The search for Amundsen's tent

A tent erected above the presumed location of Amundsen's tent at Pole.

I'll start off by quoting a February 1992 text news article that I saw on a premium CompuServe news service...that was the dialup interweb back in the day:

Monica Kristensen aboard the Aurora, captioned by David Mantripp: "Monica asks if anybody's seen a tent."

OTC 02/17/92 1258 NORWEGIAN PAIR REACHES THE SOUTH POLE ON UK, ...
OSLO (FEB. 17) ITAR - GLACIOLOGIST MONICA KRISTENSEN, A NORWEGIAN POLAR RESEARCHER, HAS ATTAINED HER AIM. ON FEBRUARY 16, TOGETHER WITH HER FELLOW RESEARCHER, HENRYK HEGENFELNER [sic; Heinrich Eggenfellner], SHE REACHED THE SOUTH POLE AND PITCHED A TENT IN THE AREA WHERE, UNDER A 15-METRE THICK SNOW COVER, THERE IS, IN HER VIEW, THE TENT AND FLAG BELONGING TO ROALD AMUNDSEN, NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPLORER, WHO HAD BEEN THE FIRST TO REACH THE CENTRE OF ANTARCTICA ON DECEMBER 14, 1911.

   THIS TIME THE NORWEGIANS AT FIRST USED A LIGHT PLANE WHICH COULD CARRY ONLY TWO PASSENGERS AND 50 KILOGRAMMES OF CARGOES. SUBSTANTIAL ASSISTANCE WAS RENDERED TO THE EXPLORERS BY AMERICANS FROM THE ANTARCTIC AMUNDSEN-SCOTT BASE, WHO PROVIDED THEM WITH A SNOWMOBILE.

   A SPECIAL RADAR WAS EMPLOYED TO LOCATE AMUNDSEN'S TENT. WHAT CAME OF THAT WILL BE SHOWN BY A FUTURE EXPEDITION. KRISTENSEN HAS NOW RETURNED TO THE ANTARCTIC STATION OF BLOJENGA [sic; the base name was Blåenga--Norwegian for "blue field"].

   THE SEARCH FOR AMUNDSEN'S TENT IS PART OF AN EXTENSIVE PROGRAMME FOR SCIENTIFIC AND CLIMATIC RESEARCH TO BE CARRIED OUT BY THE POLAR EXPEDITION LED BY MONICA KRISTENSEN. THE 11-MEMBER EXPEDITION WAS ARRANGED AT THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER LAST YEAR AND SET OUT ALONG THE PARIS-OSLO-MONTEVIDEO ROUTE.

   THE EXPLORERS HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO THE ANTARCTIC SHORES BY THE RESEARCH VESSEL AURORA. THEY PLANNED TO REACH THE SOUTH POLE AT FIRST BY THE NEW-YEAR DAY, THEN BY THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY, BUT DID NOT MANAGE TO DO THAT BECAUSE OF WEATHER CONDITIONS.

   THE NORWEGIAN EXPEDITION IS A COMPONENT OF A THREE-YEAR ANTARCTIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME AURORA FINANCED BY NORWAY, SWEDEN AND BRITAIN. MONICA KRISTENSEN IS PLANNING TO RETURN TO NORWAY IN MID-MARCH AND THEN TO GO TO THE SOUTH POLE AGAIN IN AUTUMN THIS YEAR. THE ANTARCTIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME IS TO BE COMPLETED BY SUMMER OF 1994.

The above news article, as well as a later one from a Norwegian newspaper that referenced a radar image, intrigued me for many years...eventually I located that article and the image was only an example sketch. The attempt to locate the tent was part of an effort to recover it for display at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

The tent recovery effort was to be a part of the Aurora Programme, a privately funded Norwegian glaciology and climate change expedition based on the Filchner Ice Shelf. The tent recovery project was sponsored in part by STATOIL and the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee (note their flags in the above photo). Due to cargo delays, a dock strike in Montevideo, and other issues, the expedition vessel Aurora did not reach the planned destination (Coats Land, 77ºS-34ºW) until early January, where the Blaenga base hut (right) was constructed.

The expedition's Twin Otter, chartered from Greenlandair Charter (GLACE) arrived from Greenland shortly after the Aurora arrived at the base site.

The expedition then split up into several teams--one constructing the base huts; a second studying geology in the Shackleton Mountains, a third surveying Filchner Ice Shelf grounding lines, and a fourth surveying landing sites and laying fuel depots for the flight to Pole, as no fuel would be available from USAP.

While supporting the glacier team, the Twin Otter encountered an unspotted crevasse, fortunately only damaging a ski, but the repairs required it to return to Canada, significantly delaying things.

They did obtain official NSF support sanction for a glaciology trip to Pole, but the aircraft damage significantly delayed things...and eventually on 16 February 1992, Monica, along with glaciologist Heinrich Eggenfellner were flown to Pole. They were only there for a few hours. They did receive station support (the use of a SPRYTE tracked vehicle), used GPS to locate the tent position within 50 meters, and then reportedly used GPR to locate a cavity in the snow which they presumed might be the tent location. The pyramid tent pictured at the top of this page was erected over the presumed location of Amundsen's tent. After they departed, only the Norwegian flag was left for the winter.

The photo at the top of this page is presumably a provided expedition photo which appeared in the June 1992 Antarctic (the journal of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, which is now behind a paywall). The other two photos on this page are from Aurora Programme expedition member David Mantripp's blog which includes the full details of the expedition:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Although the Aurora Programme was originally planned to continue for two more seasons, apparently it did not.

Here is an article about Monica Kristensen (in Norwegian) from the Norwegian Polar History site.

Also have a look at the Wikipedia article about Monica Kristensen Solås, which I have edited.

Earlier, in 1986-87, Monica Kristensen had led a private dogsled expedition, the Norwegian/British 90 Degrees South Expedition, which departed from near the Bay of Whales in an attempt to complete a return trip to Pole, but they had to turn around at 86ºS.