Not a Sledge Dog at All, but:- (continued)
The trip had as its aim the finishing off of Graham’s geology programme, this involving visiting odd outcrops of rock in the southern part of the island.
I remember that the ‘Citizens’ led quite a large exodus from base, being followed up the hill by the ‘Huns’, the ‘Counties’ and the ‘Admirals’ – these three teams, with their attendant manpower being concerned to further the survey programme a little further north on the island.
When we left base Peso made some sort of judgement of her own and decided to follow the ‘Citizens’ up the hill. My own reaction to this was to suggest that we stop, grab her and take her back to base. Graham was not too impressed by this notion and said that when Peso got tired she would turn in her tracks and head back to base. This didn’t happen and Peso stayed with us. When it became apparent that we were stuck with her, we clipped her on to a trace which we attached to the side of the sledge and she kept pace very well. By now we were travelling in thick mank and after some twelve miles we camped, knowing that we were in the vicinity of Survey Station No 6., now Milestone Bluff.
The following day was essentially a lie up day, but as No.6 was occasionally visible Graham went off to geologize and I followed later with Peso. We eventually found Graham, and Peso seemed to enjoy examining various rock faces, probably appreciating the chance to get her feet on rock again. She had in fact experienced an indifferent night, sleeping outside on the skirting of the tent. We decided to relent and to let her sleep inside, although I had to overcome some not entirely convincing adverse mutterings from Graham. Luckily we had equipped ourselves with a three man tent and it was not difficult to find adequate space for her.
From this campsite we moved on, ascending the glacier that flows down to the Adelaide Island piedmont on the north side of Milestone Bluff, and camping on the wide col between Mt. Ditte and Mt. Liotard.
On 25th February my field diary records that we examined outcrops on the west ridge of Mt. Liotard. Peso came with us and rather put us to shame, tackling some difficult ground more easily than we ourselves did. I recorded that the second outcrop we visited required a 1000 foot climb on ski, in very soft snow and with a lot of drift being blown around. Peso seemed quite at home but was not overly impressed when she realized that our skis gave Graham and me greater speed, than she herself could command on the return back down to the tent.
The next day we climbed up to Survey Station No.7 at a little over 5000 feet. This station was the summit of a rounded top which rises on the north side of the Ditte- Liotard col and to the south east of Liotard. Although only a snow climb, it was sufficiently steep at first to persuade us to use a rope. Peso just followed along and attaining the summit was able to claim the height record reached by a dog on Adelaide Island! I remember the weather as being perfect and that we had magnificent views to the east over Laubeuf Fjord
It was interesting throughout the trip to see how the ‘Citizens’ reacted to Peso. One might have expected that they would be jealous and resentful of a pet dog that had access to the tent and which seemed to enjoy a more privileged relationship with their human masters than they themselves had. In fact they seemed content to largely ignore her, their attitude being a curious blend of apathy, patronising indifference and good natured puzzlement as to what Peso was for! Graham’s team was the usual bunch of well disposed, likeable huskies but there were one or two characters who could manage to summon up a mean streak. Toscaig, for example, was a dog to be reckoned with and I would not have been at all surprised to learn that Toscaig was planning dire things for Peso, but no, all was peaceful. Peso did have her own wisdom of course and usually kept herself at a distance from the huskies
When we were on the move Peso was generally left to run free and she tended to find a position for herself just to one side of and a little behind the driver. Being overly well fed on base she began the trip carrying surplus body fat but it was remarkable how quickly she lost this fat. At first it had been a bit difficult as to how to feed her and she had made some unwelcome inroads into our sledging rations and particularly into my chocolate! After a few days however she became reconciled to the same Nutrican block ration that the huskies had.
We returned to the Adelaide piedmont from the Ditte – Liotard col on 2nd February. Before setting off down we visited the cairn on the summit of Milestone Bluff. Peso enjoyed this excursion, in marked contrast to her experience a day earlier when, travelling in drift across the col, her coat had become completely snowed up – a feature which hadn’t made her too popular in the tent!
Graham’s aim now was to work exposures on the north west flank of Mt. Gaudry and the west flank of Mt. Barre. One outcrop on Gaudry looked impractical from a distance out on the piedmont and did not look too cheerful from close in but we roped up and decided to give it a go. The slope was steep and there was a nasty bergschrund to be negotiated. At this point we sent Peso back down to wait for us below which turned out to have been the correct decision for, shortly after, we were a little embarrassed by some powder snow avalanches that swept down to about knee height. Peso watched these from below but seemingly found them unimpressive, for she did not deign to move even when one ran out very near to her!
After working the rock exposures above we set off for Muskeg Depot, now Lincoln Nunatak, travelling in weather that was rapidly worsening, so much so that we had difficulty in making camp. The three of us endured a very noisy night in the tent.
Bad weather prevented travel for the next two days and Peso, pretty well confined to the tent, yet somewhat restive. When conditions improved we were relieved to get going again, heading for the south end of the island, following the line of nunataks south from Milestone Bluff.
Whilst scrambling on one of these nunataks Peso and I were divebombed by a pair of aggressive Antarctic terns and, after some searching, it was Peso who eventually found the well camouflaged nest with two eggs.
On 9th February we returned to base and I have a clear mind’s eye picture of the ‘Citizens’ enjoying the downhill run. Base T was hidden by low stratocumulus but we were in bright sunshine above it and with the distant mountains of Alexander Island clearly visible on the horizon. On a hard summer surface we were moving at some speed and Peso, ears and tail flying, was at the full gallop. She she was close to home and was doubtless looking forward ‘home comforts’ but overall I felt pretty sure that she had enjoyed her venture in the field.
Stan Woolley (Met.) Adelaide 1962 and 1963