including one Nicholas Johnson, so surely McM is not a big dead place. As reported there, the Tax Court has ruled yet again that American USAP folks have to pay taxes. Lots more folks got caught, you can read their unsuccessful strategies here (search this page with your browser for "Antarctica"). The moral is, don't try it.

Yes, happy Midwinters Day, whenever and wherever you are and may celebrate it. Nowadays this celebration is a huge event (well, based on the size of the winterover crew vs the old days) and you now can check out the extensive documentation of things on some of the winterover web sites. 30 years ago things were more modest, here is how we celebrated in 1977.

The third annual BF5K was held at the end of April, here's a link to Jason Stauch's blog entry on this ingenious event. Yes, I participated in the first version, and based on my lousy finishing time I should have worn a costume. Other serious runners and exercisers are somewhere on the way to MacTown (virtually) as the Race to McMurdo was underway again, hot and heavy, this documentation by Heidi Lim. I must confess that I made it to Mactown and almost back to Pole (Papa) 3 in the 2005 version. On the temporary facilities side, note that the smokers have found a temporary warm place to indulge, "the 2.0 Lounge" which has been parked outside of Destination Alpha for the winter. Those of you who were around back then (2000-01) will recognize this structure as the former "SPARCLE Palace" which is described and depicted here, then and now. Butt...all is not good news for smokers. It has recently been announced that as of 2010 there will no longer be any indoor smoking facilities at any USAP stations....

Tony Meunier, one of the 1974 USGS winterovers, recently revealed to me that his publication U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Activities in the Exploration of Antarctica: 1946-2006... is now available online here. This 15mb PDF document (which actually has a much longer title) documents all USGS events, visitors, winterers, cachets, etc., between Highjump and the present.

Northern hemisphere events of note...this boreal spring and summer...first was the American Polar Society symposium at the OSU Byrd Center in Columbus, OH, 25-27...the eclectic program features speakers from the IGY era (including Dick Bowers, builder of the IGY Pole Station) and folks addressing IPY and current concerns. I was there and it was great to get together with old Polie and other friends. Two weeks later in Corpus Christi, TX, the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association (ADFA) met on 8-11 May. This group is composed primarily of the folks who WERE THERE during IGY, unfortunately I didn't make that one, which featured a videoconference with Pole. And last but perhaps not least, we of the 1977 Pole Souls had our second reunion in Boulder, CO, 16-17 June. Unlike the first one in 2000, a few folks didn't make this time...one guy who won't is Alex Zaitsev, whose presence is a victim of the current poor USA-Russia relations, meaning he didn't get a visa in time, although he did visit some of us in August.

So what's with all this stuff about folks driving to Pole? No recent or hard detail on the team website, although this International Herald Tribune article is pretty good. The team has applied for the appropriate permits...the only thing is that they have to get their vehicles and alternative fuels to McMurdo in December, which is before the shipping season begins. Hmmm. This may incorporate the previously announced trip by Steve Wozniak, and they may be using Hummers...well, we will see. USAP did three round trips to Pole in the 2006-07 summer, according to some of the news articles.

The thirtieth Antarctic Treaty meeting in New Delhi happened 30 April through 11 May. Not a lot of newsmaking issues this time, but new management plans for both Pole and Palmer were addressed (more info below).

Sadly, yet another unfortunate news event--the tragic shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech--prompted the lowering of the Dome flag to half mast on 19 March 2007. At right is a picture of this event...here are a couple more photos with additional information and credits.

Yes, the dome demo crew has been back at work. After spending a bit of time gutting the old garage, they attacked the science building in earnest. At left, upper berthing is history, stacked up to ship back up north (Brien Barnett photo). By now (late April) they've finished with the old UB/science building structure, gone back out to the garage arch to wipe out the old garage/carp shop/gym except for the floor, and gone back into the dome to remove the old UB/science floor. Cold temps have hampered equipment operations...but the plan is next to remove the old garage floor next, followed by the old comms floor. After the food gets moved. Again.

Happy sunset...20 March is the official equinox date in most of the world, but as usual the sun was visible for a few more days. The station bid the daylight farewell with the sunset dinner on 24 March. Another one of those great events...here's a picture of the 11 women on station this winter. Preceding this was the official 1 March inauguration of the International Polar Year...a 24-month modern version of the IGY that spawned the reason for the original Pole Station and the first of what is now 51 winterover crews (NSF press release on IPY, which includes a link to the IPY launch webcast).

Yup...after a day's delay, the station closed with the final 3 flights on Sunday 18 February, leaving 54 souls-- All about the last day of flights was not uneventful. The last week of summer included lots of last-minute work by the "soft close" SPT team. While they didn't get to stay quite as long as they'd planned, their efforts resulted in a successful first light on Jupiter on 16 February (Eurekalert and SPT group press releases, as well as the NSF press release with videos). The photo at right by Jeff McMahon shows ironworker Brian Hardin celebrating the successful installation. Meanwhile, the IceCube data acquisition team also frantically worked to get those new detectors up and running. The final tally on flight operations: there were 359 flights vs the planned 372...but since the aircraft cargo loads were higher than expected, more cargo and fuel was moved than had been planned. The last C-17 out of Mactown happened on Saturday 24 February, leaving behind only 119 w/o's there, the smallest crowd in years. And there is discussion that the program downsizing may continue next season...along with the continued stretching out of the completion of the MacTown power plant upgrade....as those ancient 399's that were supposed to go away by now are still chugging away.

On the waterfront...the shipping season is over. At left, the cargo ship American Tern is seen departing on 10 February; this unique view is from the wharf control tower. Here is what the Tern looked like full of cargo instead of garbage, when it showed up on 4 February (the Tern photos are all by McM w/o Tom Hamman). At right, the tanker Paul Buck, arrived on 31 January with help from the Polar Sea (Antarctic Sun photo by Peter Rejcek). In the background is the NSF research icebreaker N. B. Palmer which had docked earlier to swap out scientists and cargo...and then headed east to PA on a long science cruise. The Buck wasn't around long...after discharging nearly 7 million gallons of fuel, it departed to make way for the cargo ship.

And at Pole, IceCube finished the season with 13 strings completed on 29 January, and firn hole #14 completed with the new firn drill. This year the drill camp (Seasonal Equipment Site/SES) was staged for the winter at the next drilling location rather than being towed back to the berms. And the permanent IceCube lab had its official dedication. And the SP Telescope is now assembled (at least the big pieces) in all its glory (left, USAP photo library shot by Scot Jackson). Some of the SPT crew were to hang around past the official 17 February closing date for a "soft close" as late as the 23rd, but that didn't happen, they left on the 18th like everyone else. Late summer official Pole visitors included the design team, on site to sign off on new cryo and look at the SPT building...and on Friday 19 January, Helen Clark, PM of NZ showed up for a tour of the place.

Here are the 2006-2007 expedition, last-degree and other similar events I've watched:

Correne Erasmus-Coetzer

from South Africa, wanted to be the first African woman to ski from Hercules Inlet, she was part of three-woman expedition which also included Brit Beth Cheesebrough and guide Denise Martin. They had several resupplies en route. Denise (with Matty McNair) guided the 1997 McVitie's Penguin Polar Relay, the first all-woman trek to the North Pole. Correne did "last-degree" trips to both Poles in 2001 and 2002. They arrived at PH on 24 November and were flown to Hercules Inlet two days later to begin their trip. They successfully reached Pole on 18 January, where they were offered an early-morning snack of coffee and cookies in the galley.

Beth Cheesebrough

accompanied Correne and Denise, here's her web site with diary and pics.

Antarctic Solo Expedition

is 44-year-old Brit John Wilton Davies, who tried his own solo unsupported from Hercules Inlet to Pole. Impressive--he had no Polar experience and if he succeeded he told folks he'd be the oldest person to do this. He started on 28 November, as of New Year's he was halfway (85°S) but it was slow going and he was running short of supplies. He ran out of food and time...stopping at 89°S where he had a food drop and then waited for ALE's last flight to pick him up on the 26th...and take him to Pole to gather up the last Last Degree group.

Polar First

the helicopter team, Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill, that visited Pole in December 2003 shortly before crashing north of PH on a transpolar venture, are did it again this season. It again was a Bell 407, they headed south starting from Dallas, Texas on 5 December. On 31 December they reached Marsh Base on KGI, and they showed up at Pole on around 1700 on 7 January, after a 9-hour 1200-mile trip from Fowler with two fuel stops. Conveniently for Polies it was a Sunday, and they shared the limelight with two Russian helicopters that arrived the same day. This time Jennifer and Colin were accompanied by a second backup Bell 407 aircraft. They stayed around Pole for about 8 hours and then headed back north to PH for some welcome sleep. After a couple of rest days they continued north (one of their stops was their 2003 crash site) and crossed the Drake from Marsh to Ushuaia on 19 January.

Ray and Jenny Jardine

from Arizona, did a ski venture from Hercules Inlet with one resupply. They left PH on 12 November, first skiing north from PH to the inlet before turning around. They arrived at Pole on 9 January. Originally they planned to kite back to PH but they changed their mind and flew back instead...and Ray then decided to go climb Vinson, which he summitted on the 26th. These guys have done a lot of extreme travel...like the Kiwi "Thermal Heart" team, they've also rowed across the Atlantic.

Hannah McKeand

who did a group traverse to Pole 2 years ago, announced she'll do it again this year--this time a solo unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet. She hoped to complete the Pole trip in a record 40 days, and she did! She showed up at PH on the 12th and started a training trip before racing south, starting from Hercules Inlet on 19 November. to complete what would be the fastest trip to Pole--39 days, 9 hours and 33 minutes, arriving Pole on 29 December at 0933 Pole time. She had the station and IceCube tour, dinner in the elevated station, and spoke to the USAP community before being flown back to PH the next day (here she is in the galley with Glenn Grant). She'll follow this venture with a sailboat voyage from Tasmania to the South Magnetic Pole.

The Thermal Heart Antarctic Expedition

is the expedition by Jamie Fitzgerald a Kiwi from Tauranga who holds some Atlantic rowing records. He announced a round-trip trek from PH along with age-25 Auckland oarsman Kevin Biggar. They hoped to be the first all-Kiwi trek in 50 years. Back in March 2006 they talked to media about their planned unsupported 1800-mile trip. They were on the first flight to PH and started their trip from Hercules Inlet on 12 November. Temps were above zero (F)...an auspicious start. But on 1 January they were late, still 5 miles from Pole, which they reached the next day. They announced that due to hamstring injuries and unfavorable weather they'd abandon their return trek and fly back to PH.

team n2i (n2i stands for "Novo to Inaccessability")

is a venture by Rory Sweet, Rupert Longsdon, and Henry Cookson, guided by veteran Paul Landry. They flew into ALCI's blue ice runway (70°51'S-11°36'E, about 10 miles from the Russian Novolazarevskaya Station. Starting from Novo, they headed southeast towards the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI, 82°58'S-54°40'E; 12,226' altitude) by skiing and kiting when possible. They left Novo on 3 Dececmber and completed the trip to the POI on 20 January...surprised to find the rumored statue of Lenin that supposedly had been there for 48 years, mounted on the chimney of the IGY-era Soviet hut. They proceeded to dig out the hut entrance looking for the guestbook, not to mention cigarettes and vodka (!) but they could not get the door open! They were flown north to Russian base Progress and then were to go on to Molodezhnaya...perhaps in 2 weeks they will be back in Cape Town.

Polar Quest 2006

was a Royal Navy (UK) joint venture to the magnetic North Pole and the geographic South Pole during 2006. The Antarctic trip is a 4-man 1500-mile round trip--the "longest ever journey undertaken on foot in Antarctica by a British expedition." They showed up at PH on 12 November and started south from there almost immediately. They arrived at Pole on 27 December, the halfway point of their trip. They held a memorial service at the site of Scott's January 1912 camp. On 1 January they attended the annual Pole marker surveying ceremony, they then moved their camp 2 miles away in hopes of finding better winds to help them sail north (their camp at Pole) (photo from Glenn Grant). They left Pole on 2 January and kited 70 miles the first day. They made it back to PH on 21 January after a final day of kiting 86 miles.

Called off! Southern Reach

Not to be outdone, the Royal Air Force also planned an unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet. The four-man ice team, led by Warrant Officer Alan Sylvester, trained in Iceland and with David Hempleman-Adams. They were on the first flight to PH on 12 November, and made good progress until their team was medevaced by ALE only 101 miles short of the destination due to aggravation of severe frostbite injuries that two members of the team incurred at the beginning of the trip. But they did make it to Pole...their ALE flight refueled at Pole before taking them back to PH.

"Last-Degree" guided trips

--some of these are being run by Polar Explorers--including a "last-degree" trip by Sara Kameswaran (an Indian living in California) guided by Annie Aggens, and a "last-two-degree" trip by Laurie and Richard Goldsmith (from California) and Ajeet Bajaj (from India), guided by Keith Heger. Both teams flew south to PH on 8 January and were dropped off for their walks on 11 January. Sara and Annie reached Pole on 21 January, while the 2-degree team (which had actually started from 88°-17' S due to poor landing conditions at the 88th parallel) reached Pole on 26 January.

Another "last degrees team"

was to be led south from Shackleton's furthest point by Fiona and Mike Thornewill...guiding Cedric DeSousa from NYC, Veronica Shaw from the UK, Lorraine Kelly, Dick Durance, Danusia Derben, Polly Hatcher, and Wincent Kordula. But, four members of this group were hit by food poisoning in PA. As a result, some of the group dropped out, and guide Mike had to be medevaced en route. Eventually the resulting trip included only the women. When they got to Pole on 1 January, Polly (a Royal Navy officer) posed in a bikini.

Yet another team

included Chinese guy Jin Fei Bao (who summited Everest in 2006 and had also bagged Vinson on this Antarctic trip), German Norbert Kern, Richard Laronde from Boston, and Alex from Moscow, guided by David. They left 89°S on 11 January and reached the glass ball on the 19th.

Alpine Ascents

another mountain guiding organization, earlier led yet another Last Degree group of as many as ten including two guides and Canadian Claude Boisvenue of Montreal. One of the guides was Patricia Sotos, the only Chilean to have summitted Everest. They left 89° on 14 December and reached Pole a week later.

The Indian Navy

yet another Commonwealth military group, announced a planned 10-person ski trip to Pole in 2006-07, led by CDR Satyabrata Dam. The group trained in Greenland and Iceland, and a PR firm was hired to promote the event. This was a 125-mile "last-two-degree" trip, with an ALE guide making a team of 11. They arrived at PH on 12 December, flew on south to their starting point, and arrived at Pole on 28 December (campsite photo by Glenn Grant).

Jesus College, Oxford

had a group of six alumni who are planning a 2006-07 trip from Hercules Inlet, guided by the Northwinds folks...but their link has disappeared with no further news.

Postponed! Extreme South

is Robert Conway, a Type I diabetic who plans to be the first diabetic on insulin to reach Pole unsupported, and Toby Williams, another medical student from St. George's Hospital in SW London (a third team member, Doug Orr, backed out). Their trip to recreate part of the Scott/Shackleton route has been postponed until 2008-9 for financial reasons. By then they'll be doctors. They plan to use kites to help the otherwise unsupported trip from the top of the Beardmore to Pole and thence to Patriot Hills.

Postponed! Icebird Expedition

is three Australians, Ben Deacon, Andrew McAuley and Patrick Spiers, they plan to use a newly designed steerable "kitesled" created by NZ designer Peter Lynn to cross the continent to Patriot Hills. They recently announced that they've postponed things again until 2007-08. Their route to Pole is to be "a new route" which the team still isn't announcing. In April 2006 they were testing their kitesleds in Greenland. Earlier in 2006 Andrew was part of a 3-person kayak venture south from Trinity Peninsula (63°37'S-58°20'W) along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. This, the John Rymill Memorial kayak expedition, retraced portions of Rymill's seminal British Graham Land Expedition of 1934-37, The team's yacht stopped at Palmer Station on the way north after the venture.

It was helicopter week! FOUR arrived on Sunday 7 January (photo at right by Cynthia Chiang). The two military-looking ones are Russian MI-8 helicopters on an official expedition led by Artur Chilingarov--yes, the guy who was involved in the Antonov-3T adventures earlier in this decade. Here's an Interfax press release. One of the pax gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a phone call from comms. Meanwhile, that Polar First helicopter team had been at Fowler (71°S-71°W) but since they had good weather then they headed on 1200 miles south via PH and showed up as well in two red Bell helos--the team has been accompanied by a backup 407 piloted by two Bell Helicopter employees. It is not that often that four aircraft park at Pole...the only other time I know of was on 16 November 1976...but those were fixed-wing aircraft.

In the past couple of years, the big icebergs threatened to disrupt the annual sea resupply. Not so this year. The Coast Guard's aging but still powerful Polar Sea is almost to McMurdo as of 4 January. And NSF arranged for more help. At left, the Swedish breaker Oden (photo by summer Polie NOAA researcher Andrew Seaman) is seen breaking ice. This vessel first did a science cruise (a Swedish/Chilean/NSF joint venture) departing PA on 12 December for the Ross Sea. Then somewhere west of Cape Evans, the science team was flown to Mactown by helo, and Oden began its icebreaking effort. Here is more info on this unique science cruise from PolarTREC, a new teachers-in-Antarctica program.

Christmas holidays brought the usual events--the Race Around the World...fancy dinner...HF radio caroling, and other stuff that can be only done during a 2 day weekend. Here's a good page of holiday photos and video from veteran IceCube guy Darryn Schneider. But the day after Christmas saw a strange power failure caused by some DDC problems which precipitated a glycol leak in the power plant...all is well now. Outside...the British RAF team called off their trip on Christmas Eve due to medical problems 101 miles from Pole, they were evacuated to PA by ALE. Meanwhile, 2 members of the 6-person "last-97-miles" trek (starting from Shackleton's furthest south) led by veterans Mike and Fiona Thornwill--including Mike--had food poisoning before leaving PA...Mike continued but the other group member had to cancel out. Meanwile, the 4-man Royal Navy team arrived on the 27th, and Hannah McKeand completed the fastest trek ever, 40 days, on the 29th. More NGA info, links and a photo or two below...

Once upon a time before the ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules, all of the construction material for the original IGY station was airdropped by a large Air Force transport aircraft known as a C-124 Globemaster. Well, in a twist of history, NSF had the Air Force try it again on 20 December--a proof-of-concept airdrop using a C-17 Globemaster III (right)...it was a complete success...delivering around 70,000 lbs of, er, flour and similar dry food. Here's the full story with pictures (and video).

The second week in December was a good one for IceCube...first, the visiting design team inspected the new permanent lab several times and finally granted conditional occupancy on 8 December. At left is a view of the place just before the last major construction task--installing the cable tray bridge from the east tower to the second floor of the lab (these photos from IceCube which published weekly reports with photos throuth the summer). The team immediately frantically started moving in equipment and pulling cables. Meanhile, the drillers completed the first hole of the season on 14 December, eventually there would be 13.

Meanwhile nearby at DSL, the South Pole Telescope (SPT) was put together by teams of scientists, ironworkers, electricians, and, well, lots of people. The RPSC folks erected the structure and did the heavy lifts (right), while the science team from Chicago assembled the telescope components. The mirror supports were put together inside a large but unheated tent. The summer team were rather prolific bloggers as well, here is the main team blog with links to others. With photos of course. The two SPT pics here were taken by Jerry Marty and Bill Johnson on 8 December (USAP photo library)

A bit of history renewed...since the days of the original IGY station (which we may know as Old Pole) ham radio has played an important part in communications with folks and family back home. Perhaps a bit less important now that Polies have IP phones in their rooms, but it is still around. And to mark the transition from the dome to the new elevated station we have a transition from the old dome QSL card to this fresh new one.

After over a week of delays, the first Hercs landed at Pole on 31 October 2006...the first flight was designated as the commemorative flight for the first landing at Pole 50 years earlier to the day, in 1956, by Navy VX-6 pilot Gus Shinn. The anniversary was marked in Gus's home town of Pensacola with a special meeting of the Gulf Coast members of the Old Antarctic Explorers Association...an event which was favorably covered by the Pensacola News-Journal. NSF rep Dave Bresnahan attended and presented Gus with a commemorative plaque (left, News-Journal photo).

As is a tradition in recent years, Kenn Borek Air transits the continent from Rothera to McMurdo via Pole a few days before official station opening...using Twin Otters and similar light aircraft chartered to support NSF and Italian field operations. This year one of these aircraft was a Basler Turbo 67...a massively converted and upgraded DC-3, the same aircraft model as the Navy R4D "Que Sera Sera" that first landed at Pole 50 years ago (almost), on 31 October 1957. The flight landed at 1050 on 20 October and spent an hour refueling (right, photo by Ethan Dicks) before heading on to MacTown...taking two winterovers along for the ride.

The dome demo moved forward, at left is a view of the second floor of comms turning into history (thanks Neal Sheibe). By now the first floor is gone as well, except for the deck which will remain for now to support shelving.

Palmer Team 77 had a successful reunion at the end of September 2006, in Newport, Oregon...with 100% attendance from the surviving winterovers, as well as a few hangers-on like me! Hmmm, must be something about 1977, a very good year on the ice. Stay tuned for photos.

The current and future power demands have been the subject of continuing discussion and study over the last few months...years...most recently the science community, NSF, RPSC, and RSA Engineering put heads together during the 2006 Pole winter to see if there is enough power available to put the SPT online and still keep the lights on in the gym (studies and findings). Hmmm. Well, do YOU have any suggestions? There will be both astronomy and basketball this winter, but there were also two fuel bladders (remember those?) installed in and atop the biomed arch to ensure enough fuel is on hand for everything. Postponed to 2007-08 along with the dedication--the new logistics facility, perhaps the end of the dome building demolition, the rest of the siding, and perhaps (if it doesn't slip yet another year) the demo of the dome itself. This structure is still planned to be shipped back to Port Hueneme where it may yet grace the Oxnard skyline.

Winfly ended successfully; the last of the four C-17 flights to McMurdo was completed over the weekend of 26 August, despite some dicey weather. This time of year also means that the sky over Pole is brightening fast...late August was time for the last nighttime Hash House Harriers "run" of the season. The construction crew is headed back into the dome to continue demo work on what used to be comms. And as the news media once again tries to figure out what is happening to the ozone hole, so is the Polie NOAA team (the NOAA Pole ozone page with current data, animations, and background info).

Reunion updates...the Old Antarctic Explorers Association had a gathering in Warwick, RI (the site of Davisville and Quonset Point, the departure point for my first trip to the ice in 1972) on 17-19 August 2006. I was there, it was great time seeing folks from the old and not so old days. Meanwhile, we 1977 Pole Souls were making preliminary plans for our second reunion which happened in Boulder in June 2007, and Palmer Team 77 was planning to get together in September 2006 aboard the Hero in Newport, Oregon.

The Antarctic treaty meeting happened in June 2006 (more info and the report on the Hallett Station cleanup).

Dome demo update...the crew has returned from work in the dark sector and cryo, the next targets are the gutting of comms and upper berthing. Meanwhile up north in NZ, folks are concerned that the US Coast Guard icebreakers may not be up to the task of getting the cargo ships into Winter Quarters Bay (TV NZ article), especially since the Polar Star has now been placed in caretaker status (Seattle P-I article).

Okay...midwinters week is now history, and the hijinks were in full swing. One of the main features was the WHIFF (winterover halfway film festival). The videos cropped up on Google video, or there are links in other places including Patrick McClure's pages. Meanwhile, some folks worked hard on that infamous Polie calendar (thanks to Jeff De Rosa) while others were preparing for some more serious hamming on the 24-25 June...KC4AAA was on the air for the event, but propagation was no help (update with photo).

As the first major bit of winter dome demo...the annex is history (left). The rest of the dome buildings are now cold...(well, as usual with dark construction photos, I've cranked up the lighting a bit on this one so things can be seen. Here is the original version, with thanks to John Neame. The rest of the demo pics will soon be up in the construction photo section).

NSF has been studying the alternatives for icebreaking and cargo handling for awhile...most recently on 4 May they posted an information request for a "package deal," looking for an organization that could both break ice and deliver cargo (6.5 million gallons of JP-5 and AN-8, 250,000 gallons of mogas, 600 TEU of container cargo (a TEU is equivalent to a 20-foot milvan) and 1.5 million pounds of breakbulk). Not to mention retro. Got any spare ice-strengthened vessels in your back yard?

About 1150 statute miles north of Pole, veteran marine tech Joshua Spillane was presumed dead on Wednesday 19 April, 2 days after he had last been seen on the Laurence M Gould (LMG) as the ship made its way north from Palmsr Station to PA. Joshua had been employed for more than 10 years and 40 cruises. He was last seen on deck around 0500 Monday morning, and was noticed missing 6 hours later. After an onboard search, the LMG turned around and conducted a grid search. Argentina and Chile also assisted in the search effort. Conditions were harsh--20-40 knot winds, 20-foot seas with rain and snow, and 43°F water temperature. Here's a link to a couple of usap.gov news articles.NSF Polar Programs director Karl Erb released a press statement of condolences on 21 April; an earlier press release was issued on 18 April before the death was confirmed. Several other folks have died aboard Antarctic research vessels, but it seems that Joshua's tragedy is the first that did not occur while the vessel was securely berthed in a South American port.

When it was nearly dark outside (6 April) it went dark inside for awhile, in one of the more serious power outage situations in station history. It lasted for several hours (no, not one continuous outage) and was exacerbated by the failure of the power feed to the fuel arch, which, of course, fills up the fuel daytanks in the power plant and boiler mechanical rooms to keep everything running. It took a couple days to get things back to normal...in the meantime serious power conservation was conducted and stuff was moved to the B1 emergency pod just in case.

Fall featured continued dark sector construction on the SPT building, IceCube and elsewhere. In the new station, the gym was finished out except for the final floor and some of the stuff at the south end. And the dome demo began again...the annex was one of the first structures to bite the dust.

Antarctica has been a big deal in the news media in the last few weeks...with two major research reports in Science on that old familiar subject of global warming. The first, published 24 March, addressed the fact that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets appear to be melting much faster than expected. See this NSF press release for more information. The second article appeared in the 31 March issue and discussed an observed 0.5°C warming per decade of the troposphere (pressure altitude of 500 hPa, 500 mb or 14.7" of mercury) based on recently compiled radiosonde data from nine stations including Pole. More information is available in this BAS press release and this BBC report.

In late March, C-16 headed north away from Ross Island towards the Drygalski Ice Tongue, which it hit on 29 March, breaking off a small bit of the tongue which was later named C-25. At right is a 14 April image from UW showing both bergs well north of the ice tongue.Watch the icebergs....Earlier, cargo and fueling operations did finish successfully, despite the iceberg action. There was enough open water west of the iceberg for the cargo ship and tanker to head north safely. The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star showed up on 14 February (press release), took on fuel, and did some channel grooming (in hopes of improving conditions for next season) before heading back north on the 16th. Here's a 10 February NSF press release with additional information and photos. The 9 February satellite photo (right, annotated by MODIS to show the movement) shows it squeezed between Ross and Beaufort Island The original shipping channel was just west of the Cape Bird coast, cut through ice which has now moved out. For reference, here's a 7 February bathymetric plot of the area from IGNS; here's January's chart of the shipping channel; and here's a NOAA sat photo of the area from 9 January 2006.

Pole closed on 21 February 2006 as the day's flights suddenly became the last ones. It was an incredibly successful season for airplanes, as there were a total of 377 flights, and unofficially just short of 10 million pounds of cargo, 16% more than planned, and a record, as stuff for next year's construction of the cargo building was shipped in, among other things. So...there are 64 folks left, I'm homesick, if anyone else is you must watch the summer video slide show that Patrick McClure has put up. Other recent stuff...while daylight lasted, construction in the dark sector continued on the SPT addition to DSL, as well as the counting house. And under the dome, the last upper berthing room party went off , while the erstwhile arch gym/exercise room has gained its last lease on life as the smoking bar. Dodgy Bastard...

The tanker Lawrence H. Gianella replaced the American Tern at the pier, and fuel offload happened between 9 and 11 February. The tanker left with assistance from both Krasin and Polar Star. The cargo ship (left) had reached the pier on 2 February with the help of Krasin. Seems that the Tern bumped the ice pier a bit harder than expected but no harm no foul. Meanwhile, the other Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov which was supposed to stay around and help, bailed and headed north on 1 February. Earlier, Krasin helped the NB Palmer make it to the pier for a brief port call on 28 January...Polies here note that Henry Malmgren disembarked and promptly flew south to consult on a Pole server he'd built.

This was to be the first year since Deep Freeze started that no US Coast Guard (or Navy) icebreaker would tend to the McMurdo sea lane. NSF arranged for the Russian icebreaker Krasin to do primary duty without help from a US vessel. But...now it seems that Krasin lost one of the blades from the starboard screw. She worked with her other two shafts at 110% power, but more work needed doing and the tanker Gianella was hanging back. And on 19 January NSF decided to get more help. Polar Star headed south from Seattle on 20 January...she is expected to reach the area about 20 February (USCG departure press release and return press release with photo link). McM divers had a look at Krasin but the prop was beyond repair with available material. Hopefully by mid February everybody will be out of McMurdo. Meanwhile, the third annual South Pole International Film Festival (SPIFF) was held on the weekend of 21 February...a great success.

Up north, the income tax case that many Polies have been watching has been resolved...the answer is, pay your taxes (!) Here's the 25 January decision and an accountant's commentary.

Across the skiway...the two new telescopes have been taking shape. At left (28 December, Carlton Walker) is the foundation for the massive 10-meter telescope, otherwise known as the South Pole Telescope (SPT; more information)...this massive structure will have a shield larger than the dome if it were inverted. It will be connected to DSL (seen behind it) with a walkway and lab space. At right atop DSL is the shield for BICEP (16 December photo by Yuki Takahashi)...on the ground to the right is the insulating boot that will support the telescope inside the shield. If you've been here awhile you'll notice that the DSL penthouse has been removed to make way for this new project, scheduled to go on line this season (more BICEP info here and here). The crane mount (yellow post) has been relocated from the roof to the second level, and the stairways and platforms are also scheduled for an upgrade. Meanwhile, the massive IceCube operation continued successfully...as of 29 January it finished the drilling season with EIGHT new holes, for a total of 9. This year the IceCube folks have been publishing excellent weekly reports on their progress.

At left ( Peter Rejcek, 22 December) is the north end of the new B4 gym (first floor) and exercise room/weight room (balcony)...almost done here. The design team is on site the now (late January) to inspect and grant conditional occupancy to the last 3 wings of the new elevated station. (And at 0100 26 December the transition to the new comms room, well, called the Station Operations Center (SOC) for now at least was completed (right, Peter Rejcek, 23 December). The room on the northwest corner of B3 overlooks the dark sector and the skiway...there is supposedly room for a couch but this place is much more strictly business oriented, unlike the old room in the Dome which Neil Conant shut down and saw go quiet and empty.

Outside...the "South Pole Traverse pulled into the place on 23 December after 45 days on the trail. The train of equipment included a new dozer and snow haul dump trailer, visible at left in this photo (Peter Rejcek; this and the previous 4 photos are from the USAP Antarctic Photo Library). The team stayed around for 5 days before heading back to McMurdo, arriving on 14 January. The cargo included a "snow trailer" (tracked belly dump trailer) visible in the photo at left, as well as the D-8 "Mary Lou" (right; here's a shot of Mary Lou in action a couple days later). This NSF press release has more information.

Construction has continued at a fast pace on the elevated station and elswhere...as the first half of the summer saw the cargo office moved closer to the skiway...all the remaining science projects (and musical instruments) were moved out of Skylab so the place could be shut down...the old Biomed arch and front entrance were excavated in preparation for raising the arch for the new storage facility...BICEP telescope installation is proceeding on the second floor of DSL...the 10-meter telescope foundation is being assembled in a hole behind it, the beginning of the siding installation on the elevated station (see photo at left)...and in mid December the place suffered from a heat wave. The temperature soared to +7°F/-13.9°C, less than a degree shy of the all-time record. And the British "Numis Polar Challenge" showed up on 14 January after a 200-mile trek in authentic Scott-era polar garb and equipment (photo from ThePoles.com).

The first of the summer NGA visitors included that tricked 6x6 Ford Van, which showed up from PH on 13 December (photo at right, here's more info and photos), as well as veteran polar trekkers Borge Ousland and Rune Gjeldnes.

Yes folks, I finally left Pole on 21 November, four weeks after station opening, one of the last 2 winterovers to leave...Before I left, the VIPER telescope, (this year running the ACBAR project) was shut down for the last time. A bit earlier, the 10-year AST/RO project also came to an end...

It was over...the first LC-130 touched down at 1743 Friday 21 October 2005... bringing fresh folks as well as big money to Clayton Cornia who won the "skis down" pool (left, the aircraft approaches the waiting winterovers whose shadows can be seen here). Soon the second flight landed, and after a few folks left, the population was already up to 157. The third flight didn't land, as the temperatures had drifted below the theoretical -58°F limit. The day before we'd been visited by three Twin Otters transiting from Rothera to McMurdo (right, the first aircraft turns off the skiway, while the second is in the distance about to land).

The folks in Denver unleashed the new www.usap.gov Antarctic portal web site...some new looks for old stuff, and new features as well. Have a look.... Most of the Raytheon-related content including employment information is on a separate RPSC site, while the Antarctic Sun is here. The change to usap.gov also affected all of our computers on the ice...more fun for the IT folks.

The September 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics has an excellent article on the new station by the Jeff Rubin, the Antarctic editor of the Polar Times. Oh, Jeff is also the author of the new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Antarctica. I've seen it, and you can too.

The icebergs that pestered McMurdo during the 2004-05 summer season seem to have moved out of the way, but not before B15A brushed a 3x3 square mile chunk off the Drygalski Ice Tongue (watch them!) Still, NSF made provisions for the Russian icebreaker Krasin to show up again in January 2006, this time in a primary role, with the Coast Guard as backup. Related news--in August 2005 a NSF committee released a significant report on Antarctic logistics--in addition to a discussion on icebreaker support, other recommendations include continuing development of the "road to Pole" traverse (which reached Pole this summer), development of a runway for heavy wheeled aircraft at Pole (something that's been studied and tried since the 1950s), and consideration of lighter-than-air craft for cargo delivery. Have a read for yourself (revised version).

As of mid September the construction continued to move along at a great pace--the gym and adjacent rooms were being framed out and sheetrocked, while elsewhere the final wall covering was being put up in the berthing rooms and corridors (left, more of those colored wall tiles in the main B3 hallway just outside the new communications and office area). Outside the approaching sunrise drowned out the stars and brightened up our rooms--as of 7 September we could remove the covering from our windows since the light-sensitive astronomy experiments had been shut down.

We were blessed (?) with a chilly morning on 2 August--it happened to make it down to -110.7°F when I arose and decided to grab this picture (right). Opportunity for a few more folks to join the 300 club. Meanwhile, a Scott tent has been pitched near the Pole for those who desire the ultimate winter camping experience. No thanks...I stuck to looking at photos and guidebooks of New Zealand and Australia like many others are doing.

Late June brought the traditional Midwinters Day celebrations and greetings--here's our w/o photo greeting and celebration announcement...and here's how we partied!

The first week in May 2005 brought the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association (ADFA) reunion in Biloxi, MS. This group consists of folks who came down during IGY, and this reunion marks the 50th anniversary of the original Operation Deep Freeze in 1955. One highlight of these gatherings is a telephone call to South Pole...this was the third such phone call I've been involved with, but this time I was at the Pole end of the line. Above left is a photo of winter manager Bill Henriksen talking to the group on the Iridium phone...and here's more info and pictures.

Oh, the weekend also brought the belated Cinco de Mayo celebration, complete with the first annual "BF5K"--an indoor running event complete with sponsors and appropriate libations for all...and Saturday evening marked the debut of "Al Dente" (concert poster) in the B-1 Lounge.

Okay...was Bill Spindler having too much fun at Pole to keep this page updated? Well...not exactly, but since my job involved taking pictures and writing about them every day, sometimes I, well.... There were other things going on, like slushies, Robert Schwarz's astronomy lectures, the Hash House Harriers (the southernmost drinking club with a running problem), and lots of special dinners for any occasion or none...meanwhile the construction crew made short work of the galley demolition (left), and biomed is gone as well (right).

"Astronomy on Ice" is the reason many researchers visit Pole nowadays, but Martin Pomerantz's new book with that title is the chronicle of his efforts, beginning in McMurdo in 1959 and at Pole in 1964, to establish the place as one of the world's finest astronomy sites. And a cosmic ray observatory. And a CMBR observing post. And a locus for long-term balloon flights.... Here's a 1 March press release about the book, which you can obtain from your favorite bookstore unless you happen to be wintering :( And here are a few more pages of information about Marty...

Okay, speaking of Pole history books, one with a more recent outlook has just been published by 2004 w/o Nick Johnson--with excellent reviews from the likes of the New York Times. Is Antarctica really a big dead place? Make up your own mind...

After some poor weather caused a number of cancelled and boomeranged flights, the final LC-130's showed up on 15 February (left, passengers board the closing passenger flight). Some added fuel flights came later in the day. But the flying season didn't end until Friday 18 February when 4 Twin Otter finally were able to set out for Rothera and the next leg of their trip back to Canada (right, the second of the four aircraft is airborne, while the third is in the fuel pits). Left behind are 86 winterovers in the largest station ever (or at least for now, until the winter demolition of some of the domed station buildings begins). The winter crew includes 24 women and a large construction crew working to finish out the interior of B3 (the admin/comms/control portion of the station, the end closest to the skiway), and berthing wing A4 (behind the computer room).

The 2006 annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting ended on 23 June in Edinburgh, Scotland...and the detailed discussion stuff as now been made public in the "Final Report" section on the meeting home page. Unlike last year there is no dramatic Pole content. Some folks were unhappy that stronger action wasn't taken to limit tourism. But there was discussion about global warming (!) and complaints about the "road to Pole" traverse (Cape Argus news article). Another item discussed was the Hallett Station cleanup...the bulk fuel tank was demo'd, cleaned up and mostly removed in January 2006 (my copy of the report, which includes a map and some Hallett history).

After Adventure Networks' (ANI) sudden departure from the NGA travel business in 2003-04, operations returned to normal in 2004-05. For 2006-07 ANI again offered their full program including those $33,500 flights to Pole, trips to Mt. Vinson, and a variety of other stuff. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) is the arm of the organization operating in PA and on the ice. Meanwhile, Cerpolex/PolarCircle hasn't announced anything new; in fact their old web site that discussed Snow Buggy trips among other things, seems to have faded away.

Meanwhile, the second Ice Marathon and 100k were held on 13-16 December 2006 at PH with sixteen competitors. Weather conditions for the marathon were clear at first with later low cloud cover, light winds and 14°F/-10°C. The marathon winning time was 5:08:17; the 100k--12:55:06. The latter race was won by Richard Donovan. The first of these events was held in January 2006...a successor to the original South Pole Marathon that actually ended up at Pole in January 2002, with controversy. Entry fee for this year's event was $25,000 including transportation to the starting line. There will be another next year.

The Ice Marathon was held at Patriot Hills on 7 January 2006...there were nine marathon participants, with times ranging from 5:09 to 7:10, and race director Richard Donovan did a 100k in 15:43, the first such documented ultra event. Sounds like this turned out much better than the controversial South Pole Marathon of January 2002 (Sports Illustrated coverage and Brent Weigner's diary of the earlier event, which covered the last 26.2 miles to Pole). The 2006-07 event trip is scheduled for 10-18 December (ANI site) so it is not too early to start training.

Another interesting 2005-06 tour option--Travelquest again successfully completed their tour in conjunction with Sky and Telescope magazine. It featured a visit to the Patuxent Range meteorite collection area as well as an overnight stay at Pole.

Postponed! Wave Vidmar

had originally planned to come last year, but that didn't happen. This year the 41-year-old had planned to attempt the first American unsupported solo expedition from the McMurdo side (!). How's he getting to McMurdo and which glacier will he come up? We'll see maybe next year...Wave tried for the North Pole in 2004 but had to quit because of logistics problems.

Postponed! Icebird Expedition

is three Australians, Ben Deacon, Andrew McAuley and Patrick Spiers, they planned to use a newly designed steerable "kitesled" created by NZ designer Peter Lynn to cross the continent to Patriot Hills. The route to Pole was to be "a new route" which the team did not announce until they had full financial backing, which they did not get. They plan to test their sled next boreal spring and head for the Antarctic next season.

Postponed! Gus McLeod

who crossed the Drake twice on the way to Pole before turning around in February 2004, was trying again. He left Montgomery, MD Sunday 16 October in his retooled Firefly aircraft...and had to land 30 miles away with landing gear problems. And in early November he found contamination in the fuel systems...too difficult to clean out and still make it over Pole this summer. He'll think about heading north over the North Pole in the boreal spring and head south later. His single-engine Firefly now has a new turbocharger to give him the lift he needed last time when he hit icing conditions south of Marambio. No coverage of the current venture on his web site; here's a 3 November PRweb press release with more information.

Unsupported to the South Pole 2005

was two separate Norwegian teams of five and six which started from 82°S on opposite sides of the Foundation Ice Stream (60°W), south of the Ronne Ice Shelf. The five-person team was led by Rolf Bae, who visited Pole on the famed 2000-01 Norwegian Antarctic crossing, and included Norwegian Per Henrik Knudson, Austrian Wolfgang Melchor, German Ronald Kruger, and Britisher Cecile Krog. The route was about 140 miles shorter than the one from Hercules Inlet. Both groups arrived at Pole--the 5-man team on 28 December after 33 days, and the other team on the 31st. Rolf's team did a restart after the leader had to be evacuated with serious back injuries after a fall. After being flown out of Pole, several members of the groups headed off to climb Mt, Vinson.

Wang Yongfeng (CRI news article)

led an unofficial Chinese 7-person group that did a "last 120km" trip taking 9 days and arriving on 16 December. Here's an earlier 30 November embassy press release. A second Chinese group of six left on xx and arrived on 28 December (Xinhua press release).

Cancelled! Malaysia's Antarctic Expedition

twice postponed, was to consist of duo M Kamaruddin Md Isa and Encik Suhardi Alias. Their planned venture was to cross the continent from Blue One to Pole via Troll Station, then on to McMurdo, a total of 120 days, starting in November with resupply at Pole. Didn't happen.

Proyecto Cumbre (Summit Project)

was the Venezuelan team of five: Carlos Calderas, Marcus Tobia, Carlos Castillo, Martín Echevarría, and Marco Cayuso that wanted to be the first Venezuelans to ski to Pole, doing so unsupported from Hercules Inlet. The group's original goal was the Seven Summits; they have one more to go after the Pole venture. The team did a "last degree" North Pole trip in 2004 (Spanish language website). They started on 21 November; as of 13 January they were less than 2 degrees from Pole, but Carlos Castillo was evacuated with frostbite, thus ending the "unsupported" status for the remaining members of the team. The rest of the group reached Pole on the 27th.

Ice Challenger

is a 1996 7.3 liter diesel 14-passenger Ford E-series van, heavily modified into a 6x6 with solar panels and a 110-gallon fuel tank. This vehicle was flown to PH aboard a Russian cargo aircraft in November. There the 6-member team loaded up and headed for Pole. They actually arrived at Pole on 13 December after a nonstop 69-hour drive, they then planned a quick return drive. Here's a site with more about the vehicle. Hmmm, last year's Invesco Challenge wasn't able to get their wheeled vehicles much out of PH much less to Pole...but these guys did. No photos on their web site yet (or reports on their return trip), but I've got a couple of Polie photos near the top of this page..

Cancelled! Rob Porcaro

an Australian, originally planned this trip for 2003-04. He said he'd try this year--a solo trek along the traditional route from Hercules Inlet to Pole, and although he did a training trip in 2005 from Borneo to the North Pole, there was no word of his Antarctic venture. The purpose of the trek was, among other things, to raise awareness of depression (!) Rob, a former ad man and marketer, had a unique fundraising plan--he proposed to shoot the first TV commercial here. "Products such as whiskey or cleaning powder could make creative use of the icy location," he said.

A Norwegian kiting team,

Staale Samuelsen and Sverre Hollie 62, did a 19-day kite-assisted trip from Pole to PH, arriving on 18 December. 62-year-old Sverre has an artificial hip.

The Spanish (Tierras Polares) Transantarctic Expedition

is a twice-postponed 3-man Spanish venture led by Ramón Larramendi, this year with Ignacio Oficialdegui, and Juanma Viu, to cross eastern Antarctica using a kite-powered sled. This is their updated link with dispatches (in Spanish)--on 3 November they were landed at the Russian Novolasarevskaja station on the coast of Queen Maud Land, and they planned to start the following week for the Pole of Inaccessibility and the Geomagnetic Pole. The sled is a 17x10-foot catamaran, towed by a triangular "NASA" kite-sail (they have several up to 650 SF!), with a tent platform to allow the group to sleep in shifts en route. Apparently they did well with those high altitude wind conditions that have frustrated other ventures...as of 13 January they were done, having been picked up from the plateau and on an icebreaker offshore of Mirny. They were headed "downhill" toward Mirny, but logistics prevented their completion of the venture on land.

Cancelled! SP1 South Pole Solo

was actually to be 2 separate Australian unassisted solo treks from Hercules Inlet--one by Rob Porcaro (above) and the other by Matt McFadyen. Matt went with Rob to the North Pole in April. Nothing heard since...

Cancelled! Eric Philips

veteran of the original 1988-89 Icetrek expedition, in December 2004 proposed a traverse from Pole across Dome A (Argus) to the Avery Ice Shelf--the first traverse of Australian Antarctic Territory. Nothing else ever was announced...

Postponed! Pole to Pole 2005

is a proposal by Martyn Williams to travel from the South Pole across several continents to the North Pole now planned to begin in December 2006. The Antarctic route is from Pole to the coast north of PH, where the group is to be picked up by boat for a trip to Cape Town. The team is "an international team of young adults" which has not yet been announced.

Børge Ousland

a Norwegian who has ventured to Pole privately twice in the past, was soliciting 4-6 participants for a "last 2 degree" ski trip in November/December. He actually found one taker, Fredrick Syberg, of Norway, and they arrived on 8 December after doing the 200 km in 9 days.

Rune Gjeldnes

a Norwegian, successfully completed the longest trans-Antarctic crossing--2988 miles. On 3 November he was landed at the Russian Novolasarevskaja station on the coast of Queen Maud Land, and he set out on the sixth. He's crossing the continent via Troll and Pole, to Terra Nova Bay--descending the Priestley Glacier. He arrived at Pole early on 21 December and only rested one day before continuing on. He reached Terra Nova on 3 February after a struggle with crevasse fields--he is now the first person to cross both poles unsupported (he did an Arctic crossing in 2000).

Cancelled? Sky Odyssey

is a 2-part Russian venture--the first part was an international youth expedition, flown to KGI by the Chilean Air Force in March, where they participated in games (to promote Moscow's bid for the 2012 Olympics) and communicated with the ISS. The second phase was supposed to be an IL-76 flight from Moscow via Libya and Cape Verde, Chile, to the South Pole, where the participants were to do flights by ultralight and hot-air balloon, skydive, and drive ATV's around the place, test new cosmonaut emergency suits and gear, etc. Note that this may be one of those groups that considers the "South Pole" to be anywhere south of PA, and that I have yet to see an IL-76 aircraft with skis. Hmmmmm...

Numis Polar Challenge

was a 5-man British team led by Antarctic veteran Geoff Somers--they plan a 170-mile walk to Pole along Scott's route. They were flown from PH to the starting point (where the last of Scott's supporting party turned around in 1911)...and the venture was a recreation of Scott's trip--clothing, food, sledge, navigational techniques, etc. (well, they had a GPS for backup). The team arrived at Pole on 14 January after a 17-day trip.

Doug Stoup

had planned a November 2005 ascent of the south face of Mt. Tyree (the second highest Antarctic mountain at 15,918 feet) but that may have been postponed. In February/March he's heading for Bellingshausen on KGI with a robot from Stanford. Hmmm, someday perhaps!?

The 2005 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (28 ATCM, 6-17 June 2005) in Stockholm included further extensive discussions on tourism activity in Antarctica, including possible restrictions on the construction of permanent infrastructure to support land-based tourism, and preparation of site guidelines for visitors to popular spots. Here's the treaty secretariat home page, the final report page, and document page which includes links to other meeting papers. Specific documents that may be of interest to folks here include recognition of Amundsen's buried tent at Pole as a protected Antarctic historic site; the draft environmental evaluation for the new BAS station at Halley; a graphical report on tourism activities prepared by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Commission (ASOC); liability for environmental emergencies; the management plan for Scott's Discovery Hut at McMurdo (the plan, Map A, and Map B); the 2004-05 Chinese Dome A expedition (and medevac to Pole); the Russian recovery of the Antonov-3T aircraft from Pole, and the proposal for Pole to be a "Specially Managed Area" (maps 1, 2, 3 and 4).

The big summer construction milestone on 30 January 2005 was the granting of conditional occupancy of wings B1 and B2 just in time for the winterovers to move into B1, and the met office to become the first occupant of the new science lab B2.

The first IceCube drill hole was successfully completed on 25 January, after the first attempt had to be abandoned after reaching 949m. Additional delays resulted from an unfortunate injury to veteran Swedish driller Sven Lidström, requiring his urgent medevac. The successful hole was moved 8m away from the first attempt. Later in the week, further drilling was suspended for the season, so as to insure enough time for drill camp winterization.

At left, a milestone. On 19 January the last steel was erected on the new elevated station (caption/credits and more photos). And a couple weeks later the design team granted conditional occupancy to B1 and B2 wings...the mattresses and pillows are now in the new berthing rooms, and now that winter has begun, the w/o's are living in them too.

Meanwhile, the iceberg demolition derby continued. Ice around B-15A was breaking up rapidly. As for the ships...on Friday 21 January 2005, Krasin met up with the Polar Star at the ice edge . On the 23rd she was escorting the tanker Paul Buck. On the 23rd there were 4 ships visible from Arrival Heights--these two plus the Polar Star and the Nathaniel B Palmer. The icebreakers enlarged the channel, the NBP was at the pier on the 25th, and the tanker tied up the next day and offloaded, departing Saturday 29 January...only to have engine problems on the way north. The American Tern reached McMurdo on 2 February and began offload the next morning.

Krasin (left, seen parked off McM early on 29 January 2005, I took this photo while waiting for transportation for my flight to Pole) is 442 feet long with a full load displacement of 20,190 (long) tons, slightly larger than the Coast Guard's Healy. It is electrically powered using 9 diesel engines, total rated at 36,000 shp, with 3 screws, a maximum open-water speed of 19.5 knots, and an icebreaking capability of 6 feet. (By comparison, the Polar Star stats: 399 feet long, 13,190 tons, 3 screws, 75,000 shp with gas turbines (18,000 shp with diesel electric power), 18 knots, 21' ice; and the Healy: 420 feet long, 16,000 tons, 30,000 shp, twin screws, 17 knots, 8' ice.) More information and stats on the Krasin are available on the FESCO shipping company web site (Polar Star stats) (Healy stats).

Meanwhile, the Polar Star blasted through about 82 nautical miles of ice to reach Hut Point on 30 December 2004. That work so far was in the old channel--7-8 foot first and second year ice. Mother Nature recently helped with warm temps and a lot of volcanic dust to help absorb solar radiation; more recently the fast ice west of B15A seems to be breaking up, helped by the B-15A's bumping and grinding. A lot of 20+ foot multi-year stuff had to be cleared to provide the full channel for the cargo ships. At left is the track into McMurdo, north of Cape Bird, threading between C-16 and B-15K. And at right is a clip from the 19 January NASA MODIS image (more)--the most extensive site I've found--that clearly shows the ice conditions. The Polar Star was sidelined at the ice wharf in early January with hydraulic oil leaks on the port and starboard shaft hubs. Divers worked to retorque the bolts on all 3 hubs, they finished on the 20th, and the breaker went back at work (at reduced power due to turbine problems). She may yet see some yard time for some more repairs on the screw hubs. By the way, the tourist icebreaker Khlebnikov was sighted hanging around near Cape Royds the first week in January. That's no slouch of an icebreaker either (Khlebnikov stats),  but unfortunately the tourists on that trip couldn't make it in to visit McMurdo or Scott Base. She came down again the last week in January and landing conditions were more successful. NSF is taking a look at utilizing her in future years.

Coincidentally with the Krasin arrangement, a second Russian team went to Pole to recover the Antonov-3T aircraft that was stranded in 2001-02. This is considered by NSF to be an official Russian Antarctic Program activity. An Ilyushin-76 aircraft arrived in Christchurch 21 December 2004 from Darwin with 35 on board, including mechanics, engineers, a film crew, and a replacement engine. The aircraft left for McMurdo at 1000 Monday 27 December, arriving at the Pegasus runway about 1530 (above left). The engineering team continued to Pole on an LC-130. Their ambitious schedule called for a test flight on 4 January, return to McM for disassembly on 5 January, and departure to ChCh with the AN-3T inside the Ilyushin on 6 January. They were ahead of schedule--the replacement engine was been installed, run-up, and given multiple successful test flights beginning on 3 January. But the flight to McMurdo was delayed until 11 January, held up by bad weather there. Finally the AN-3T left Pole around noon on the 11th, arriving at McMurdo at 1910 (left). Meanwhile, the Ilyushin had arrived from Christchurch earlier in the day. The AN-3T was disassembled and put aboard the Ilyushin, which arrived back in Christchurch at 2030 on Wednesday the 12th. Here is complete coverage with photos. Above right is one of Seth White's photos of the AN-3 taken in January 2004 (more photos). The Russians were fortunate...not too long after these photos were taken, the fog rolled in...

And the icebergs,...watch them for yourself...if you can figure out what they're going to do, you have your Wisconsin PhD all sewed up. Here are the links: NASA MODIS;   UW SSEC;   RPSC;   and NOAA National Ice Center. NASA thought B-15A would crunch the Drygalski Ice Tongue by 15 January, but the big crunch didn't happen until April, and that was more of a nuzzle. In late December B-15A suddenly moved much closer to the Drygalski Ice Tongue, 10 miles away. After almost stopping, it moved again to less than 4 miles away, where it stopped again. Here is a 19 January NASA news feature with crystal-clear images and an animated time lapse sequence of the midsummer lurches. Crunch time. Was there any danger to folks? No, according to this 16 December 2004 NSF press release. But it was worried that the ice conditions might wipe out much of the penguin breeding activity on Ross Island.

The berg (left) is 80 miles long by 20 wide--much smaller than it started out when it broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000, but still quite big enough to keep things interesting. Since this web site tries to keep things in a historical perspective, have a look at what happened in December 1965 when iceberg met icebreaker...

At the end of November 2004 the north end of B-15A (or B-15, or, well, the big one) was firmly grounded. Still there was concern expressed by researcher Doug MacAyeal in a detailed interview in the 28 November Antarctic Sun. At that time Doug felt the real problem would not arise until 2005. But that was then. In January B-15A started to move north quickly toward the ice tongue and rotate a bit counterclockwise. Doug's iceberg page includes daily visible and infrared photos with commentary...also Denver posts satellite images daily.

As the weather warmed up, outside work started up in earnest--one of the first projects was a large new radome to cover the SP MARISAT-GOES antenna (right, more photos). Meanwhile, 12 December saw the new Counting House successfully towed from its El Dorm location to the new site amidst the IceCube array. And later in the month the steel for A4 went up.

The last weekend in November 2004 brought two tragically linked anniversaries...the first being the 75th year after Byrd's historic flight over Pole on 28-29 November 1929; the second being the tragic crash of the New Zealand DC-10 into Mt. Erebus on 28 November 1979 (timeline link to photos/information). The latter event was commemorated with a 28 November visit to the crash site by NZ dignitaries, and a 29 November 2004 ceremony at Scott base which included Sir Edmund Hillary. Ed also spoke to a crowd of over 250 folks in Building 155. Earlier that week, Hillary had spoken out against the "road to Pole" traverse calling it "terrible" (BBC news article). The Air Force made the official Byrd commemorative flight to Pole a couple weeks early on the 17th (photo at left from Darryn Schneider); this event was featured in a major NSF news release and special report.

Speaking of the traverse, after negotiating some soft snow and crevasse fields at the south end of the Ross Ice Shelf, they quickly made it to the top of the Leverett Glacier the first week in January. At last report they'd gotten about 200 miles from Pole before turning around and heading back to McMurdo....(map and archived story).

The first two LC-130 flights came in as planned on Friday, 22 October 2004 (at right, the opening flight, photo from Dana Hrubes). This was a day ahead of the original schedule, in -68°F weather. A third flight on Saturday brought the population up to 176! By 3 November 32 flights had been completed--probably a record. Unfortunately the cold weather had restricted cargo to single-pallet loads, which left out all of those IceCube drill camp modules. A total of 326 flights had been planned for the 2004-05 season, and things remained on schedule until early January when bad weather put things way behind. By the way, many of the early summer folks--old w/o's and new arrivals--suffered with severe flu-like illnesses for a bit...

Winter construction finished up ahead of schedule, with B1 (science) and B2 (berthing/emergency facilities) were virtually complete except for some flooring, furniture, and punch list items. The additional berthing (38 rooms in B1) is important as el dorm was gutted and moved for IceCube, and other Dome berthing in the annex and biomed is unavailable this winter. Summer activity also included the first phase of a new cryogenic facility to improve the winter storage of helium, as well as the massive crew and camp for the first phase of IceCube.

Remember all those Florida hurricanes? Pensacola was hard hit, and one of the casualties was Que Sera Sera, that VX-6 aircraft that was the first to land at Pole on 31 October 1956. The R4D, which was parked in back of the Naval Aviation Museum, lost a wing in the storm...Joe Hawkins has the damage documented with NOAA photos. As of July 2006 no repairs had been made. Here's some photos of Que Sera Sera in better days...

In addition to the webcam, the NOAA CMDL group has made significant upgrades to the main web site, including improved science links and some excellent photo galleries from the last few years, including those Jon Berry postcards. And elsewhere, the Canadian online comic strip "userfriendly" ventured to Pole featuring 2004 w/o's Sara Kaye, Henry Malmgren and Ethan Dicks...here's Sara's collection with links to all the strips.

In other national program news, Chile's 12-member Army/Navy/Air Force scientific traverse from PH to Pole (and back) arrived at Pole 1 December. They had been scheduled to depart for the return trip on the weekend. The project has support from 2 Chilean Air Force C-130's as well as ANI; the military set up a temporary support base at PH. Projects include deep ice coring and other climate/global warming studies. Support equipment includes a crane-equipped Swedish Berco TL-6 "snow cat" as well as a Twin Otter (MercoPress news article).

The Chinese national program successfully completed a traverse from their Zhongshan Station on the coast (69°S-76°E, about 60 miles southwest of Davis) to Argus Dome (81°S-77°E, also known as Dome A), which at an altitude of 13,250 feet (4,039m) (altitude according to the Chinese who made the first ascent) is the highest point on the icecap. The team arrived on 18 January (Explorersweb news article and a report by the Chinese delegation at the June 2005 Antarctic Treaty meeting (ATCM); but the trip was not without difficulty. Engineer Gai Junxian suffered chest pains from the extreme altitude (11 January Peoples Daily article), and was medevaced to Pole on 8 January by Twin Otter. Pole physician Christian Otto made the trip to Argus Dome along with South Dakota researcher Jihong Cole-Dai who acted as translator (NSF press release with photos and Chinese report from the ATCM); the patient had to stay a few days at Pole due to bad weather before he could be flown north to McM and Christchurch. The Chinese are considering a permanent station on the site by 2010 (China Daily news article); accordingly a delegation from the Chinese national program visited Pole on 2 February to have a look at the new elevated station. Meanwhile, the traverse returned to Zhongshan Station, arriving on 7 February (Peoples Daily article).

The 2004-05 expedition list...another fairly successful year, but with some surprising postponements and cancellations...

ABANDONED Ice Maidens

is an Australian female team--Sandra Floate, Michele Bloomcamp, and Noelene Weightman, planning an unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet. Like some of the other groups, they were in PA at the end of October, but they had to wait for lost baggage (including their unique kayak-style sleds), so they missed the ALE flight to Patriot Hills on 1 November. They finally started on 20 November, they gave up on the 27th because their bodies didn't adapt well to the cold...

Antarctica Solo Expedition 2004

is Datin Paduka Sharifah Mazlina S. A Kadir, a 38-year-old sports lecturer and the former third member of the now-postponed Malaysian expedition. On 9 December she began her ski-sailing trip from Pole to PH, with ALE's Mike Sharp. They averaged 10 miles/day for the first 5 days, and completed the trip to Hercules Inlet on 31 December SP time.

PARTIALLY ABANDONED "expedition trans-antarctica" (now renamed the Invesco Perpetual Challenge),

a British group, planned a 2-team supported approach--a 4-man ski team started from the Ross Ice Shelf at the base of the Axel Heiberg Glacier--completing the first successful ascent since Amundsen's in 1911. The second team was to have started for Pole from Hercules Inlet driving two 4x4 Land Rovers towing sleds. Unfortunately, this group was unable to configure their wheeled equipment (!) and sleds to keep them from sinking into the soft snow, so after 3 weeks at PH, on 30 November they abandoned their portion of the venture. The ski team continued on to a resupply at Pole, arriving safely on 22 December. They continued to Hercules Inlet, ariving successfully (and quickly) on 11 January. Ski team leader Patrick Woodhead and Canadian Northwinds guide Paul Landry came to Pole as part of the White Desert venture in 2002-03. The team also included Alastair Vere Nicoll and David de Rothschild. The vehicle team spent time near PH testing equipment.

Kites on Ice"

is Paul's wife Matty McNair, two of their children, and British couple Hilary and Conrad Dickinson. On 2 November they underway on a planned 72-day outing, skiing unsupported to Pole and returning with kite assistance. After some food rationing, they arrived at Pole on 24 December. They headed back north the next day, with the kites pulling them an incredible 52 miles on the 25th. They finished the return trip successfully around New Years.

Another Northwinds-guided group was led by Denise Martin,

also part of the ALE team. Denise went to the North Pole in 1997 with Matty McNair and the McVitie's Penguin Polar Relay. The group received one resupply in the Thiel Mountains and a second late in the journey. Her group arrived on the ice 1 November. The four original members were...

...the Scot100 adventure

accountants Craig Mathieson and his colleague Fiona Taylor announced in January that they planned a £1 million charity walk from Hercules Inlet to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of explorer William Spiers Bruce. After a fine start Fiona was forced to quit on 8 November due to "chronic hypothermia." Craig continued south.

...ABANDONED Owen Jones

an investment banker working in Japan, decided to out of the group on 8 December due to serious Achilles' tendon problems.

...and Hannah McKeand,

a British adventurer who was a third of the way through her planned adventure year--Afghanistan, Pole, and a round-the-world sailing race.

There was another 3-person team underway, Northwinds guide Devon McDiarmid with clients Stewart Smith, an attorney (and 7-summiter) from Waco, Texas, and Linda Beilharz, who became the first Australian woman to trek to Pole. But after Devon badly cut his hand on 12 November, he was forced to withdraw...Stewart and Linda joined Denise Martin's group. All reached Pole on 29 December.

 

ABANDONED Ole Martin Martinsen (Norwegian language site)

a 57-year-old Norwegian, departed on a solo unsupported trip from PH, but he also gave up due to Achilles' tendon issues--he was taken back to PH on the same plane as Owen. He'd been planning to go a year earlier, but Borge Ousland and Liv Arnesen suggested he not wait...(another Norwegian news site with more detail)

Anoushka Kachelo

age 23, wanted to be the youngest woman, as well as the first Pakistani, to trek to Pole. Earlier in 2004 she completed a last degree trip to the North Pole. She had planned to travel as part of an ALE-guided trip from Hercules Inlet, but there was no recent word of her venture.

Polar Challenge 2004

is actually a British "last degree" walk sponsored by West Nottinghamshire College. They arrived at Pole on 12 December after meeting up with the northbound Chilean scientific traverse.

Marek Kaminski,

no stranger to Pole, is bringing 15-year-old Jasiek Mela (who lost an arm and a leg in an electric shock) and filmer Wojciech Ostrowski on a "last 100 nm" trip from 88°-20'S. They started on 16 December and finished up around the 28th. Jasiek visited the North Pole earlier in 2004.

Doug Stoup

was to be back on the ice in November, but that apparently didn't happen. In October he was climbing in the Everest region. Hmmm. Someday perhaps!?

POSTPONED Strive South

Briton Caroline Wilton, also 23, had the same "youngest woman" ambition to walk to Pole from Hercules Inlet; she was to go with a guided group.

POSTPONED The Spanish (Tierras Polares) Transantarctic Expedition

led by Ramón Larramendi, with Francisco Soria and Sebastian Alvaro, was another venture postponed from last year, to cross the continent from the former Belgian King Baudouin station site (70°S-24°E) to Dumont D'Urville via the Pole of Inaccessibility, passing perhaps 700 miles east of Pole. They planned to use a unique 17x10-foot catamaran sled, towed by a triangular "NASA" kite-sail (up to 375 SF!), with a tent platform to allow the group to sleep in shifts en route (!). Based on tests on the Greenland plateau, they expected to average 150+ miles per day. Hmmm, the altitude there is over 12,000 feet, oh well.

POSTPONED South Pole Solo

Wave Vidmar, who successfully reached the North Pole unsupported earlier in 2004, was in training to be the first American to solo unsupported from Hercules Inlet to Pole. The 2004-05 trip didn't happen...he plans to try again in 2005-06.

POSTPONED Malaysia's Antarctic Expedition

now consisting of duo M Kamaruddin Md Isa and Encik Suhardi Alias, were to try their postponed venture across the continent from Blue One to Pole via Troll Station, then on to McMurdo, a total of 120 days with resupply at Pole. They were scheduled to fly south to PH and Blue One in mid-November.

POSTPONED Scott's Challenge

was Pete Goss and Alan Chambers, two ex-Royal Marines planned an unsupported round trip from the McMurdo side...this would have been the first venture in a few years to follow the "footsteps." This venture was postponed from last year (BBC article).

Gus McLeod

announced in mid-2004 that he'd try his circumnavigation again in his Firefly aircraft, reworked with a new turbo and auxiliary fuel tanks. This time he's heading across the North Pole first, then down to Australia, from where he'll head east across the Pacific. His Pole flight will be a round trip from Marambio. Mothing new on the web site, who knows if it will happen. Here's the July 2004 news article.

The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM, 23 May-4 June 2004) in Cape Town resulted in plans for stricter rules on private travel, to include insurance and emergency contingency plans; some of the regulations were imposed for the 2004-05. Here's the treaty secretariat home page, and the meeting/final report page, which includes links to the meeting papers including tourism measures among the other meeting decisions. Also note this news story from South Africa.

After Adventure Networks' (ANI) sudden departure from the NGA travel business in 2003, things settled back in under the new ownership structure, and for 2004-05 ANI was again offering their full program including those $33,000 flights to Pole, trips to Mt. Vinson, and a variety of other stuff. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) is the arm of the organization operating in PA and on the ice. Meanwhile, Cerpolex/PolarCircle didn't announce anything new about the previously proposed recovery of the Antonov-3 aircraft (which they were not involved with), but they did announce a slate of offered ventures that didn't happen, including a 3-day drive to Pole in some updated 8x8 Snow Buggies.

One interesting specialty tour for 2004-05 was being offered by Travelquest featuring a visit to the Patuxent Range meteorite collection area as well as Pole. Didn't see them either...

The Norwegians are upgrading Troll Station for year-round operations, with a winter crew of 7, beginning in 2005 after a February dedication visit by Queen Sonja. There are future plans for a 10,000-foot blue ice runway.

2004-05 was the last season that C-141 aircraft were used for ChC-McM flights (USAF press release). Meanwhile, winfly (C-17 flights) happened successfully beginning on 20 August 2004--here are some pictures. Meanwhile, the late August 2004 weekends at Pole brought the art show, another band performance, twilight, lousy weather (but no records), some clowning   around, and running out of helium...

Tim Coffey, age 45, died on 28 July 2004 after a 70' fall from a radar tower he was working on near Nain, Labrador (on the north coast). Tim was the 1996 site manager; more recently he returned for work on the SPRESO project. He's also been to Summit. Here's his obituary from the Concord, NH Monitor newspaper.

The cyberterrorism redux continues. A bit more commentary published on the Register on 19 August 2004...seems that the DASI servers got broken into two months before the much publicized May 2003 Romanian exploit. And the folks at Slashdot had fun with it. This all started with politics...the U. S. Justice Department issued a report revealing new details, outlined in a 14 July Newsweek online article. Hmmm. This web site will stay out of the political debate, but I wonder how much money those Romanians could have gotten for all that AMANDA data. Oh yes, the original FBI report and the news article by thepoles.com are still around.

 July 2004 was the coldest one on record--the average was -88.4°F/-66.9°C, beating the old record by more than half a degree F. This was the second coldest month ever, dipping below -100°F nine times (and the barometric pressure almost set a new record low as well). The coldest was -107.9°F/-77.7°C on the 21st (right). This provided ample opportunity for the 300 club, which had about 35 partakers (thanks to Kris and Dana for the data).

Jerry Marty was interviewed by Jeff Rubin for an article appearing in the June 2004 Polar Times. Jerry reaffirmed that the construction project remained on schedule and successful, including a head start on the last 2 wings. And additional funding and design tweaking means that the completed station will have not 110, not 150, but 154 beds! 2004-05 will see erection completion and enclosure of A4 and B4, and 2005 will probably be the last winter that people live in the dome. What of the dome? Representatives of the dome vendor and the Seabees will visit next season to evaluate the return of at least part of the dome for the Seabee museum. By the way, in addition to being the Antarctic editor of the Polar Times, Jeff Rubin is also the author of that Lonely Planet guidebook to Antarctica...

 Midwinters Day 2004 brought the traditional greeting and a group photo in the old station. Old station? Well, plans are still being discussed to bring a piece of the dome back, with perhaps even an ATCO building or two that we can use for reunion photos. Hmmm. Glen K has collected this page of invitations and greetings from around the continent. And the Antarctic Sun published its first midwinter edition which just so happens to feature our holiday message from 1977...

NSF has significantly enhanced and updated its home page and web site...for example, they've made a good collection of multimedia available on one page (but some of the items that were here earlier can no longer be found). The list includes content from all divisions of NSF; one item still here is this video on Antarctic logistics which includes mid-90s seismo vault footage and a balloon launch from the old BIT...

Things remained quiet and smooth before midwinters day...construction was smoothly on schedule, the temperature dipped below that magic -73.3°C for the first time...and Ronald Reagan's death in California brings a commemoration. Meanwhile, the food growth chamber (greenhouse) is starting to be green. Here's hoping, since it is one of the more visible bits of station construction, close to the store.

On 16 May 2004, McMurdo was hit with the worst storm in perhaps 30 years. One example of the damage at the Chalet is seen at right. Since folks keep sending pictures and information I haven't seen elsewhere, I've added 2 pages of pictures and coverage.

Scientists from a Hamilton College-led team announced the discovery of a new undersea volcano just east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here's more information and links.

In early April 2004 there was a fast McMurdo medevac with multiple medical cases. This time the aircraft of choice was a USAF C-141 out of March Air Reserve Base. It arrived in Christchurch Friday 10 April in the morning (local time) and made the round trip to the Pegasus ice runway on Saturday. Weather conditions there were clear with a temperature of -13°F. The aircraft returned to ChCh at 1930 with 3 medical cases on board. The RNZAF had a C-130 on standby for backup. The three patients were given oxygen and IV's during the flight, and are now being treated in Christchurch hospitals, while the aircraft has returned to California. The most serious ailment involves stomach problems. Not many more details which is the norm of late, but it is interesting to note that two replacement w/o's went south on the aircraft. Here is the 8 April NSF press release. A 10 April 2004 article from the Age (Melbourne) has additional detail.

Why the medevac subject was brought up here...the Navy (which contracts for aviation technical services) has been soliciting proposals for new runway lights for such an eventuality at Pole. They must be quickly deployable and provide standard VFR conditions for a Twin Otter at -100°F. Hmmm, whatever happened to all those Coleman lanterns? And back in Greeley, Colorado, the British balloonist David Hempleman-Adams (who has previously walked to Pole) bagged the open balloon high altitude record at 42,000 feet on 23 March. Afterwards, after dealing with the FAA--seems he may not have had a proper US pilot license or flight plan, he said he was considering a flight over Antarctica (David then went out for beer, and the FAA later declined to press charges or penalties).

Pole is turning into a cultural center! The 2003 winter brought a major art show and Oktoberfest (check out Robert Schwarz's photo gallery!) and the 2003-04 summer saw the first annual film festival, with some serious works. Turns out that Tyler Regan's short "Surf's Up" got shown at the Arts Centre in ChCh. What's next, the opera? Tyler and Brad Halter, thanks for the poster!

The station closed on 15 February 2004 as planned. There had been 332 flights scheduled...and after the last flight departed there had been a record 329--essentially a successful flight season for a change, and a record (3 more flights than the previous record). Unlike 2003, the ship offload was timely, so fresh supplies (and beer) got delivered. The summer population averaged around 240. Now there are 75 w/o's...yet another record.

The bigdeadplace site has a detailed interview, by an unnamed Polie, with Jon Johanson, the Australian pilot who overflew Pole in December. Here are my details and pictures of his venture.

Ruth Siple, wife of the late Paul Siple (veteran of two Byrd expeditions and the first Pole SSL) died on 23 January in Virginia. Ruth was the long-time writer and editor of the Antarctican Society newsletters (more information and photo).

And Virginia Fiennes, wife of Ranulph who led the 1981 Transglobe Expedition visit to Pole, died in England. Virginia wintered with the team close to the coast near Sanae; she ran comms for the 3-man team that crossed the continent. In November 2003 Ranulph ran 7 marathons in 7 days on, er, 6+ continents (the scheduled Antarctic run was relocated to the Falklands due to bad weather). She was diagnosed with cancer the day after Ran returned from the marathon venture.

The strange aviation events didn't end for a few days after closing. Gus McLeod flew south again, landing at Marambio Sunday 15 February SP time. He then took off for Pole but turned around and landed after weight and icing problems. After waiting a few more days, he returned north on 19 February. Gus's web site now has the details and info on his flights north. On his first trip south he left Ushuaia on 7 February SP time for a round trip overflight of Pole. After some strong winds and icing problems he landed at Rothera...and then went back north. After trying unsuccessfully to go back to his original plan--a crossing of the continent with refueling stops at Marambio and McMurdo, he tried to do the round trip overflight of Pole, with a possible refueling stop at Marambio and return to Ushuaia. He had deleted formerly planned stops at Diego Garcia and Thule, which, like McMurdo, I can attest are hard to get landing permission for. Here's a CNN article about his start. Polly Vacher stated she wouldn't sell him fuel unless he had official landing rights at McMurdo. Gus first headed south from College Park, MD in December 2003. After engine repairs in Florida and more problems in Latin America, he continued south to Ushuaia. He, like Jon Johanson, has a kit-built aircraft, a modified Velocity with a canard wing design and a single push-prop.

Pole construction continued hot and heavy and on schedule to the end of the season. Wing B1, one of the back wings on the second pod, was topped out on 20 January (photo at left). This will house more berthing and the emergency power plant. And wing B3, the last wing in the main east-west "leading edge" was topped out in December. This will house admin, comms, and some science, as well as the main entrance since it is close to the taxiway. B1, B2, and B3 are scheduled for completion next summer. A design team was on site at the end of January to inspect A3, the new medical and computer facility, (which was officially open for occupancy on 29 January) as well as A1 and A2 which were occupied last March. Also this summer the freshie shack and weight room in the dome were demo'd...next summer the old biomed building in the arch will go away. Here's the schedule map and lots of construction photos. Science-related work included the relocation of the AASTO module and telescope mount from the dark sector to the clean air sector near ARO for a new project to search for extrasolar planet. Oh yes, the webcam got moved too and is back online. Planning and cargo shipments for ICECUBE, the "super-AMANDA" happened. And another neat science project was Tumbleweed, that set loose a 2m "beach ball" with prototype instrumentation inside; it was propelled by the wind for 40 miles (project web site and NSF press release). And someone stole the 2003 Pole marker...

The "Polar First" helicopter that visited Pole on Wednesday 12/17/03 (Pole photos and more info here) crashed 120 miles north of PH at 1400 Pole time (0100Z) Saturday 20 December. Both crew members were injured, they were flown back to PH by ALE and were flown on to Punta Arenas later the same day, where they are now recuperating. Here's their current web site. June 2004 update...Jennifer and Colin flew to the RAF base in Kinloss, Scotland to meet the rescue coordinators Antarctic Connection story).

Other Antarctic transportation news from December: One Korean was killed when Zodiacs capsized in bad weather on Sunday 7 December 2003. The first boat with three men capsized while returning to base (King Sejong station near the south east end of King George Island) after seeing colleagues off at the Marsh runway. The three made it to a nearby island in their own vessel and were rescued by a Chilean helicopter. But a second boatload of 5 rescuers also overturned, and one of them died. The other four swam to shore and made it to a temporary shelter hut, where they were rescued by a Russian patrol. Here's a Korean English language news article. At Rothera, Polly Vacher, departed for Marambio on the 19th and flew on to Ushuaia the next day. She had to turn her Piper Dakota around earlier this month due to excessive headwinds on the way to McMurdo. She cancelled her transpolar flight and continued to NZ via the US. She arrived in Auckland around 30 January 2004. She let Jon Johanson use some of her fuel cached at Scott Base.

The LC-130 that collapsed a nose ski on 5 December 2003 while taking off from a Ford Range (77°14'S. 142°24'W) field site was repaired and flown back to town on 12/14. They had just left a fuel cache for a climatology field party. The aircraft in Christchurch from which repair parts have been borrowed has also been repaired. And a helo suffered a "hard landing" near the Beardmore. NSF press release.

The 2003 USAP traverses: the science traverse that left Pole Thanksgiving weekend made it to AGO4 and Taylor Valley as planned. This was a continuation of the multiyear ITASE traverse which started at Byrd in November 1999.

Meanwhile, the Pole "proof of concept" venture ran into heavy soft snow and very slow going. They turned around on 16 January, 430 miles from the starting point, short of the planned destination at the Leverett Glacier. They made it back to McMurdo on 24 January.

The trekkers...first Ilyushin flight to PH took some of them in on 11/30...the first tourist flight showed up at Pole dropping off some trekkers heading north. Adventure Networks (ANI)'s Antarctic operations have been sold to the new PH operator. What did this mean for the tourists, trekkers, and charity events that showed up at Pole? Actually, things worked well. Here's my coverage.

October 2003 opening flights were almost on schedule...the first two LC-130's showed up on the afternoon of Saturday 10/25, after a day's weather delay. Meanwhile, 4 Twin Otters had arrived the previous day on their way to McMurdo for summer support of field camps. This year a total of seven Twin Otters transited Pole on their way to support USAP field projects as well as Italian/French operations at Concordia (Dome C). And there were 332 LC-130 flights scheduled for Pole--329 actually made it!

Expeditions for 2003-04...it actually turned out to be a fairly successful year for NGA's and tourists, although some treks were announced with fanfare but didn't happen. ANI (Adventure Networks International) announced on July 24 that they were canceling all Antarctic operations for the 2003-04 season. This was from the departing former owner and operator Anne Kershaw, who has since dropped out of sight. This disrupted plans of this year's tourists and adventurers.

After the demise of ANI's operations, two organizations stepped into the breach, struggling to line up aircraft, environmental permits, employees, and customers. Antarctica Logistics and Expeditions LTD comprised of many ANI veterans (August 15 press release, a MS Word document), and Cerpolex (Polar Circle). Cerpolex has previously supported nongovernmental and program activity including activities at Borneo (the floating camp near the North Pole) and the original abortive 2002 Antonov-3 flight to Pole (the 2002 Antonov-3 story from Scott Smith). In September 2003, Cerpolex announced that they had been tasked by the Russians to recover that aircraft in 2003-04, along with support of skiing and climbing expeditions. They were to use an updated model of the Snow Buggies. In mid-October Cerpolex announced they were pulling out of the business for this season, so the aircraft will spend another season on the berm where it has been since January 2002. Here are details of their 2004-05 plans including tourist support, the aircraft recovery, and more info on the Snow Buggies.

AL&E, meanwhile had a busy schedule of climbers and skiers. On 13 November 2003 they announced the purchase of the Antarctic support assets, equipment, and logistics operations of ANI from Grand Expeditions (press release). AL&E opened Patriot Hills with two Twin Otters in mid November, but their first Ilyushin-76 flight to PH wasn't scheduled until November 25, (and didn't make it until the 30th). This was later than some of the trekkers had originally planned start their journeys. AL&E has retained the ANI name and web site, which has been freshly updated with the 2004-05 program as well as a roster of all customers they've ever taken to Pole or the Vinson Massif.

Gus Mcleod

another private pilot with a small single-engined experimental aircraft, set out from Baltimore in January 2004 with plans to fly across Antarctica over the pole to McMurdo and on to NZ. Since he couldn't get landing rights at McM, he later revised his plans to head back to Ushuaia. He headed south across the Drake Lake twice, once ending up at Rothera and once at Marambio, but icing problems and weather made him give up.

Jon Johanson

landed his RV-4 on the McM ice runway on 8 December. Outa gas. Oops. Outa there a week later.

Malaysia's Antarctic Expedition

was a 3-man team planning to cross the continent from Blue One blue ice runway (5°E 70°S) to Scott Base with resupply at Pole. To be on schedule they should have started in mid-October...they've postponed until next year.

pole2pole

is Michael McGrath's quest to be the first disabled person to reach both Poles. He got to PH 9 January, was flown to within 3 miles of Pole on the 13th, and was pulled on a sledge in a wheelchair until he walked the last 1000' to the Pole on the 14th (he made it to the North Pole in similar fashion in 2002).

Doug Stoup

had scheduled a climbing/eclipse expedition to Queen Maud Land, but he is still planning a bike ride to Pole someday. He tested his equipment during 2002-03 near Patriot Hills. He missed the eclipse. They made it to Novolazarevskaya from South Africa, repaired a Stanford weather station, did some climbing, and headed back from the ice at the end of January.

Polar First

British pilot Jennifer Murray and copilot Colin Bodill were underway south from New York flying a Bell 407 helicopter around the world via both poles to benefit the World Wildlife Federation. They made it to Pole on 17 December but crashed 3 days later north of Patriot Hills Both Jennifer and Colin were injured and were medevaced by AL&E to Punta Arenas, where they are recovering. Here's my page with more information and photos.

Matty McNair

that experienced female polar guide, is leading 4 male AL&E clients to Pole...this group picked up a resupply at the Thiel Mountains and arrived at Pole on 21 January.

Snickers South Pole Solo Challenge

is British woman Rosie Stancer who planned a solo 700-mile unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet with an Ipod full of music and (presumably) lots of candy bars for energy. She made it to the ice on 30 November to Pole on 14 January (SP time) in 44 days, the second fastest trip.

Fiona Thornewill

did the same trip unsupported, but not without controversy. She set a record of 42 days for the trek from Hercules Inlet, and was without satphone comms for most of the trip. She made it to the Hercules Inlet starting point on 11/30. Both Fiona and Rosie were involved in previous treks to both poles...her husband Mike, who accompanied her to Pole in 1299-2000, will led a group of novices on the uncompleted portion of Shackleton's 1907 route. They arrived at Pole on 27 January to meet Fiona, who'd been camped out since her arrival.

Pen Hadow

Arctic veteran and organizer of several female polar treks...he and Simon Murray did an unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet, arriving on 29 January Pole time. That makes Simon Murray the oldest person to make the trek. Their web site has updated details and a diary...

Polly Vacher

is on a round-the-world flight in a single-engined Piper Dakota aircraft, via (or at least flying over) Pole. This is a going event...after a month-long wait in Ushuaia, she flew to Rothera on 12/1. She started her 16-hour flight to McMurdo on 12/5 but had to turn back because of strong headwinds. Now because of the fuel shortage she's cancelled the rest of her Antarctic leg. Last summer the Russian tourist icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov depoted fuel for her at Rothera and Scott Base.

Rob Porcaro

an Australian, announced a solo trek along the traditional route from Berkner Island to Pole. The purpose of the trek is, among other things, to raise awareness of depression (!) He didn't go, now he proposes doing it in 2005-06.

Over Both Poles

was to be a planned commercial aircraft (747-451) flight by Concorde Spirit Tours, around the world over both poles. Hmmm, looks like they're still thinking about it. This would have been only the fourth commercial flight over Pole, the last went overhead while I was there in October 1977. Book now (!?)

South Pole Marathon

sponsored by ANI, is now scheduled to be repeated in December 2004 . The first one was in January 2002, with 5 full, half, and ultramarathon participants. Here's a diary and the 70South page on the first event, with some interesting links. ANI's web page has been updated to reflect their other 2004-05 travel options.

Ice maidens

is a group of 3 Australian women planning an unsupported trip from PH to Pole...here is their web site with recent info. Their trip has been postponed until 2004-05.

Scott's Challenge

is Pete Goss and Alan Chambers, two ex-Royal Marines who plan an unsupported round trip from the McMurdo side...this would be the first venture in a few years to follow the "footsteps"...they trained in Greenland but they didn't raise enough funds so their trip is off at least for this year.

The big iceberg B-15 north of Ross Island has broken in two...but as of midwinter the pieces just seem to be sitting there. Have a look for yourself from the best source--the Raytheon directory of iceberg satellite images which is updated at least once a week. Other news and details are available from the NOAA ice center press release and the AMRC site at U. Wisconsin.

The medevac was successful...after leaving Pole Sunday 9/21, 51-year-old Barry McCue, came forward to tell his story after successful gall bladder surgery 9/25. The full story is here, with pictures.

The first 2003 McMurdo winfly flight for 2003-04 was delayed for one day by bad weather at McMurdo but finally took place on Thursday 8/21 when the C17 Globemaster piloted by Lieutenant Paul Groven of the 62nd Airlift Wing transported 137 passengers and 33,000 lbs of cargo to McMurdo and safely returned. Two C-17's and four C-141's participated. Main body flights followed on 9/30.

The 2003 ozone hole was one of the biggest ever (9/12 ABC News article). Here are the 2003 and historical NOAA reports on ozone or lack of it, thanks to folks like Andy Clarke and Loreen Lock.

The winter was a quiet one--perhaps too quiet, as a series of hack attacks silenced internet communications for a bit. As a result the official Pole web site may remain unavailable. Meanwhile, the residents of the elevated station continued to deal with new-home quirks and glitches such as freezer problems (the wine in the freshie shack froze and the food in the new galley freezer won't).

Midwinters Day 2003 was a success as it must be. Fortunately this one fell over a weekend, allowing for the max in festivities. These included mini-soccer, a luau, radio darts with other stations, and a Hash House Harriers run in, around, and under the station. Of course there were midwinters greetings shared around the continent, here is the one from Pole, with thanks to Joy Culbertson and Karina Leppik!

Ulp...2002 was another year of significant medical news. At least this time it wasn't life threatening...but on 7/5/02 Dr. Tim Pollard performed surgery to repair meteorologist Dar Gibson's knee tendon. The event featured the latest version of "telemedicine" or assistance from up north via radio, phone and satellite. Here is NSF's press release with Jon Berry's photos, and here is the geek version from IT guy Henry Malmgren as seen on Slashdot!

The station closed on schedule on 15 February 2003...at 1427 local time the last flight left, leaving behind 58 folks to face the winter in an utterly new environment. There were 293 flights out of an originally scheduled 350 (later revised to a planned 323). The construction efforts focused on the punchlist for the first phase of the elevated station. The summer plan was to achieve conditional occupancy of A1 and A2, but fire system problems uncovered just before station closing caused a "slight" delay (including lots of hard work, plus the callback of the fire system reps who were awaiting a McM-ChC flight). Fortunately, the problem was resolved, and the next event occurred on 4 March as official occupancy was declared. The first night in the new station rooms, scheduled to be occupied by about 40 of the wo's, was 5 March. About the same time, the galley equipment and supplies were moved/unpacked/cleaned and readied for the first meal upstairs. Cookie Jon presided over the "Last Supper" in the galley in the dome on 6 March... After breakfast and lunch the in the old galley the next day, the first meal (sandwiches) happened in the new galley (right). Work continued, the "official" first meal in the new galley, beef Wellington, was served up on 15 March. What of the old galley? For the short term, the dome bar is still open...and some of the gym equipment from summer camp has been moved into the old galley. Sooner or later the structure will be demo'd, that is part of the tight construction and shipping schedule. Meanwhile the structural for the first level of B3, the next pod, has been erected. The plans were to complete erection and enclosure, but some of the steel was damaged and has to be replaced. So it will be enclosed until next season, meanwhile foundation work on B1 was done instead (left, these 2 photos from Jerry Marty). The last issue of the Antarctic Sun for the season contained a major feature article on the new station.

From McMurdo...despite the presence of 2 icebreakers, the tanker MV Richard G Matthiesen wasn't able to reach the wharf; instead offloaded via hoses strung across the ice (NSF press release)...something that has been required more than once in the past. This evolution delayed the closing flights from McMurdo (originally scheduled for 2/22) until 10 March, when the last 50 folks left McMurdo via a RNZAF C-130 aircraft. Meanwhile, the American Tern cargo ship arrived with difficulty about midnight 2/9, and departed with much more difficulty with help from the crippled Polar Sea on 2/17. NSF called in a second icebreaker (the Healy, which arrived 2/7) (NSF press release) after the Polar Sea broke one of its three screws in late January. And near Lake Fryxell in the Dry Valleys, one of the PHI Bell 212 helos crashed (NSF press release) with the two occupants injured. They were medevaced to ChCh in stable condition.

The Russians are coming!! Somewhere, but not Pole. Despite this December 2002 Pravda article, the expeditioners from Russia (the International Mountaineering Club) planned multiple climbs in Dronning Maud Land. They brought two "snow bugs" (those 6-wheel vehicles that came to Pole a couple years ago) but apparently no balloons or parachutes. While the climbers did do their thing, both of the snow bugs broke down requiring an air evacuation by the Russians at Novolazarevskaya. Meanwhile, that Russian Antonov-3 aircraft that showed up last year will not be recovered for now....

The ITASE traverse arrived and completed all of their objectives, despite having to return to Byrd for wider tracks on one of their tractors and a better fuel sled borrowed from the Kiwis. They even did a mini-traverse towards the Pole of Inaccessability before parking their equipment on the berm for a future continuation in 2 years.

Earlier in the summer the jacking operations were completed. The new station got a lift, as it were. Last year it became quite obvious that there was major and unplanned differential settlement between the elevated structure and the beer can (and other buried parts of the station). The station design includes provisions for jacking up the columns to level the structure as well as to raise it above drifts--it just hadn't been planned for this early in the life of the place. . At left you see the columns exposed to facilitate the jacking operations (caption/credit). About half of the columns were jacked, and future plans and budgets have been adjusted to provide for some leveling every year. More details are in this 8 December Antarctic Sun article. Meanwhile, borings were taken and extensive measurements made...in the future additional spread footings will be installed under the columns starting with new pod B3. At right is a view of the B2 foundation installed last season (credit).

Science construction included more work on the SPRESO seismo vault which was started last season; this is 5 miles south of the dome near the old Pomerantz Land site. It is now taking data. And a new 5-mile antenna for the Stanford VLF project has been erected.

The MARISAT antenna platform got a major upgrade to support comms through the GOES satellite. It may get get a radome next season to reduce ice buildup (left) (January 2002 NSF photo by Nicolas Powell), seems that icing has degraded its performance. Other science projects included a new VLF antenna for Stanford to transmit towards Palmer, and the start of a new solar observatory.

Flying kites!!! Teacher Eric Muhs spent early December at Pole working with the AMANDA and SPASE projects. This is part of the Rice "Teachers Experiencing Antarctica" project. He updated a diary daily on their site, as well as posting lots of panoramas and multimedia stuff around the station. He flew kites with w/o's Robert Swartz and Steffen Richter around the station, and sent live presentations back to his classrooms. Check it all out starting with his TEA (Rice University/Armada) page.

1977 and frequent Polie Brad Halter spent the first part of the summer at Pole, and finished the season at Dome C (Concordia, the joint French and Italian station in Antarctica) making validation measurements for the NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the Aqua satellite. Dome C is a happening place, this past year major construction continued on the future year-round station, and the Australians got their AASTINO research module up and running.

Originally the first 3 flights of the 2002-03 season were scheduled for 10/23, but after several false starts due to weather, and an emergency landing, the first two flights didn't arrive until Saturday 10/26. There were three medevacs on the opening flights. One of them was RPSC science tech Deborah (DJ) Williams, who twisted her knee on some loose ice back in March. The injury has gotten worse, recently she's been having traction treatments as well as consultations (via all the state-of-the-art medical/teleconferencing equipment now on station) with doctors at Duke University.

The Ultimate Walk to Cure Diabetes

arrived at Pole on the morning of 18 January. The trip from Patriot Hills to Pole was led by Will Cross, a Type 1 diabetic from the Pittsburgh, PA area. Will's father Mike from England, also diabetic, joined the trek after a resupply point near 89°S. The two men were each accompanied by a doctor who studied the diabetic participants. Some of whom participated in a "last degree" expedition to the North Pole in 2001. The trip goal was to raise funds for juvenile diabetes research.

Brian Cunningham and Jamie Young

Called off! They brought kite-propelled "ski buggies" from the UK to travel downhill from Pole to PH. The lightweight vehicles were to make the trip in "less than two weeks." They flew to Pole from PH on 30 December (Pole time) and set out the same day. However, they got becalmed and camped 2 miles away from Pole...and on 3 January, based on extended weather forecasts for light winds, they gave up. Their web site has a good post-mortem.

and then there was to be the second ANI South Pole marathon

scheduled for 18 December 2002 but cancelled. Maybe next year. However, there was the second marathon at the NORTH Pole on 17 April 2003.

The 2002 South Pole Expedition

is one of the the ANI commercially guided trips from Hercules Inlet. This year there are two teams, "Ski South Pole 1" is 6 people: Spaniards Guillermo Banales and Angel Navas, and Britons Graham Stonehouse and Andrew Cooney, accompanied by Devon McDiamid, ANI assistant guide, and guide Matty McNair (Paul Landry's wife). Andrew is 23, he beame the youngest traverser to Pole when they arrived on 3 January, beating out the 27-year-olds who arrived the week before..

British Centernary Expedition

(or "White Desert" denoting the planned book about this trip) is "Ski South Pole 2" This 4-man group features South African Andrew Gerber; and 27-year-old Patrick Woodhead and Tom Avery, who were attempting to be the youngest Britons to reach Pole. This group is being guided by the Canadian guide Paul Landry. The group reached Pole on 28 December. Archived reports on their web site indicated they had been running low on whiskey and needed resupply...

Climate change on the Peninsula...the first week in April 2002 saw a major NSF-sponsored conference on this topic at Hamilton College in upstate New York. The meeting was planned many months before the recent iceberg incidents including the recent collapse of the Larsen B on the east side of the Peninsula. Here is the NSF press release. The workshop web site features abstracts from the presentations as well as streaming audio archives of the keynote speeches. And the expedition web site includes journal entries from their 2001-02 expedition as well as later trips.

The last flights of the 2001-02 season happened on 15 and 16 February...taking the remaining summer folks out and bringing in...steel beams for next summer (while leaving the mail and beer behind). The station summer season wound down after successful "topping out" and exterior closure of the next two sections of the new elevated station, A3 and B2, which will house science and medical facilities. Flight and cargo delays, as well as differential settlement problems, prevented the planned completion and winter occupancy of the new berthing and galley facilities which were first enclosed a year ago, so the winter population is 51, with some folks living in the suburbs of summer camp. What's happening right now?? The NOAA CMDL webcam gives excellent views of the new station, but you can't see much after dark. Here is the AASTO webcam. And for someplace a bit more brightly lit, try this interactive real-time webcam at McMurdo.

The South Pole Marathon, sponsored by ANI, finally happened on 21 January after weather and scheduling delays, with 5 runners completing half, full, or ultramarathon courses. It was won by Richard Donovan from Ireland, but second place finisher Dean Karnazes of San Francisco is complaining. He gave up his snowshoes and did the race in running shoes. Now the FBI and the State Department are involved. Richard hasn't gotten the promised prize money, and Dean is threatening a lawsuit. The details from Sports Illustrated. The 70South News has Richard's personal account of the race and the aftermath. This was only the beginning...on 5 April Richard ran a marathon at the North Pole...all alone, in two segments, in atrocious conditions...-76°F wind chill and 40 mph winds. A new one for the record books, 2 first Polar marathons in 3 months. More details on Richard's efforts to do ultramarathons on all continents this year are on his web site. But Richard was NOT the first person to finish a marathon at Pole. Station doctor Chuck Huss did the 26.2 miles on Boston Marathon day, 20 April 1981...more info and training photo here.

On 8 January a small Russian AN-3 single-engined biplane arrived crammed with 14 folks including the vice-president of the Russian Duma (state parliament). Because he and other DV's were aboard, NSF granted them official status...and fuel...and later, bed space in the library and gym after their aircraft refused to start. Eventually after 2 days the DVs were flown out to McM/NZ on an LC-130, while the tourists with lesser status were picked up and taken to Patriot Hills by ANI. The aircraft was towed away to be parked for the winter, perhaps to be repaired next season. Scott Smith has photos and the story on Steven McLachlan's site.

Meanwhile the construction work paused briefly during the week of 6 January to allow the installation of the official Time Capsule in one of the foundation beams. I have the exclusive story and photos from Katy Jensen. The event was witnessed by a DV group of congressional staffers, who also got to stay overnight because of bad weather (fortunately some new and comfy library couches had just been received). However, it seems that some of the time capsule contents were delayed in the mail...the capsule was quietly opened a week later to add some stuff sent from Washington, then the grade beam was welded up on 11 January. Meanwhile there was a fire, hoped by all to be the only "real" one of the season. A welder's sparks ignited some wood in the carpenter shop, resulting in 8' flames, fortunately put out with a dry chemical extinguisher. A good test of the fire teams. Oh yes, the temperature actually got up to +5°F, only 1 degree short of the 1978 record.

Antarctic guide Doug Stoup returned to Pole in December, where he discussed last season's discovery of a 1937 Hershey "Ration Bar" with Katy Jensen. Did he really find it at Pole as was so widely reported by the media? Exclusive story here!

I was interviewed by Kristan Hutchison of the Antarctic Sun for a special feature which appeared in the 25 November 2001 issue, on the past and future of the Dome. Therefore I've further updated the pages on building the dome. It's been known for awhile that the Dome will not be part of the new station. It must be removed from the continent in accordance with the Madrid Protocol. The exact method of removal was announced in December 2000--Chain Saws! Past efforts to save it and rebuild it in the US did not elicit the funding required for a more delicate demolition. Anyway, here is that excellent savethedome.com web site by 2001 w/o Jeff Kietzmann...a whimsical look at the past and future of this landmark structure. More recently, here is a commentary from the Antarctican news site.

"Frozen Under:" National Geographic has major coverage on the Antarctic in the December 2001 issue. In addition to this feature on life in Antarctica (this site includes a few more of those 360° panoramas from Pole and elswhere) there is a second article covering the visit to the Ross Sea icebergs in 2000-01. For the full story and pictures you'll need to consult the hard copy, if it never made it to your mailbox, check it out in at the library, well worth it!

NSF's construction plans for the 2001-02 season included construction of the new seismic facility (SPRESO) 5 miles from the dome...the next stage in quiet seismo vaults....close to the old Pomerantz Land site. Here's the NSF press release on the 2001-02 science, and the USA Today version.

Wearables Expedition

Thomas and Tina Sjorgen, who aborted last year's trip 160 miles short of Pole, tried again with another generation of "wearable" electronic devices. This is their updated web site with video from 2000-01 as well. On 29 November 2001 they flew to PH and the coast, 4 weeks behind schedule. After slow travel most of their electronics froze up, and they suffered from the cold temps of late summer before arriving at Pole on 1 February 2002.

Doug Stoup

who made a successful ski trip last year as part of blind Miles Barber's trek, planned a solo bike ride on a specially made fat-tire titanium bicycle. This may happen some day, but in 2001-02 Doug led the ANI "last degree" trek to Pole, which arrived on Christmas, and more recently managed the ANI South Pole marathon. He's done a bunch of other extreme stuff in Antarctica recently including a climbing expedition on the Peninsula last summer, and an October/November 2001 climbing/boarding trip to South Georgia.

"Ski to the South Pole"

is Adventure Network International (ANI)'s commercial operation of supported ski trips from Patriot Hills. In 2001-02 there was one group of three--Canadian guide Paul Landry along with Chris Weyers, a Briton from Australia, and Timo Polari of Finland. They arrived at Pole on 27 January and were flown back to PH the next day.

South Pole Marathon

sponsored by ANI, flew folks to the starting line 26.2 miles from the dome. Three people finished the marathon run, while two others did a half, and one dropped out. This was originally scheduled for 4 January. Here's a diary, and the 70South page on the event. The rest of the story is elsewhere on the 70South site (search for "marathon"). The winner, Richard Donovan, had to sue for his winnings after the race organizers attempted to change the rules after it was run. Good luck. I've done hundreds of miles at Pole including some half-marathon+distances, but I prefer groomed surfaces, the sastrugi are murder! In addition, ANI also offers the "last degree" ski trip from 89°S to the Pole.

From Washington...a Congressional conference report suggests that $15 million will be appropriated for preliminary costs of the Ice Cube project, the 1 cubic km next version of the AMANDA neutron detector. This is a $250 million, 8-year project. And NSF's overall budget for 202 was increased by Congress by 8.4% to $4,789 million. This includes $300 million for "polar research and operations support," of which the "U.S. Antarctic Logistical Support" budget was increased 9.3% to $68.1 million.

Science special...the 2001 w/o's completed a research project to reconfirm that the Earth does indeed rotate on its axis. A Foucault pendulum was installed in the future elevator shaft of the beer can. Yes, it did indeed change its plane of swing as the Earth rotated. The 33m stair tower offered a much better place to do this than the 16m dome where we tried the same thing in 1977. Here are details from physicist R. Allan Baker...

On 28 September 2001 a major fire destroyed the biolab at Rothera, the large British Antarctic station at the southern end of Adelaide Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. The Bonner Laboratory was a new building completed in 1996-97...fortunately the alarms sounded early and there were no injuries to the 21 w/o's. However, weather conditions prevented fighting the fire. Details and photos from the British Antarctic Survey. The lab has since been rebuilt.

On 12 September 2001 the w/o's learned of the tragedy unfolding in New York and Washington...and Jeff Kietzmann and Dave McDonald went up on the dome to put the flag at half staff. Here is the picture and story from manager Jerry Macala, and here is how USA Today covered it. (The flag was returned to full staff on Sunday, 26 September.)

Palmer w/o painter Thomas Leipart died on 5 September from head injuries after a 1 September fall down the stairs aboard the R/V Lawrence Gould. He hod just arrived in PA after a crossing from Palmer. Thomas' wife Cindy from Arizona flew down to be with him before his death. He had planned to w/o next year at McMurdo.

The NOAA folks at Pole have updated their CMDL home page with live links to ozone data, as well as tours of ARO and the station, historical information, and photos. Well worth a look.

Pole MEDEVAC...Dr. Ron Shemenski, after suffering from a bout of pancreatitis, was successfully medevaced in a twin otter aircraft which arrived from Rothera at noon 25 April 2001 (Pole time) with OAE replacement doctor Betty Carlisle on board. Ron headed north the next day. The full story with photos and links is featured HERE. Oh yes, the aircraft was also carrying about 100 lbs of table salt...it seems that this vital commodity had already run short.

The McMurdo medevac (NSF press release) also happened successfully in April 2001, carrying out a total of 11 Raytheon employees. Two folks had serious medical problems which prompted the medevac--a heart condition and a possible concussion; two other less-serious medical cases also were given the advantage of the flight; seven other folks also left McM for other reasons, perhaps relating to family problems at home. Or perhaps, er, other reasons, as discussed in this 28 April NZ Herald news story. The C-130 from the RNZAF headed south Tuesday at 0525 Tuesday 24 April +12/NZ and McM time (1325 Monday EDT) after a 24-hour weather delay. It landed at Pegasus, spent about an hour on deck, and returned to ChCh at 2030. Here is a press statement from Karl Erb, NSF Polar Programs director.

Enough cargo made it to Pole during the 2000-01 summer season to support the interior buildout of the first phase of the new elevated station, which was successfully enclosed and heated. And the lights stayed on all winter. Read about the other milestones--the startup of the new power plant and the successful testing of the new earth station...(plus links to more background stuff) in the 24 January NSF press release. 2000-01 summer construction pictures of the elevated station are here thanks to Steven McLachlan and the folks at Pole.

The new MARISAT/GOES 9-meter antenna, which promised to double the broadband access time, was successfully tested on 18 January 2001, but there were major "feed" and cold weather problems which required troubleshooting through much of the 2001 winter.

Antarctica continues to break up! The iceberg C-19 is splitting up, per this May 2003 NATICE press release and photo. The icebergs continued to cause shipping problems into McMurdo Sound in January 2003, although a sudden shift (along with the presence of 2 Coast Guard icebreakers) allowed some of the late summer cruise ships to approach Ross Island. The best continually updated file of Ross Ice Shelf photos, well annotated, is in this directory on the Raytheon server in Denver, where you can see the bergs nuzzling against the east side of Ross Island. They ultimately required a second icebreaker to help with the 2002-03 shipping season (Antarctican news article). In 2002 a hunk of the Lazarev Ice Shelf (69.4°S 15.9°E) broke off into the southeastern Weddell Sea and became D-17 (6 x 20 miles). Also in May 2002, 2 more chunks of the Ross Ice Shelf broke off...as noted in these NATICE press releases on C-18 (124 x 20 miles) photographed on 6 May, and C-19 (124 x 20 miles, a bit bigger than Delaware) photographed on 11 May. In the C-18 photo you can see the beginning of the C-19 crack. Here is an NSF press release on the Ross Sea icebergs...Charles Stearns, the AWS guy from the University of Wisconsin (UWis), notes that the recent bergs take the Ross Ice Shelf back to the approximate size it was in 1911. Other photos and animations are found at the AMRC site from UWis, the automated weather station folks...YES, there are AWS's on the icebergs! During late 2001 at McMurdo, NSF thought that the two large Ross Sea icebergs may soon break each other up due to repeated collisions. Here's the press release. NSF used a second icebreaker to get the channel to McMurdo clear for the cargo and fuel shipments, but the clearing operation was successful. The icebergs B15A and C16 are north of Ross Island; this plus the weather conditions have produced much heavier sea ice than usual and they are blocking the flow of winds and currents that would normally help the ice go away. Here is additional late November 2001 news coverage from USA Today and the Antarctic Sun

Ventures to the new icebergs...In late January 2001, scientists from the U. of Chicago and U. of Wisconsin traveled via the US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea to visit iceberg B-15A, a 90 x 20 mile piece of the icebergs. Here is a slide show by Antarctic Sun senior editor Josh Landis, who got to go, here is a link to NSF video, and this is a Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel article about this program. The Ice Island expedition went to study B-15 and its neighbors "above, below, and within." The venture was partially sponsored by National Geographic; it had two missions--research and filmmaking. Steven Mclachlan has a page of photos of the expedition vessel "Braveheart" before they left Lyttleton on 17 January. Unfortunately heavy pack ice kept them from getting close to any of the large bergs. Here are some early November 2000 NSF photos by Josh Landis, who got to fly over them on one of the LC-130 exploratory missions. The icebergs might actually endanger the shipping lanes to McMurdo, Charles Stearns advised at the American Polar Society meeting in Boulder. The natural movement for the Ross Sea icebergs is towards the west; if present trends continue they could block the shipping channel along the west side of Ross Island.

Stearns' Antarctic met data center (AMRC) at the University of Wisconsin continues to track and monitor the various bergs in the Ross Sea and elswhere. The newest, B-20 (renamed C-16), 30 x 11 miles, broke loose from the Ross Ice Shelf in late September 2000 and is north of Ross Island. The largest in the Ross Sea, named B-15 (170 x 25 miles) broke in half, 200 miles east of McMurdo in mid-March 2000. There are others, including one 80 x 12 miles just east of B-15, which has broken into several pieces, one of which has already made it to Cape Adare. Meanwhile there are icebergs which calved off the Ronne Ice Shelf (east of the Antarctic Peninsula) in early May 2000. The AMRC iceberg page is frequently updated with new pictures, video and information. The NOAA National Ice Center also covers these bergs. Events such as these have been the plot basis for more than one fiction thriller over the years. These were first noticed on 17 March 2000 in McM where Andy Archer, Matt Thompson and the other met folks studied these photos as well as the Terascan images, many of which appeared on the AMRC web site.

00-01 station construction pictures are here thanks to Steven McLachlan and the folks at Pole. The weather was rough on the flight schedule to deliver construction materials, but the full complement of winter construction folks were on hand to work on the interior of the first phase of the elevated structure.

More stories about 2000-01 construction plans...a Christian Science Monitor article, and several NSF press releases...the summer construction (with photos), as well as the overall plans for the 2000-01 season and the science around the rest of the continent. And here are my details about the construction project.

Radio days...National Public Radio reporter Richard Harris spent a day at Pole in 2000-01, and his report on T-shirt weather there aired on 11 December 2000. Check out the audio archive and listen along here, new stories continued to air through April.

NGA (non-governmental activity) visits to the crowded dome in the 2000-01 summer season...

Pole to Pole 2000

came from the North Pole (well, they changed their route and started at the Magnetic Pole in Canada). They arrived at PA on 26 November; from there they flew to Patriot Hills (PH). Their late arrival on the ice caused them to start in the Theil Mountains 250 miles south of PH rather than on the coast as originally planned. Nine team members made it to the dome the day before the millennium started (1/1/1). Original plans called for 4 people to make the return trip overland, but after leaving a time capsule (!) behind, everyone left by air for PH on 1 January. The web site has recent journals and maps...and Steven McLachlan has the arrival pictures from Scott Smith. Martyn Williams, co-founder of ANI, is one of the expedition organizers.

The Origin Expedition to the Source...

had 4 expeditions covering the 4 primeval elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The 3-man Dutch "water" expedition, also known as the Sasquatch Expeditions traverse, originally planned an unsupported ski trek from Blue One to PH via Pole. That was off, but they arrived at Patriot Hills on 9 November on their way to do an unsupported round trip. During their first two weeks of travel they redesigned their sledges, depoted some supplies, and covered about 120 miles. They arrived at Pole on 27 December and departed before New Years on their return trip. Scott Smith's pictures of their arrival are here on Steven McLachlan's site. They completed their trip back to PH on 16 January.

Bancroft Arnesen Expedition

crossed the continent from the ANI runway "Blue One" (71°31'S-8°48'E near SANAE) to McM. Both Ann and Liv have been to Pole before, this was another "first Transantarctic" attempt with a resupply at Pole using skis and sails. They arrived at Blue One on an ANI Ilyushian 76 aircraft on 13 November, 10 days behind their plan. They had hoped to reach Pole by New Years and McM by mid-February. They reached Pole early on 17 January and left the next day. They successfully completed the crossing of the continent on 11 February, but unfavorable winds made it impossible to finish the journey across the Ross Ice Shelf to reach their pickup vessel before it is forced to leave. So they called for ANI to shuttle them to Willy Field....which they reached on 17 February. The next day they were flown by helo to the Australian vessel "Sir Hubert Wilkins." Here's another page about Liv, who wrote "Good Girls do not Ski to the South Pole" after her solo trip during the 1994-95 summer.

The Canadian Antarctic Millennial Expedition

...Laurie Dexter and Scott Smith, was planning a transcontinental trek from Berkner Island to McM but that is now off perhaps until 2001-02. Laurie did venture to Pole as the leader of ANI's "Last Degree" one-week ski trip from 89° S.

Norwegian Antarctic Expedition 

(Norwegian language site) (trip partially sponsored by the Norwegian Polar Institute)...Rolf Bae and Eirik Sønneland set off on 20 October to ski/parasail, unsupported, the 1250 miles from Troll Station, 72°S-2°E, to Pole along the 0° meridian. Oh yes, before they did that they wintered at Troll. The 4-man winter crew was Norway's first w/o party since the IGY era; the doctor is 65 years old! Because they wintered on the ice, they got an earlier start than the other adventurers. They reached Pole on 21 December--there was no news on their web site but Steven McLachlan has pictures of their arrival from Scott Smith. Then they surprisingly headed for McM...where after problems with lack of wind they showed up at Willy Field on 5 February. Here's an exclusive photo of Eirik (left) and Rolf upon their arrival (photo by David Berry). They spent time at Scott Base while transportation arrangements were made for them to be picked up on the 13th by the cruise ship Akademic Shokalskiy. Bigdeadplace has an excellent interview with Eirik Sønneland. Their planning and communications foibles have been the subject of Antarctic Treaty meeting discussions...

Abandoned! Miles Hilton-Barber

...a 52-year-old British adventurer, attempted to become the first blind person to trek from Patriot Hills. Miles has previously completed the Marathon des Sables and climbs of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Blanc. The four-man party (also known as the Challenging Horizons group) included one sighted companion and two guides; they hoped to raise £2.5m for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). They left PH on 20 November, 10 days late, and after 260 miles Miles was forced to abandon the trip on 22 December due to frostbite on his left hand...he was flown back to PH and hoped to back in the UK by Christmas. The rest of the team continued, they reached Pole on 21 January. Hmm...one of his guides, Californian Doug Stoup, was planning to do a solo second trip to Pole on a bicycle (!) after the trip with Miles is completed. That is off for this season, but he may try something next year.

Abandoned! Antarctica 2000 (mostly Slovenian language site)

was a solo unsupported ski/parasail trip from Blue One to Ross Island via Pole. Stane Klemenc of Slovakia left Blue One at about the same time as Liv and Ann he had serious comms difficulty, and was held back by his incredibly heavy 440 lb sledge/parasail chair. After stopping for several days due to probable injury, ANI went to look for him and flew him back to Blue One on 3 December. This site includes a detailed diary. Earlier it also included some English language commentary by Geoff Somers.

Abandoned! The Poles Wearables Expedition

consists of the U.K./U.S. couple Thomas and Tina Sjorgen, who left Hercules Inlet for Pole on 20 November. Their expedition name comes from the use of "wearable" comms and computing devices, which they have already used to send pictures back. As of 19 January they were still about 180 miles from Pole, they geve up the next day and were flown back to PH. They intended to try again the next year...and were successful.

Danish South Pole Expedition 2000

Kristian Joos and Gregers Gjersøe attempted to be the first Danish expedition to reach Pole unsupported from Hercules Inlet. They started from there on 19 November. As of New Years they had about 165 miles to go, and they arrived on 13 January. Steven McLachlan has some photos by Scott Smith.

Perhaps you too...

This is the Adventure Network (ANI) home page...you can book a trip to Pole by air, no sledging required, for only about $25,000...this year will see the 200th fare-paying passenger since I met the first ones in January 1988.

Trinity Expedition POSTPONED until 2001-02 (which was planned but didn't happen either)

This ws a 3-man team from Chile, Argentina, and Britain, planning a trip to Pole from the ice edge west of Berkner Island. Their web site included a detailed chronology of their efforts to obtain funding, supplies, and information. As of late August it seemed unlikely that their effort would proceed.

TAE 2000 CANCELLED as of 18 October 2000

Two women, Sunniva Sorby of Canada and Uiloq Slettemark from Greenland, were planning an all-female crossing from Berkner Island to McM via Pole.... Sunniva accompanied Ann Bancroft on the first women's trek to Pole in 1992-93.

Rodney Marks left Pole on one of the first flights, his body was returned to Australia for autopsy and burial. Here is a page of information, memorial links and tributes...

Rodney was the astronomer operating the AST/RO telescope, and he died from unknown natural causes on 12 May, after experiencing breathing difficulties while walking back to the dome from the dark sector. This was the third USAP death at South Pole Station, and the first during the winter. During the winter the w/o's decided to have their own funeral ceremony for him. They constructed an elaborate oak casket, and on 3 July the group gathered to load it onto a Nansen sled and transport it to a grave site. Rodney was laid to rest for the remainder of the winter, under the stars in the Australian sector about 15 feet from the Pole.

The first main body flight arrived at McMurdo on 3 October 2000. This picture from Chuck Kimball documents what it looked like from a window in Building 159.

Ozone...Pole NOAA data is online here. The surface Dobson ozone measurements have been collected since 1961; since these observations can't be taken in darkness, ozonesonde balloons have been launched weekly since 1986. Here is another "view" of the ozone hole from NASA with links to satellite data. The ozone hole was originally discovered in 1985 by Joe Farman of BAS; here is the BAS ozone page with links to additional data.

Polar Symposium in Boulder: The American Polar Society held this biennial event on 4-6 October 2000...themes included data collection, communications, and the environment. Speakers included the weather guru Charles Stearns, senior NOAA scientist Susan Solomon, IGY veteran John Behrendt, and former East Base resident Jackie Ronne. Of course, the meeting was also a BIG Antarctican reunion party. Here is the web site for the society. This organization was founded during the time of Byrd's second expedition, and has been disseminating news and information about the Antarctic and Arctic ever since.

Pole Souls Boulder 2000 reunion... Yes, we're proud to say that ALL of our 1977 winterover team gathered in Boulder, CO, the weekend before Midwinters Day. We shared stories, jokes, music, photos, videos, beer, good food, fun, and...some quiet time together. Yes, here is the photo documentation!

Raytheon Polar Services Company... (RPSC) assumed the US Antarctic Program support contract as of 1 April. Here is the new RPSC web site, (the other site is here). Here is my archive list of news about the contract award and the ongoing legal challenge to the Raytheon award. On 29 February ASA filed an appeal...

After a highly successful science and construction season, Pole "closed" on 14 February 2000 with an all-time high winter population of 50 (about the average summer population back in 76-77). Cargo flights continued until the last flight at about 2300 on the 16th.

Bicycling at Pole... this CARA-sponsored project spent the last week in January 2000 testing out fat-tire bicycles...

McMurdo fatality...John Biesiada, a Canadian contractor employee for SPAWAR (the Navy satcom/air traffic control folks) died early Saturday 8 January. Cause unknown pending an autopsy. After a Sunday memorial service in the chapel, the body was flown to ChCh the next day,and the autopsy results are here.

Fox News covered a private geology expedition "Antarctica 2000" which included former astronauts Jim Lovell and Owen Garriott. During January they traveled via Patriot Hills to the Thiel Mountains, Pole and back. They found meteorites, and they got to sleep...on the floor of the gym. Their archive stuff and photos are gone, but Steven McLachlan has a page with lots of photos of the team, their aircraft, and the station.

Sir Vivian Fuchs, leader of the 1956-58 Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition (yes, he showed up at Pole to meet Sir Edmund Hillary in January 1958) died in Cambridge, UK on 11 November 1999 at the age of 91. Here's an obituary from SPRI.

The skydivers/Russian "MIL" expedition

are covered on this separate page...

M&G ISA Challenge (Women's South Pole 2000)

5 British women led by Caroline Hamilton, some of whom went to the North Pole in 1997 They left Hercules Inlet on 23 November and arrived at Pole at 1900 24 January.

Mike and Fiona Thornwill

along with Katharine Hartley from the UK, arrived from Hercules Inlet on 5 January. (Here's Fiona's newer site.)

Jasmine Lee and three others from Singapore

arrived on New Years Eve (December 1999 ANAN article about their progress).

Peter Treseder and Tim Jarvis

"Operation Chillout," two Australians tried to cross from Berkner Island (78°S 45°W) to McM. They started on 31 October and reached Pole on 16 December, and cancelled the second half of the trip due to leaky fuel containers (their web site is gone; this link is from AAD).

Laurence de la Ferriere (8 December story from the AAD)

left Pole on 23 November heading southwest to Dumont d'Urville via Dome Charlie, er, Concordia alone on skis. She arrived at that French station on 30 December and continued north with help from the French, arriving at Dumont d'Urville on 6 February. The full story is on the AAD site. She finally arrived at Dumont d'Urville on 6 February. Before she left Pole she was interviewed by Dr. Robert Thompson (letter #3). Earlier, she was the first French woman to ski to Pole alone, arriving in January 1997.

PBS Millennium coverage...the New Year's feature listing and a picture of Brad Halter with the Pole survey marker...both were featured in the live coverage.

• On 2/29 ASA "docketed" (filed) an appeal to the Claims court decision in the with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Not much was made public, and this dragged on for awhile...but with little or no significant impact on the US Antarctic Program.
• The contract award was upheld on 1/28 in a sealed ruling by the Federal Claims court, and the phase-in proceeded. The ruling might have eventually been released if all of the parties involved agreed how to redact (censor) it, but I never found it.
• 30 January Sun article announcing the resolution of the court case
• 21 November brief Antarctic Sun article by ASA discussing the restraining order
• 29 October Raytheon contract award press release
• 30 October Denver Post article
• 31 October Antarctic Sun article
• 28 October summary of NSF contract award announcement heard in Denver
• 1 November CBD announcement, the official way the Government did it

The first of the three "real" opening flights arrived at Pole at about 1215 South Pole time (+13) Monday 25 October 1999 (1815 CDT Sunday). The weather was -48°C/-55°F, winds about 10 knots.

For better or worse, the October 1999 events focused more media attention on Pole than the place has seen for many years--perhaps since 1929 when Admiral Byrd was wearing his sweater 1500' above where it is today.

Later updates...in July 2001 ABC News reported that Jerri Nielsen would return to Antarctica with her family during the 01-02 summer as a physician on a cruise ship. More recently there was news of a lawsuit by her former husband. Here is another link to her. Her book "Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole" came out in hardcover, CD and tape versions on 18 January 2001 and hit the best-seller list. She was featured with fellow w/o's on an ABC Primetime, which first aired on 25 January 2001.

Now that Dan Rather and Jerry Bowen have turned the CBS eye away from the dome, I've moved the stuff here. I'm not sure how long the current stories and videos will still be available.

For some reason CBS considered this story "National News," ABC considered it "World News," CNN called it "Asia/Pacific," and the USA Today stuff is "Weather." Go figure.

In February 2000 came the annnouncement about her book deal

Selected NSF individual official press releases and statements

15 October Mission successful, Jerri's in McMurdo (Rita Colwell)

13 October Planes arrive in McMurdo

9 October Planes in ChCh

7 October official photo of Dr. Jerri at the ceremonial pole earlier in the winter

5 October Time to send in the Hercs (Karl Erb)

13 July Statement on Behalf of Patient

13 July Update on South Pole Medical Air Drop

13 July Briefing on South Pole Emergency by NSF director Rita Colwell

11 July airdrop is successful.

17 June Press Statement by Dr. Karl Erb on the medical status of South Pole personnel

Background news with links to other news releases and and information on the 11 July airdrop

10 October

Aircraft in ChCh, waiting to head to McMurdo

6 October

LC-130s leave New York State for the ice

11 July

Airdrop is successful

The main CBS national news site

...unfortunately most of the Jerry Bowen stories are gone...

USA Today

Antarctic index with good links to more current news

17 October coverage from Jack Williams...including an introduction to Robert Thompson, the next w/o doctor who they say went in on the early flight...Sorry Jack, he didn't even leave Harrisburg, PA, until 17 October (OAE Dr. Hugh Cowan went in for the tail end of the winter).

CNN

11 October with links to earlier coverage

Other Pole media coverage from previous seasons...

USA Today

Jack Williams spent 3 days at Pole in January 1999, here's the first page of his story. Here is their main South Pole page and a good photo tour of the station, ARO (CAF) and how balloons are launched these days. Here's Joel M filling a balloon. What comes next is "It's away" followed by "Got it!" as done nowadays. Also they have letters from the 1998 w/o's

Outside Magazine

spent time in September 1997 at a Colorado retreat with the '98 w/o crew. Okay, where is that bloody axe when we need it!