Antarctica, one of the seven continents in the world, a largely undiscovered wilderness that has extremes of life, weather and conditions that makes one think twice about going there. John Lee has had the privilege of visiting the continent twice, both times whilst he was serving in the NZ Army.
He applied for a position on the Army Cargo Team in 1981 at McMurdo Sound supporting the National Science Foundation mainly made up of American with various nationalities incorporated within the research teams. He did a week's course in Burnham learning the intricacies of how to unload and load cargo, building of aircraft pallets to convey all sorts of freight from rations, scientific equipment, personal luggage etc. He was a sergeant at this time so went down as IC of the night shift hill cargo team.
He did a week's course in Burnham learning the intricacies of how to unload and load cargo, building of aircraft pallets to convey all sorts of freight from rations, scientific equipment, personal luggage etc.
These are some facts about the continent. It is the 5th largest continent of an area of 14 million square kilometres. It is larger than Europe or the USA but half the size of Africa which is 30 million square kilometres. Surrounding the continent is a frozen ocean that varies from a summer area of 2.65 million square kilometres to a winter area of 18.8 square kilometres. The icecap has an average depth of 7500 feet or 2300 metres thick and 90% of the world’s fresh water is contained in the icecap which covers 98% of Antarctica.
The coldest temperature ever in history was recorded at the Russian base Vostok at minus 89.6 Centigrade.
The wind can get pretty strong, at Mawson, the Australian research base, the wind averaged 70 km/hr over the years 1911-1914, the windchill combined with the mean temperatures makes for bitterly cold conditions. Gusts up to 180-190 kmh are very common, in contrast, Mt Kaukau’s strongest recorded gust is 202 kmh. The strongest wind gust recorded in Antarctica was 327 k/mh. That just gives you an idea of the sometimes brutal conditions that must be endured when visiting the southern most continent.
John boarded a Starlifter flight in very early October and landed on a base of 83 inches of ice on the sea at McMurdo Sound, exited the aircraft in about minus 25 degrees on a beautiful day, no wind or cloud. The air is so clean and pure there, the distances like Mt Erebus look like they are on your doorstep when they are 60-80 kms away.
One particular night (day), the winter chill was very strong winds so the temp that was -48 C with the windchill got up to -84 C on some recorded gusts. He had two teams organised to secure drilling pipes, they had to wear three pair of gloves, a polypropylene pair, a woollen pair then large ones called bear paws over them. Very cumbersome to wear but very necessary. One of the US personnel take his bear paw off to tighten the ratchet, John moved and got across to him in about two seconds, hit his arm hard to disengage it from the ratchet but in that two seconds, his outer wooden glove stayed on the ratchet as his hand had been sweating and it froze instantly. Luckily he still had his polypropylene glove on so he didn’t lose any skin but retired him for the shift, too dangerous to have him out there. Just a case to reflect the danger of the environment.
John had the privilege to visit Scott’s hut which is very close to McMurdo, the history just seeped out of it with partial penguin carcasses that they had performed autopsies on, original hams still hanging on the shelf, large tins of Huntley and Palmers biscuits. The living and sleeping facilities were quite basic as you would expect in the early 1900’s, tough men living in sub standard conditions, a lot to admire about the pioneers of the day. The Antarctic Heritage Trust in NZ send a team down every year to carry out maintenance and replace portions of the buildings, including Shackelton's hut, in his year, half of the Scott’s Hut roof got re-waterproofed and replaced.
In 1989, John applied to be seconded to NZDSIR Antarctic division at Scott Base as the Stores Officer.
Whilst there he was fortunate enough to try a few things, an overnight survival course is mandatory if you want to transit out from Scott Base so teams of two built a snow mound for the overnight stay on the ice/snow. They put all the gear in a heap on the snow, piled snow about a metre thick over it, then dug an access tunnel under the mound, got a person inside to form a sleeping space for two or three depending how many you had in your team, cosy as but still need your sleeping mat, bag etc. They did ice climbing, crevasse work, operating a motorised toboggan, cooking our food and drinks etc, excellent 36 hrs experience.
He had the opportunity to go on a helicopter flight to the German base which was at the head of the McMurdo Sound, about 2 hrs away. They did horizontal contour flying around the edge of the ice cliffs and with the vibration of the blades causing the edges of the ice cliffs to fall into the sound below, quite spectacular but a bit disturbing for the seals and penguins that were at the base of the cliffs on the ice floes sunbathing.
Other notable things John and his team did were:
- Getting into the Erebus ice tongue, a glacier that extends from Erebus over the Ross Ice Shelf and when it flows, forms large cavities or caves that collapse and reform until the sea ice thaws when it starts the process again. Quite eerie being in a cave, hearing it creaking as it is moving, albeit quite slowly, and seeing the form of a human walking on the ice above and they are visible through 3 metres of pure ice. He was told if you wanted a drink when you visited the ice caves to make sure it’s red wine only, you poured it into a glass and the top would freeze around the rim like a margarita but the tannin in red wine won’t freeze.
- Saw thousands of penguins, both the Adelie penguins and the Emperor penguins the biggest ones that stay on the ice during the winter months, large Weddel seals giving birth, their pups literally double their weight almost overnight, Minke whales, Orcas, Skua gulls who make sure there is no edible rubbish left anywhere, great scavengers.
- Hosted the TV show “It’s in the Bag” with John Hawkesby, Hilary Timmins and the camera crew.
- Had a mini Octoberfest (a party) called Scottfest 89.
- Played golf on the sea ice, played with orange golf balls for obvious reasons but they had to beat the skuas to their shots as they took a liking to picking up our golf balls, totally inedible but they still took them. If you hit the ball into some soft snow, was a bit hard to find them as well. Kept the course down to 9 holes on the sea ice, started to get a bit cold after 9 holes.
- Had a 10 year remembrance service for the MT Erebus crash that happened in 1979. A group of dignitaries were transported up the mountain and still saw parts of the wreckage and the mood was quite sombre amongst the base staff that morning while we honoured the flag at half mast.
Antarctica is a land if contrasts, it is the driest, coldest, windiest continent but is full of life both marine and land plus fauna.
Thank you John for a very interesting presentation.