Header Photo: Survey Work with skidoos on Alexander Island, 1975 (note campsite top right) (Photo: Richard Barrett)
The Background Story
Ski-doos (“skidoos”) and various other mechnical methods of travel had been experimented with for many years – Fox-Tracs at Adelaide for travel to and from the airstrip, Eliasons (aka Elsans) – see Eliasoneering”, by Pete Kennett, Stonington, 1963; and various iterations of actual “ski-doos”.
Ski-doos had been used successfully for many years for field work from Fossil Bluff, mostly on the relatively safe King George VI Sound, and also had been used for cross-plateau trips, typically accompanied by (and on a couple of occasions, carried home by) dog teams from Stonington – see Dave Singleton’s stories in 1972.
In 1974, at the time of the closure of Stoningon, and the move of field and air operations initially to Adelaide and then Rothera Point, the new Director of BAS Richard “Dick” Laws had mandated that dogs would no longer be used for field work, in favor of skidoos.
As written by Chris Edwards, the last Doggy Man at Stonington, (and also a geologist in his spare time!):
“There was a variety of reasons for this, some of which were financial, but the crux was that the base on Stonington Island would be closed and the dogs would be replaced by skidoos. People could be sent from the UK, given a key, shown the start button on a skidoo, and away they would go, sitting on their mechanical crevasse probe.”
In excess of 100 dogs were culled that summer, leaving a small number at Rothera Base for recreational purposes.
In the period from 1946 to 1975, not a single Fid died from a crevasse accident throughout the entire Topographical Survey, Geological or Geophysical Programs, while driving or traveling with a dog team.
In the summer of 1975, Richard Barrett and Colin Shaw continued the Survey program on Alexander Island, with each surveyor and GA having a skidoo each. Dog Holden commented of continuing sleepless nights about zooming around Alexander Island with geologist Bernie Care in the summer of 1976, effectively “acting as a human crevasse probe”.
Field personnel in 1975 and 1976, including Dog Holden (GA/BC), and GA’s Ian Henderson, Chris Knott and Rob Davies, had all experimented and recorded various techniques to maintain maximum safety in a system that was considered by most of those intimately involved to be inherently unsafe on the glaciers and icefields of the southern work areas, including Alexander Island. Uphill travel in a linked “skidoo-skidoo-sledge” mode, and downhill in a “skidoo-sledge-skidoo” mode became standard techniques, together with a complex rope and Jumar clamp arrangement.
This story outlines the travel methods used by the Rothera team. Each of the four Fids had a skidoo, and each had a sledge. Unless the sledges were linked in pairs between two skidoos, or were relayed on downward travel, inevitably the sledges would become out of control and likely overtake the skidoo.
Although the Rothera dogs were used in some years extensively for recreational purposes as late as 1979, in other years they were rarely used. Rothera personnel were routinely travelling on Adelaide and in the northern fjords with skidoos, primarily to gain experience for summer field work which was based entirely on skidoos. Colin Gregory the Builder in 1981, took a particular interest in running the dogs, and Steve Tait also ran them with Colin.
Wintering at Rothera in 1981 was much the same as in 1976/77. There were 13 wintering Fids, ‘gash’ was still a much-loved task, snow blocks were still being cut for water, and Saturday nights were a “special night” to be looked forward to, as was the time-honored tradition on most BAS Bases.
Another BAS policy change that took place under “new managment” was the tried and tested system that had been in place since the 1940’s – half the wintering Scientists and half the GA’s were rotated each year, in the vast majority of years leaving experienced field personnel to train and indoctrinate the incoming Fids. At Rothera in 1981, Vic August, Electrician, had overwintered at Rothera in 1977/78, as had Tractor Mechanic Alan Tickle in 1978/79. Diesel Mechanic Tim Godshank transferred from Halley, Andy Hawkins, WOM, had wintered 1978 and 1979 at Argentine Islands, Pete Lennard-Jones, Met. transferred from South Georgia, and BC/GA Mike Lewis, BC had wintered as Met. at Argentine Islands and South Georgia. Only Nigel Hadley, Tractor Mechanic, had wintered at Rothera in 1980.
Mike Jaques, a wintering GA in 1980, commented:
(Rod Pashley)
“After the summer, the 1981 wintering complement included only one Fid from the previous winter, Nigel Hadley, a tractor mechanic. The 1981 Fids would have had to learn about the dogs and I suspect their travel with dogs was fairly unadventurous. The dog vs skidoo debate was still raging at that time. Clearly the dogs were far safer and I’m sure Les (Sturgeon, GA) will agree that sometimes sitting on a skidoo felt like Russian Roulette. We stopped, probed, walked and recced, linked skidoos etc., but you could never be 100% especially in the powder snow. The skidoos did offer greater load carrying and further distances and I think that the science demand was changing from the days of exploratory travel. The geologists liked collecting big rocks and we all know how much kit the glacios had!”
Adelaide Island is 139 kilometres (75 nmi) long and 37 kilometres (20 nmi) wide. The island is split by a chain of eleven mountains, including the highest Mt. Gaudry (2,315 metres – 7,600 ft), and Mt. Mangin (2,040 metres – 6,700 ft). The McCallum Pass route, passing between Mt. Mangin and the Stokes Peaks, skirts the Shambles Glacier, on a route roughly on the words McCallum Pass on the attached map and aerial photo. The route and was well-known and had been used many times, during Survey work from Adelaide in the early 1960’s, Adelaide teams traveling to join the Stonington Field Program in the late 1960’s, and in the 1970’s to relocate the vehicles from Adelaide to Rothera (see Rothera 1976). The severity of potential dangers when travelling the Shambles Glacier were well-known and well-documented, as were the potential delays and dangers of Adelaide’s own weather pattern. Rod Pashley (GA, Adelaide), who traversed the McCallum and Shambles four times to the fjords and when joining the Stonington Summer Survey programs, relates that the Shambles Glacier is “definitely a shambles – big time, particularly in the lower reaches“. Neither the weather, the McCallum Pass route, nor the Shambles were ever to be taken lightly.