Month: November 2010

Captain Scott

daveweimer

Miles Advanced: 50.6                                                                                                                                            Weather: 14 Degrees, Overcast                                                                                                                      Elevation: 216 ft.

We are doing well with heavy loads this early in the trip. We got to waypoint ‘Kelly’ and to our surprise we found the trail had moved a half-mile east since last year. That means this area of the Ice Shelf is moving approximately 7 feet a day! That’s mindboggling! In every direction there is nothing but flat white, but far in the distance, beyond the horizon, the gigantic Byrd Glacier plummets off the Polar Plateau and thrusts itself into the Ice Shelf creating a faster moving area of ice known as an ‘Ice Stream’. With all this movement you would expect to find a few crevasses but thankfully there are none in the vicinity of the trail.

We passed the area where Captain Scott and his companions had met their end. They died during the return journey from the Pole in 1912, just 11 miles from One Ton Depot- the resupply cache that may have saved them. In his book ‘Worst Journey in the World’ Cherry Garrard (a would-be rescuer) describes the grizzly scene as he found it.

“Scott had thrown back the flaps of his bag at the end. His left hand was stretched over Wilson , his lifelong friend… near Scott was a lamp formed from a tin and some lamp wick. It had been used to burn the little methylated spirit which remained. I think that Scott had used it to help him to write up to the end. I feel sure that he had died last – and once I had thought that he would not go so far as some of the others. We never realized how strong that man was, mentally and physically, until now.”

Scott’s last words, written in his journal, were: “For God’s sake take care of our people.”

Above: Captain Scott and his men at the South Pole. They all died on the return journey. Scott is in the center of the photograph, his face blackened by frostbite.

Snow Petrel

daveweimer

 Miles Advanced: 54.2                                                                                                                                     Weather: Overcast, Wind-chill 8 Below                                                                                                             248 Miles From McMurdo

McLovin’ found my journal from last year. I’d shoved it behind the seat of the tractor and forgotten about it. Of course he read it, can’t blame him- I would have read it too. The first pages are clean and the handwriting orderly. But as you flip through, the words start getting bigger- they look like they’ve been written by a 3 year old. It appears that I’m writing the journal while driving and no longer completing sentences- just blurting out random thoughts. Here are a couple of my favorites:

‘Feels like driving across Kansas.’

‘I think we are going in circles.’

‘I have the slowest and stupidest tractor in fleet.’

‘Says his uncle was eaten by crocodile- he is full of sh*t.’

‘If this tractor were a dog, I would have kicked it by now.’

‘Can’t you go any faster Dave? “No a-hole, I can’t.”

‘He is about to receive a concussion of the brain.’

 

Miles Advanced: 55.8                                                                                                                                      Weather: Sunny, 5 Below Wind-Chill                                                                                                              Elevation: 197 ft.

Good miles, great conditions- a blue bird day. Since it’s the Lord’s Day and all, we were told that we’d get to stop our tractors a whole HOUR early! Oh man, yippee! Thank you Jesus! Unfortunately, that hour was taken away from us when we realized we needed to drain and fold fuel bladders. Ugh. That kinda stuff is usually not good for morale. I mean, if you dangle a banana in front of a monkey and then snatch it away from him- that monkey might bite your face off. And infect you with AIDS.  Just sayin’.

 

Miles Advanced: 34.4                                                                                                                                      Weather: Clear, -3 Below                                                                                                                              Location: Half-way Across Ice Shelf

In the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf, 337 miles from the coast, we saw a bird. A little white bird called a Snow Petrel, my favorite bird in Antarctica and one of the few species on the continent that doesn’t migrate north in the winter. That small bird was just flying around, by himself, in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat but snow- amazing. I have never seen a Snow Petrel in McMurdo, so not sure where he’s travelled from.

Anyway, we stopped at 1:30pm at some fuel tanks that we have cached out here for Twin Otter pilots- the tanks are buried of course and we need to dig them out and re-berm them. Should be on the trail late tomorrow.

 

Miles Advanced: 41.5                                                                                                                                       Weather: Overcast, 13 Above                                                                                                                                Avg. Speed: 7.1mph

Below is a picture of a fuel tank. It doesn’t look that buried in the picture but mind you the tank rests on skis.

It took quite a bit of blading and a couple tractors to pull this puppy out. There are 8 tanks, all for emergency Twin Otter resupply, none of them had been used since we placed them out here a year ago.

After berming the tanks we made great time. We can now see the Transantarctic Mountains on the horizon.

Ricky Bobby

daveweimer

Miles Advanced: 64                                                                                                                                         Weather: Heatwave, 25 Degrees                                                                                                                         Location: 443 Miles from McMurdo, Nearing the Transantarctics

Can’t believe the conditions we are having this year- to good to be true. We are doubling the miles we made (outbound) last year.

One of our crew (we will call him Ricky Bobby) loves racing. He even took racing ‘classes’ and loves it so much, he has magazines, books, and even audiobooks on the subject. Now put Ricky Bobby out here in a tractor and guess what he’s going to do- he’s going to race. Ricky can’t drive straight, he’s got to be weaving in and out of other tractors and will often ‘draft’ behind a load and then ‘slingshot’ himself to the front of ‘the pack’. All of this is going on at a whopping six miles an hour. Mind you, other members of the crew don’t know they’re racing, all they see is some lunatic weaving and passing for no particular reason.

When asked on the radio, “Hey Ricky, what are you doing?” The reply is usually,” Shake n’ Bake!”

Miles Advanced: 62                                                                                                                                          Weather: Sunny Morning, then Overcast, 20 Degrees                                                                                       Elevation: 290 ft.

Happy Thanksgiving! All is well on the homefront. We started the night off with an appetizer of canned salmon and water crackers, then on to the entrée- a savory TV dinner of Tube Turkey and cranberry sauce. We topped the night off with a box of wine and an amazing dessert- pumpkin pie with the crusts burnt off. An absolutely breathtaking meal.

Below is a pic of the crew during lunch break- 10 person crew, only 8 in the picture.

Miles Advanced: 57.5                                                                                                                                                Total Mileage: 564.7                                                                                                                                        Weather: Overcast, 24 Degrees

We are at the halfway point! Yes!!!

We could see the rocky bases of the mountains today but the peaks are still shrouded in mist, bummer. I’m looking forward to seeing these mountains as they are pretty stunning and they give perspective on how far we’ve gone.

Took our first turn today, a left turn, and it was wonderful- used my blinker and everything.

We saw a visible crack in the snow but the radar didn’t show a void so we continued on across it without mishap. The crack was perpendicular to the trail and went for miles. We should be nearing the ‘Shoals’ area pretty soon. It’s another place with known crevasses, so we’ll see if it’s moved any from last year.