The New – A Historic Meeting – Jonathan Walton
In the 1960’s, small motorised vehicles were appearing on the various bases in Marguerite Bay. Scorned by most of the husky brigade at Stonington for (quite rightly) not being reliable enough for the unsupported long distance travelling that constituted most of the field work at that time.
However, Fossil Bluff, that tiny outpost of humanity away from the coast on George VI Ice Shelf did not have dogs – they relied on the 3 Muskeg tractors (named Blodwen, Aphrodite and Fred – don’t ask me why, I didn’t name them!!) and one or two rather clanky and unpredictable FoxTrac motor toboggans. Between these vehicles quite a bit of glaciological work was achieved on and around the ice shelf. By the early 1970’s the Fox Trac had been replaced by 399cc “Alpine” skidoos and later by some “Valmont” 440cc skidoos. By the time I arrived in 1973, the 4 of us (Jim Bishop, Rog Tindley, Graham Tourney and your scribe Jonathan Walton) had in our fleet a total of 5 skidoos and 3 Muskeg tractors.
Our Mechanic for the 1974 winter was Roger Tindley who, with the help of a newly built and comparatively spacious and warm garage had got all 3 muskegs running (2 of them with major rebuilds) and the skidoos serviced regularly and becoming ever more reliable. Indeed, in March/April May 1974 the 4 of us had completed an unsupported trip of around 400miles to the seaward side of the Bach Ice shelf on the West Coast of Alexander Island – the first time that skidoos had been used within BAS for a journey like this. That trip is described elsewhere but we had proved that linked skidoos could operate relatively safely in difficult terrain. We finally got back to Fossil Bluff on 24th May, well after the sun had left for the winter, having had a week of temperatures around -45C.
However, that is not relevant to this tale – thankfully travelling up and down George VI Ice Shelf is very straightforward and pretty safe so single skidoo units were not uncommon.
Continued from Fossil Bluff page…
Fast forward to 19th September 1974 – a busy day at Fossil Bluff – all 4 of us were heading North to continue some glaciological studies started several years earlier. Jim and myself were going to fit out a new small living hut that had been flown into Spartan Glacier the previous season (the original flat pack!) which would make living conditions there much more comfortable for the ongoing and long standing microclimate studies of the small self contained glacier basin. Rog and Graham would head further North towards Carse Point, taking in various “strain rosettes” of aluminium poles that had to be established to continue the movement and deformation studies of George VI Ice Shelf. We look a large load of kit up to Spartan Glacier on Maudheim sledges behind Muskeg “Blodwen” enjoying our recently returned sun and taking just about 4 hours to cover the 24miles to our destination. On 22nd September, Aphrodite and it’s crew headed North again, about another 40 miles. On good surfaces with a reasonable load the Muskegs could average around 8 miles an hour and there was even a heater (of sorts) in the enclosed cab.
We kept up to date with the movements of all the sledges out on Spring journeys from Stonington on what we knew by then was to be the last major dog sledging trips unsupported by aircraft. Stonington was due to be closed in February 1975 with most of the magnificent dogs scheduled for culling. One of the teams, Sledge “Sierra” with Geologist Chris Edwards and GA Chris Knott, were heading South down the plateau before cutting SW to George Ice shelf and their main destination Alexander Island where Chris was to spend the season examining the amazing rock formations in that area, unlike anything found elsewhere on the peninsula. We at Fossil Bluff were determined to meet up with Chris&Chris – for theirs was to be the last ever overland dog trip from Stonington to Alexander Island. We had good radio contact on 2nd October where they told us they only had the tricky descent of the Riley Glacier between them and the ice shelf. We arranged a Rendezvous with them at Ball Point, some 50 miles North of Spartan Glacier for the evening of the 3rd. The next day dawned with good weather. We departed from Spartan Cwm at 0945 and headed North. It was cold down on the ice shelf (about -34C) but with a southerly wind of about 15knots it was great conditions to drive North at about 15mph. Jim was driver for the day, I was sitting in comfort on the loaded Nansen, well padded up. The surface was great and we made great progress. We had to stop, erect a pup tent and brew up a hot lunch after a few hours – just too cold! – but finally met up with Rog and Graham and Blodwen.
One vivid memory of the day occurred when we stopped our lone skidoo for lunch. I had been sitting quite still on the sledge for nearly 3 hours – and the temperature was around -30C. I suffer from cold diuresis – I needed a pee – desperately. Not so easy when one is enveloped inside many layers of clothing. And another phenomenon – when the human body gets really cold, any sticky out bits retract into themselves. You can probably guess what is coming. I rummaged inside my windproof trousers, moleskins, long johns, shreddies and found……… nothing!! Starting to panic now and needing a pee more than ever. I can assure you that it is possible to stand almost stock still in -30C and sweat profusely!! It took about 20 secs of careful manipulation to persuade the necessary appendage to emerge so I could relieve myself. I was relieved – in more than one sense of the word!!
Now, transcribed from my diary.
“We found the various aluminium stakes we were looking for, took various measurements and eventually met up with Rog and Gray at about 1500. A Marvellous campsite, close under Ball Point with some very large cliffs towering above us. In due course we saw some dots travelling South towards us. A couple of hours after we had made camp, Chris Edwards turned up, closely followed by Chris Knott. They had had a bit of an epic down the Riley Glacier – Chris Knott had lost a dog and they broke through a number of snow bridges.
We had a great witter session before the Radio Sked, then we ate separately before congregating in the Caboose for a Rum Party. Its very odd seeing new faces after 7 months with just the 4 of us. It’s a real travelling circus here – 2 skidoos, 2 dog teams and a Muskeg tractor. A day to remember, 58 miles travelled in -30C temps in about 5 hours, a marvellous scenic campsite, absolutely dingle weather and then meeting other people in the middle of nowhere. A real Livingstone and Stanley meeting.”
A slightfully wistful comment at the end of the diary entry for the day. “What fun it would be to drive a dog team”.
Of course we took some photos – possibly the last time ever that the Old and the New would meet up on the Peninsula.
The good weather continued the next day – we all departed and by the following evening, sledge Sierra were on the Western side of George VI ice Shelf while the rest of us were cosily camped under Carse Point, about 20 miles further North than our historic meeting place.
And there the weather broke. From 4th to 16th October we were lying up, unable to do any work at all. Roger wrote an legendary Icelandic Saga and we spent a lot of time hunkered down in the caboose. On the 16th we managed to travel about 16 miles South to a glaciological study site that needed a re-survey. This was duly knocked off before we camped for the night. The following morning the weather was clear and we heard that the BAS Twin Otters were just about to depart from Punta Arenas heading for Adelaide. We at Fossil Bluff were supposed to be in residence to act as an alternate for the aircraft. Jim and I headed South apace and next contacted Adelaide when we were just off the entrance to Spartan Cwm, about 55 miles and 5 hours later. The weather was OK at Adelaide, the aircraft were not needing us so we spent the night back in the luxury of our little field hut on Spartan Glacier.
Jonathan Walton – Glaciologist – Fossil Bluff, 1973 & 1974