Diary: Preparation

Sat 17th Nov. Scott Base: Reconnaissance flight.

John Millen, Gerald Holdsworth and Evan Leitch – along with Arnold Heine, Demp Rainey and Guy Mannering – left on a reconnaissance flight over the south Tucker Glacier. Other expedition members continued packing. The reconnaissance group returned full of enthusiasm for the magnificent country to be visited.

Scott Base had its usual boozy party on Saturday night, with several visiting dignitaries in attendance.

Sun 18th Nov. Scott Base: Astronomy.

We slept in until 11 a.m., then sorted gear into the afternoon. Later, Frank tried to calculate the position in the sky at a preselected time of the bright star Canopus. Ordinarily stars are invisible in 24-hour daylight, but a correctly pointed telescope will show a bright star.

However, pointing the theodolite telescope to the calculated position in the sky at the chosen time revealed no star. Considering how involved the hand calculations are, it seemed optimistic to expect to actually see the star. But practice was needed until we got it right. Letter and postcard writing filled the evening.

Mon 19th Nov. Scott Base - Ross Ice Shelf camp.

Further sorting of gear and minor repairs occupied the morning. After lunch, John Millen decided that the group was ready to make a trial two-day expedition. So we packed the sledges, and at 3:15 p.m. set off over the Ross Ice Shelf, each two-man team towing a 400-lb 180-kg sledge tethered at the waist, our first experience of the much-maligned man-hauling.

On bare sea ice the sledges glided easily, sometimes making us trot just to keep ahead. How we would long for such easy hauling later on the polar plateau, when hauling heavier sledges upgrade, or in soft, deep snow. Marching at a swift clip of 2½ mph 4 km/hour took us to Observatory Point, and more slowly to Hut Point at 4:30 p.m., and beyond to make camp at 5:15 p.m., barely beyond sight of ‘civilisation’ of the US and NZ bases.

A 6:15 p.m. attempt to make radio contact with Scott Base (ZLQ) was unsuccessful. However, we did manage to contact an American station called YM1. Our sense of isolation and adventure was shattered when a US Navy pickup truck cruised past the campsite, the driver waving cheerfully.

Tue 20th Nov. Ross Ice Shelf camp - Scott Base.

After a huge double-ration dehydrated stew and a warm night, we woke to see that a chunk of glacier snout had fallen on to the ice shelf some 50 yards away, where we had collected ice to melt for water.

As the ice fog cleared, atmospheric refraction caused the landscape across the ice shelf to assume fantastic shapes. Peaks perhaps 20 miles 32 km distant appeared to have an elevated head connected to their base by a narrowed neck.

Gerald taught us some skiing techniques. After lunch, we packed and sledged back to Hut Point at 2:15 p.m. There, the US Navy PX store beckoned, as did the canteen, where we sipped coffee feeling quite Americanised.

Scott's Hut near McMurdo – a relic of the 1911-12 race to the South Pole – was crammed with ice and snow. Gerald photographed us there, with a foreground of rusty cans and pipe, and a huge fuel tank in the background. Another hour of hauling returned us to Scott Base. After tea we began to rectify some minor faults in the equipment.

Wed 21st Nov. Scott Base: Ice cave.

Small improvements to gear occupied the morning, such as making bibs for eating the greasy pemmican stew, and loops for holding the sledge rope.

About 2 p.m., several of us left for the PX at McMurdo, an hour's walk. Gerald and Frank each bought an Agfa Contessa 35 mm camera. Other purchases were photographic items and cigars for Christmas. Frank thoughtlessly left his money on the counter at the PX, and feared that he had lost it. A telephone message awaited at Scott Base that the money had been found. With enormous relief he raced back to retrieve it.

Back at Scott Base, someone mentioned seeing some used down clothing in the dump at McMurdo, so we walked over to see. We retrieved several serviceable, orange nylon-covered, thickly down-filled coats and pants, most with US Antarctic Research Program insignia sewn on. Donning some garments, we felt smart but rather conspicuous walking back to Scott Base. Later in NZ, the bulky apparel would become showpieces, but stiflingly hot to wear there.

After tea, a group from the base visited a tide crack near the landward edge of the ice shelf. It was magnificent! Strings of ice crystals hung as stalactites in the great ice caverns. For forty-five minutes we followed the cave for some 60 yards 50 m, sometimes crawling through crevices on our bellies, sometimes standing in gaping caverns.

Thu 22nd Nov. Scott Base: Ski school.

After a morning checking gear and making anklets, Gerald gave Frank a skiing lesson. Frank gathered too much speed on an icy patch, and fell, bending a ski stick. This gave cause to reflect on the care needed with critical equipment once we were in the field.

In the evening, we joined a group of Americans crossing the pressure ice to visit the seals. One kindly American gave Frank a balaclava hat, which proved most useful later in the field. Writing Christmas cards filled the remainder of the evening.

Fri 23rd Nov. Scott Base. Work party.

Flights to ferry the expedition into the field had been delayed, following two airplane crashes on the previous day. We admired the brave US Navy pilots and aircrews who faced such dangers.

Colonel Tinker – Scott Base Leader – set us to work until more planes became available. Two four-man, four-hour shifts would remove ice 2-3 feet 600-900 mm thick with pickaxes, from the west side of the second dormitory, for a 1962-63 building extension. John Millen's gang took the morning shift, and Gerald Holdsworth’s the afternoon.

Some frozen-in cases of equipment had to be dug out carefully, which slowed the work. In the late afternoon, we realized that the bulldozer that was to remove the chipped ice, could do part of our digging. Still later, we remembered a pneumatic hammer stored in the hanger, which made the work almost effortless.

Sat 24th Nov. Scott Base. Work party.

Another group – excavating permafrost elsewhere at Scott Base – noticed that we were using the pneumatic hammer, and requisitioned the hammer from Colonel Tinker. Having relinquished the hammer, we resumed chipping the ice with picks. Such mindless toil would be good training for man-hauling.

After finishing chipping ice, time passed more pleasantly studying aerial photos of the exploration area. Again Frank attempted to observe the star Canopus at 4 p.m., after a lengthy calculation of where to look for it, but without success. As a consolation, he observed the sun for azimuth.

After tea, we consumed the weekly ration of three cans of beer, which of course garbled our Morse code practice. However, the Scott Base radio man said that he could make out the Morse.

About 9:30 p.m. some of us toured the ice cave, together with a gregarious visiting American, who aspired to become a professional photographer. He instructed one of us to photograph him posing as a "heroic cave explorer", leading the scruffy remainder of our group behind him. In two hours we progressed just ten yards along the cave. Returning at midnight the beer party was roaring, with many crook blokes about.

Sun 25th Nov. Scott Base: Prepare to fly.

We slept in until 9:30 a.m., then breakfasted, and studied US Navy aerial photos of the exploration area, which lies some 400 miles 650 km north of Scott Base. In particular, we perused the photos to select a network of peaks with expansive vistas, from which the terrain could be surveyed.

About 11 a.m., John Millen brought the message that planes were available to ferry us to the field, and to be ready to fly at 5 p.m. We had spent two weeks at Scott Base. Again we packed. For an anxious period Frank could not find his survey camera – which fastens to the theodolite for terrestrial photogrammetry – until it showed up in John Millen's survey box.

All was ready by 4:15 p.m. Six members climbed in the Sno-Cat covered tractor, bound for Williams Airstrip. John Millen's team would leave first, followed by Gerald's five hours later. Gerald and Frank remained at Scott Base to tidy up. Then came the staggering news that another plane had crashed. There would be no air transportation for at least two days.

US Navy pilots and air crew work hard and endure considerable risk to support the scientific mission in Antarctica. Their Dakota propeller-powered aircraft – dubbed the R4D – is a DC3 modified for military and polar use, equipped with both landing wheels and skis for landing on snowfields. At remote field locations, encountering rough or soft snow during takeoff can "shake things up a bit", which is the most common cause of any crash. With relief we learned that a crash does not normally involve a plane falling from the sky.

In the event of a takeoff crash, a repair crew flies out to the crippled plane. The crew tries to repair the plane sufficiently, to fly it back to base for further checking and repair, prior to returning to service. If field repair is infeasible, the plane is abandoned as a total loss, and “a replacement is flown down from Greenland".

NZ Department of Lands and Survey surveyor Peter Otway arrived. During the preceding summer, Peter had completed the largest ground-based survey ever undertaken in Antarctica – between the Beardmore Glacier and the Axel Heiberg Glacier – using a dog team for transportation.

Upon learning that we had been unable to locate stars in daylight, Peter offered to find a star if we did the calculations, which Frank set to by hand. However, two hours later, Gerald brought the news that the sky had become too cloudy for astral observations.

Peter invited us for a ride on his motor toboggan. It was a zippy machine, powered by a two-stroke motor, with motor tracks on the rear and skis on the front. Peter took us for intrepid ski jumps across the pressure ice, then he said, "Have a go, yourself!" So Gerald and Frank took turns, tobogganing with less daring, but just as much thrill.

For the first time, tiny puddles formed on the rocks, where snow thawed. Returning inside, we ogled at the last half of a 5½-hour movie binge, of which "Louis Pasteur" was the highlight.

Mon 26th Nov. Scott Base: Make and mend.

If one doesn’t appear to be busy at Scott Base, pretty soon one will be. So today became a "make and mend" day, sewing pouches for loose pieces of equipment in the morning, and glove palm reinforcements and balaclava face covers in the afternoon. After tea, we visited the seals and pups on the sea ice.

Tue 27th Nov. Scott Base: Return to the ice cave.

Peter Otway loaned Frank a copy of his report on Antarctic surveys to study in the morning. After lunch, a small group left on a "geology field trip" — Dr. Harry Wellman of Victoria University, and expedition geologists Evan Leitch and Peter LeCouteur, with Gerald and Frank tagging along. Scrambling over the bluffs west of Scott Base, and on Observation Hill, the geologists found basalt layers separated from ash and rubble by pahoehoe. Within sight much of the time was volcanic Mt. Erebus 3795 m, which frequently emits puffs of steam.

During the return, we could not resist the US Navy Base at McMurdo. Again we gazed longingly at the wares in the PX store, and warmed up over coffee in the canteen. The return to Scott Base was by way of Observation Hill, contouring above the Ross Ice Shelf.

During teatime, photographer Guy Mannering recruited volunteers as lamp-lighters and holders for a movie that the US television company ABC TV was making in the ice shelf cave. We spent a marvellous 4½ hours assisting with the photography, to emerge at 11:30 p.m. thrilled and chilled, because the cave temperature was -30°C. In the meantime, a snowstorm subsided, and a feeble sun began to show.

Wed 28th Nov. Scott Base: Castle Rock attempt.

John Hayton breezily suggested to Frank: “Let’s visit Castle Rock and see it we can knock it off.” Preparations for the daunting prospect of Antarctic rock climbing delayed departure until 1 p.m.

At fog-wreathed Castle Rock, steep rock repelled us at 4:10 after 40 minutes of climbing. Momentary breaks in the fog revealed dramatic views of ice breakers crashing through the sea ice to clear a passage to McMurdo, perhaps 15 miles 25 km to the north. We attempted once more, but at 4:45 abandoned again due to the steep rock.

On the return walk, we succumbed again to the bottomless hospitality of the US Navy canteen at McMurdo. Scott Base had insufficient sleeping room inside due to new arrivals. So our group – dubbed FMC (Federated Mountain Clubs) – slept outside in tents.

Thu 29th Nov. Scott Base: Surveying practice.

John Millen and Roger Lloyd set off to attempt Castle Rock. Other members variously busied themselves. Frank made calculations for a sighting of Canopus at 11:30 a.m., but saw no star through the theodolite at the calculated position at that time. Either the calculation was in error, or he was unable to see the star in daylight when the theodolite was pointed at it. Quite exasperating! However, he observed the mid-day transit of the sun, and reduced those readings to calculate latitude and azimuth (north direction) as practice for the field.

Other surveying pursuits consumed the afternoon. We practiced using the Paulin barometer. Frank tried to jury-rig an extra mirror on the vertical circle of the theodolite, to try to help measure vertical angles, but the mirror proved useless.

Just before tea, John and Roger returned unsuccessful from Castle Rock. During the evening, news came that we were scheduled to fly out at 8 a.m. next day, so frantic packing resumed until about midnight.

Fri 30th Nov. Scott Base: Consult with USGS.

Waking at 6 a.m., expedition members departed for Williams Airstrip at 8 a.m. Low cloud postponed take off, but eventually the Navy pilot decided to lift off. John Millen's team piled in, and Gerald Holdsworth's team returned to Scott Base to await their turn.

Poring over John Millen’s sketch map and oblique aerial photos of the expedition area, a crucial gap in photo coverage troubled Gerald. He and Frank decided to visit the US Geologic Survey (USGS) at McMurdo. The USGS had conducted a helicopter-based telurometer survey not far from our expedition area, supposedly mapping about as much terrain on each field day as our entire expedition would cover on foot.

USGS personnel were most helpful in identifying their survey points on the aerial photos. During the return to Scott Base, a lift in a Land Rover brought us back in style and in time for tea and movies. As for John Millen's flight, the weather had been too cloudy for the plane to land on the polar plateau as planned, so they had just circled the area and turned back.

Sat 1st Dec. Scott Base: More consultation with USGS.

A dull morning with light snow was ideal for perusing US Navy aerial photos. After lunch, Gerald and Frank skied round Cape Armitage to McMurdo Sound, where again the USGS personnel were most helpful and informative for the entire afternoon. So absorbing was the rapport, by the time Gerald and Frank returned to Scott Base, it was too late for the evening meal. So Gerry and Frank dined on cups of tea, a plate of jelly desert, and two cans of beer, before retiring at 8:30 p.m.

Sun 2nd Dec. Scott Base: Ski Instruction.

The base did not stir until 11 a.m. Laundry took until mid-day. Based on fresh information from the USGS, John Millen, Gerald and Frank refined the sketch map that John had prepared in NZ, working from aerial oblique photos available to him, a tremendous accomplishment and a great service to the expedition.

Later, Gerald took Frank for ski instruction, eastward around the coast from Scott Base. Fridtjof Nansen's book "First Crossing of Greenland" claims that an experienced skier can easily maintain 7 mph 11 km/h. Gerald might well attain such a speed, being such a skilful skier and mountaineer.

Tea was chicken, followed by movies, a thriller and a beautiful film about sea ice. What a way to live!

Mon 3rd Dec. Scott Base: Castle Rock.

At 8:45 a.m., Gerald and Frank set off to attempt Castle Rock. From Scott Base we skied to a ridge below Crater Hill at 9:30, and arrived near Castle Rock by 10:45. Leaving skis on the southwest end of the ridge, we walked around the south face of Castle Rock.

After a 50-foot 15-m scramble, loose rock thwarted the first attempt to ascend a couloir, and similarly foiled a second attempt. At 1:40 the third attempt failed at a bulge in the rock. The fourth attempt was a piece of cake, following the northeast ridge to the summit at 1400 feet (420 m).

A glorious ski traverse took us to the Ross Ice Shelf about 2 miles 3 km east of Scott Base, to arrive at 5:30 p.m. News came that a flight had been scheduled for 8 a.m. next day, spawning yet another round of frenzied packing.