"Antarctica: a land of ice, snow, extreme cold, high winds,
blizzards, calms, sunshine, the most extraordinary natural beauty
imaginable - full of life, full of intrigue. A land that has drawn
man to explore, to suffer the most severe privations in the quest
to be 'first' - and to sometimes die in the attempt - 'for flag and
country'. A land that was once subtropical and is now one of the
driest places on earth - a desert - with very little rainfall
overall. A land that never warms below the surface. A land with
only a recent history involving man. But what a history." - Sir
Peter Blake
Getting to Antarctica
In December 2007 I embarked on a journey to fulfill my lifelong
dream to visit Antarctica. I did so as the inaugural recipient of
the Antarctic Youth Ambassador Award. The award is an initiative
between Antarctica New Zealand and the Sir Peter Blake Trust to
select a young New Zealander to participate in environmental work
in Antarctica and for them to act as an ambassador to educate
others through their experiences. Applicants can be aged between
18-25, who express a passion for adventure and contribute towards
the protection of the natural environment. My credentials,
including travel through sixty-two countries as mountaineer,
paraglider and sailor, and work with the United Nations Environment
Programme had convinced the judges of my suitability for the
award.
So it was that I soon found myself decked out from head to toe
in full Antarctic extreme cold weather gear standing outside the
International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch one warm sunny
morning in December waiting to board a US Air Force C-17 cargo
plane bound for Scott Base. Accompanying me was Dr Neil Gilbert,
the environmental manager for Antarctica New Zealand. We were
embarking on a ten-day visit to the Ross Dependency to conduct
environmental audits around Scott Base and assist in a review of
the McMurdo Dry Valleys Antarctic Specially Managed Area
(ASMA).
Antarctic Field Training
Antarctic field training (AFT) is compulsory to all new arrivals
at Scott Base. The training involves learning Antarctic survival
and safety skills, along with Scott Base specific field protocols.
The best part about the course is camping overnight in a 'Scott
Polar Tent'.
The day began with a seminar about equipment and safety. In the
afternoon we loaded up a Hagglund tracked vehicle and departed for
the AFT camp about 8km to the north on the Ross ice-shelf in the
shadow of Mt Erebus's smoking crater. Here I learnt to pitch the
polar tents and dig an emergency snow shelter. In the evening,
after a hot meal of the dehydrated form, I sat outside under the
midnight sun and sipped at a cup of tea. My attention was drawn to
the south, along the route that Scott, Shackleton and Hillary must
have embarked on all those years ago in pursuit of the South Pole.
I imagined myself venturing off into that unending whiteness on a
sledge or, in Hillary's case, a Massey Ferguson tractor. I returned
to my tent, tied up the doors and crawled into my three sleeping
bags atop two thermal mattresses. Although it was minus 20°C
outside, it was warm and comfortable inside the tent. In keeping
with what I had been taught, I ensured my radio and camera were
kept warm inside my sleeping bag and that my trusty pee-bottle was
always close at hand to save venturing out in the night.
ANDRILL
Having completed my field training I was now free to familiarize
myself with Scott Base and the some of the scientific projects
being undertaken in the vicinity. One such project is known as
ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing), this is a multi-million
dollar, multinational project to improve our understanding of the
Antarctic's past climate for the last 65 million years, in order to
guide future scenarios of global warming on the continent. Situated
50km from Scott Base, the ANDRILL project looks from a distance
like a Bedouin nomad camp in the middle of a white sand desert. The
camp comprises of a drilling platform residing on 8m thick sea-ice
and living/working quarters for about thirty staff. Due to the
weight, the drilling platform is stabilized from below the ice by
massive airbags. It is from here that the drill extends down
through seawater for ~300m before penetrating the ocean floor.
Upon arrival at the camp the ANDRILL team were celebrating
reaching their target depth of 1100m into the seabed and had begun
extracting a good quality core. The technology being utilized in
the project was a combination of conventional oil/gas equipment,
tools used in geological core extraction and a hell of a lot of
innovative and creative adaptation for the specialized and
challenging conditions on the Antarctic sea-ice. I joined the team
in celebrating their success with pikelets with fresh cream and
jam. 'Who said life is hard down in Antarctica?'
Historic Huts
My next adventure was to Cape Evans and Royds, home of Scott's
'Terra Nova' and Shackleton's 'Nimrod' historic huts. This journey
took me to the east of Scott Base ~50km along the shores of Ross
Island. On arrival, I stood in the bright sun with a fine view of
Mt Erebus and a small wooden hut about 100m away. Beside us sat a
green wanagan (shipping container converted into a mobile home)
with a New Zealand flag set on a pole and a second flag bearing the
letters 'AHT'. This was the camp of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, a
non-profit organization responsible for the care of the expedition
bases associated with the first explorers of the Ross Sea
region.
Stepping into the hut was like stepping back in time. I had
expected it to be just some old run-down hut with nothing much of
interest. However, as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness I
began to sense that this was not just any old hut.
The room inside was large, perhaps 15m across by 8m wide. In the
centre sat a large dining table, to the right was a kitchen fully
stocked with supplies, bunk beds lay to centre left and right of
the dining table. Towards the rear I could make out a laboratory
and photographic darkroom. In the far left corner I recognized
something I had seen before in a photograph. It was the bunk and
desk of Robert Falcon Scott. An airy sensation ran down my spine as
I looked around and recognized more features from the historic
photos. From within these walls lay the memories of men whose
adventure, discovery and endurance I could scarcely begin to
fathom. I sat myself down on the floor and looked up into the
rafters searching for the ghosts that haunted these walls. The
experience left me perplexed for the next few days. It also made me
recognize and appreciate the work of the AHT team to protect these
huts as a vestige of Antarctica's heroic age and early
explorers.
McMurdo Dry
Valleys
The time came to get down to business with our environmental
work in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. These valleys are the largest
expanse of ice-free ground in Antarctica covering an area of about
15,000km2, equivalent to that of Fiordland National Park. They are
greatly valued as a wilderness, as they represent a near pristine
environment free from humans and uncontaminated by human
activities. They compose a dramatic landscape of barren mountains
and sweeping glaciers that contrast starkly against the monotonous
whiteness of the rest of the continent. The work in the valleys
involved locating, surveying and reviewing the status of cited
'special features' as part of a five yearly review as stipulated by
the Antarctic Treaty provisions.
We flew by helicopter up the Wright valley and landing at Don
Juan Pond. Don Juan Pond is a hyper saline lake that is so salty
that it never freezes. Around the pond lay a myriad of strange
mummified creatures; on closer inspection it was apparent they were
the corpses of penguins and seals. Interestingly, the pond is 60km
away from the sea, suggesting these poor creatures to have been
seriously disorientated before coming to grief on the edge of the
pond. It's incredible to realise that some of these mummies have
been dated as old as 2000 years, providing further evidence of the
unique environmental conditions in the valleys.
We surveyed a number of other special features and I left with a
deep appreciation for both the aesthetic and scientific values of
the area. While few will ever venture there, at least they provide
a small area on this planet where the human 'footprint' has been
minimal and will hopefully stay that way into the future.
Reflections on the frozen continent
Antarctica was truly wonderful to behold. The harshness and
fragility of the place is both frightening and amazing. Going there
was a physical and emotional rollercoaster ride from start till
finish. Once away from Scott Base and the Dry Valleys, the
remoteness and solitude is so intense that the obsessions of the
material world become meaningless and one is confronted by the
reality of one's own existence and survival. The future of the
frozen continent is inextricably tied to 'our' decisions as to how
'we' confront the issues of human induced climate change.
As Edwin Mickleburgh is quoted, "The continent has become a
symbol of our time. The test of man's willingness to pull back from
the destruction of the Antarctic wilderness is the test also of his
willingness to avert destruction globally. If he cannot succeed in
Antarctica he has little chance of success elsewhere."
A hundred years ago the Antarctic challenge was a race to reach
the South Pole. Today the challenge is one of science and
stewardship. Sir Peter Blake's legacy reminds us that vision alone
is not enough, "Change comes through realizing the vision and
turning it into a reality. It is easy to espouse worthy goals,
values and policies; the hard part is implementation." And so my
adventure continues endowed with these experiences, lessons and
challenges…