Diary from Antarctica Part 2 by Peter Hackworth

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Diary from Antarctica Part 2 by Peter Hackworth

by Rebecca Starford , January 14, 2010 • Leave a comment

Day Five: Friday 18 September

I slept badly, my mind racing with all that happened. The wind didn’t help, tents flapping madly but very secure. By mid-morning the blizz was right on us with winds gusting to more than 100kph. Advised at 0900 sked that forecast was for strong winds until Sunday, so we would be there for at least the next two nights. Everyone spent a reasonably comfortable day in their tents, with periodic skeds using the hand-held VHS to swap recipes for ration packs and suggestions on how to pee without going outside and without your tent partner knowing!

It was the first time I’d really camped in Antarctica. It’s very cramped in the tent and any movement has to be signalled and carefully executed to prevent knocking over the stove, which is in constant use melting snow for water. Bucky set up a camp crapper in the back of one of the Haggs – a wooden toilet seat on a bucket with talcum powder sprinkled after to kill odours. He even provided a year old copy of The Daily Telegraph! Lee and I spent the day reading old logs of previous trips to this region. Forecast at the 1800 sked was for the weather to ease on Sunday.

Day Six: Saturday 19 September

Weather at 0900: ‐8°C, 980Mb, 70–80kph and less than 50-metre visibility. Barometer unchanged. There is no correlation between air pressure and the weather; it had been the same in sunshine and blizzard!

Muesli with dehydrated apple mash for breakfast – a great recipe from Tom. Everyone slept well. Lee and I both managed to go eighteen hours without a pee, which we think is an Antarctic record. Not a lot of incentive to go outside to empty the pee bottle – you had to slide out on your belly into the blizz and then dive back inside, and back into the sleeping bag to get warm again. In the meantime, a mountain of snow had come in with you.

We had a lunch meeting in the back of the yellow Hagglunds, where we compared tent layouts and recipes for dehydrated dinners. We agreed not to break camp until we had retrieved the fuel sled. Aaron advised that we are down to nine winching anchors, three bent already.

Two types of pasta dish for dinner; the 1998 expiry-date version superior to the 2001. 1998 also a great year for wine. A coincidence? 1800 sked: no change to weather forecast. Met again after dinner for cards; the diesel heater in the rear cabs worked pretty well.

Day Seven: Sunday 20 September

By 0700, the wind had gone completely. The barometer, however, was only up slightly to 988Mb – even Bucky, as our Met rep, was totally confused. Temperature was a balmy: –7.5C; we hadn’t seen weather like that since early March.

It took several hours to reorganise the Haggs and campsite. We didn’t get to the sled until 1315. The recovery was hampered by having to secure ice for the Haggs; both electric winches could be used. Recovery was achieved without incident, and we returned to camp. Aaron replaced alternator on the green Hagg (dodgy bearings) while Seuss, Bucky, Tom and I climbed Tilley Nunatak. It was so nice to have calm weather again.

From that high up, it seemed our best ice lay close to the coast. Lee did the sked with Tubby and helped Aaron. Weather forecast was for low winds for the next two days. We planned to get away early and try to get to Ledingham’s Depot the next morning.

Day Eight: Monday 21 September

0900 sked and weather forecast was good (conditions would gradually improve over the next days). It was overcast on departure at 0930. Green Hagg was caught up on steep blue ice leaving Tilley but soon sorted it.

It was another hard day for the group with three more boggings, the last of which occurred one and a half kilometres from – and within sight of – Ledingham’s Depot. The typical profile of the ice present was twenty to fifty centimetres of snow on top of twenty to thirty centimetres of slush, with good ice below. Surface gave no indication of what was underneath, and grey unbroken clouds meant your nose was constantly at the windscreen, peering for a route. By the end of the day we were counting down the kilometres, wondering when we’d next break through.

Just as our confidence was growing the yellow Hagg bogged two and a half kilometres from Ledingham’s Depot, and again one kilometre further on! The island was only 200 metres away, so I decided, once we had both vehicles free, to camp there. We left the sled on the sea ice.

Brilliant campsite in the saddle of a low island, from where we could actually see the hut at Ledingham’s Depot . It was much easier pitching tents with no wind. We planned to walk to Ledingham’s in the morning and tried to find a suitable route for the Haggs. We were now six days behind schedule, and only half way. I was less confident about getting to Kloa.

Day Nine: Tuesday 22 September

It was a beautiful day for the spring equinox (–22°C start kept us on our toes though). Easy forty-five minute walk to Ledingham’s Depot. The track along a blizz tail running straight off the island looks our best opportunity for taking the Haggs over. The last group had left the shovel across the hut door – a nice gesture except that the blade was iced in and it took forty-five minutes of smashing with ice axes to free it and get inside!

We walked back to camp and used the remaining sunlight to service choofers, air sleeping bags and the melt snow for drinking water. Cards was attempted outside around sunset, but we abandoned it as the temperature fell to –20°C and the wind rose.

I canvassed everyone’s thoughts on our options, and at the 1800 sked I asked Tubby if there would be any implications back at the station if we continued to Kloa. It was great to have the full support of everyone back at the station, who couldn’t leave in our absence.

Day Ten: Wednesday 23 September

We brought the Haggs safely over from the campsite in the morning and immediately offloaded excess weight and went searching for the Fold Island Emperor penguin rookery. There was a very heavy track. Glenn and I walked one section between two islands and found some very boggy slush, so were glad we’d checked before attempting to drive it.

Grey skies again reduced track definition. We parked on a small island adjoining the northern side of Transverse Island, climbed the rise and found the penguin colony 500 metres to the west on the sea ice. Lee and I walked within one hundred of the colony, while the others climbed Transverse Island which, at about 120 metres, provided a better site for taking photos and the undertaking of a census.

There are only about 450 birds in this colony, compared to 5000 at Auster. There were a few dead chicks; we had a permit to collect thirty but we didn’t want to risk taking them; I was worried we might disturb the colony.

We returned along the same route to the hut, retrieving the sled from the sea ice. We were able to depot 1200 litres of fuel for helicopter operations in the next few years.

At dinner, I advised that we would turn back to Mawson tomorrow because the track conditions didn’t appear to be improving; every additional bogging west could mean a bogging going home, increasing fatigue and risk. If we continued west, we could be away for another fortnight, which would be a bit rough on those back at the station, particularly at that time of year.

Another change of thermals and socks for me – the treats just keep on coming!

To be continued…