South Pole News Archive

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).

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 (or 10?) 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.

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 is again offering 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 the