Field Report of Sledge Hotel – May 1st to May 16, 1981 – Steve Tait
Stephen Tait (General Assistant), Robert Atkinson (Cook)
The journey was undertaken primarily as a holiday, with the objective in mind of reaching Cape Mascart at the northern most point of Adelaide Island. We were then intending to travel south to Adelaide base.
May 1 (Friday) Departed Rothera at 1200 hrs. after breakfast and we were in no great hurry. The travelling conditions were excellent with good visibility and good contrast, allowing us to reach our tum off point on the Shambles glacier at 1400 hrs. From this point we followed a bearing of 340 magnetic, and stayed on this bearing even though the visibility was still very good. At 1500 hrs. we arrived at the deserted campsite of Sledge Golf, who, as was later confirmed, had by this time decided to travel south to Adelaide. We stopped for a very short time, and as the conditions were still so good we decided to travel on for another hour. At 1600 hrs we stopped and set up camp approximately 5 miles south of Mount Machatschek.
May 2 We had hoped to be able to move off at 0930, but the cloud level was so low that we settled in for a lie-up. However, 1230 the visibility was excellent, and by 1430 we were travelling towards Mount Machatschek. It started snowing at 1530 as we were passing the mountain and we made camp at 1630 amongst bad sastrugi.
May 3 It was obvious during the night that we were going to experience bad storms with heavy winds, and we spent the day lie-ing up. The wind was gusting at 50 knots approx. and there was a lot of blowing snow which reduced visibility to a minimum.
May 4 The wind stopped at 0200 hrs., at 1030 the visibility was 30 feet and we were at that time debating whether or not to get the equipment together and make a break if it cleared up at all. As it happened the weather did clear and we were able to move at 1310 hrs. We reached Cape Mescart at 1500 hrs. The visibility was by this time unlimited, and the temperature was dropping quickly.
At the northern end of Adelaide Island the snow slopes down to the sea, and we were having some difficulty trying to turn our unit around when we encountered soft snow. At one time both the skidoos were stuck, and we spent quite a time digging them out. Rob’s skidoo was free and while I wag trying to dig mine out he was taking his sledge up the ramp to a position about 100 feet away. When he returned a strong wind started and I decided to get the tent up as soon as possible. By the time the camp was established the wind had increased and the temperature was dropping very quickly but within fifteen minutes Rob was inside the tent with the primus going, and I was by this time securing the unit outside.
May 5 By 0815 the wind had blown itself out and the temperature was quite low, so we started to make preparations for our move. At 0900 Visibility was again unlimited and so Rob ferried a sledge up to his sledge at the top of the ramp while I dug out my skidoo. As soon as the skidoo was free I found that it had been a waste of time as the right hand track was split in 3 places and it would have been impossible to travel on it. We had had a bad night and Rob’s morale was low, so in view of this I decided that our best course of action would be to get away from the exposed position we were in and travel towards base, with the intention of notifying base that evening of our predicament. We spent ten minutes sorting out equipment and packing necessary things and we depoted the remainder.
I drove the skidoo and Rob travelled on the sledge, and for the first hour we made very good progress, but at Mount Velain 66.40S 67.45W the surface deteriorated and we found ourselves in very deep powder snow. At 1640 I noticed the Rob had a very bad case of frost nip on his face, and I spent ten minutes getting his circulation back to normal, and then we moved for another ten minutes to get into the lee of Blumpke Knoll. On the radio sched that evening the position was explained to Dr. Paul Griffiths who advised a lie-up for the following day, and a course of oral penicillin for Rob.
May 6 Weather excellent, in fact a beautiful day, with both of us complaining about our enforced lie-up, but we had heard that Sledge Golf, was on its way to give us a hand.
On the evening sched. we learnt that Golf had encountered bad conditions about a couple of miles north of Bond, and they had had to stop, in a position about ten miles south of where we were. It was decided that in the morning if the weather was good enough instead of them trying to get up to us we would try to get to them.
May 7 Again a very good day weather wise but the conditions for travelling were really bad, with very deep soft snow, so it took ug six hours to reach Sledge Golf.
May 8 Visibility again unlimited but we decided not to travel as the skidoo carbs all needed stripping off and thawing out. By the time this operation was finished it was too late to travel.
May 9 The weather was reasonable with good contrast, but the conditions were so bad it took us all day to travel ¼ mile. The powder snow caused us terrible problems. (I will mention this further at the end of this report). We got the unit together just as it started to snow, and again we had to service the carbs.
May 10 Again the travelling conditions were good but the snow was still very deep. However, it turned out quite well in that my skidoo was in a bad way and unable to pull a sledge very well. So I went ahead and broke a trail, while John, Nige and Rob ferried sledges in the tracks. It would be worth noting that when in the tracks the broken snow to the sides was level with the bottom of the windscreen.
After 10 miles we were able to break into good conditions and we were able to camp at about 2 miles from Bond Nunatak.
Between the 11th May and the 15th May we were unable to leave the tent for longer than a few minutes at a time as the weather was so bad. John and I decided to sleep in a pup tent, mainly just to try it out, and Nige and Rob slept in the Pyramid. – See Note 1 below for additional narrative
May 15 The wind stopped at 1810 luckily, as the morale was dropping.
May 16 (Saturday) John and I spent all morning from before first light digging out all the equipment so we would be able to leave as soon as possible. Nige and Rob cleared away all the inside equipment and got the skidoo’s running.
At 1315 John led off on a bearing of 180 at 1430 corrected to a bearing of 160. After 15 minutes we got into a crevassed area, and I suggested to John that he should correct again, this he did and with the weather improving and the vis. getting better all the time we set off on 200. After 15 minutes on this bearing we came to a rock outcrop. At this point we refuelled, and I took the lead, having estimated that we were within 3 or 4 miles of McCallum Pass. At this point we started to climb and I had difficulty breaking trail with Rob sitting on the rear of my doo, so he joined John on his. After 10 or 15 minutes travelling I realised that we were too high, although John had just indicated by giving the thumbs up that we were o.k. At this point in time I did a sharp turn as I realised that we had to get down, but my skidoo rolled and I was thrown off. On recovering I looked up the slope to see what I thought was John’s skidoo rolling. Nige, who was travelling third in line had by this time stopped and got off his skidoo, and he was shouting to me.
At this point I realised that John and Rob had gone down a crevasse.
I unclipped my skidoo from the sledge and drove up to within about 20 feet of Nige, tied on to my doo and probed up to him.
I then tied on to a rope which was attached to Nige’s doo and started to the edge of the crevasse to abseil down. When I looked down I thought that both John and Rob would be dead, so at this point I changed plan and started back to Nige to get him out of the dangerous area, and down to the radio.
On returning to the lip of the crevasse I knocked some ice down and this must have brought John round. l heard him calling and put down a double rope, but it was a long way short. I then lowered a single rope for him to tie into and I hung over the lip to assess the situation. He was trapped by the skidoo at least 80 feet down but he was able to tie on and tell me that Rob was gone. I set up a winch system as best I could but there was no way that I was going to get that doo off John. At this moment in time I thought that the only thing I could do, would be to go down and see the position for myself.
When I got to John I could see that the situation was hopeless, and that he was dying from his numerous injuries. He was jammed between the skidoo and the ice and there was no possible way that with the equipment I had at my disposal I would get him out. His left leg was jammed and crushed below the knee and broken at the femur. His right leg was broken at the hip, his chest was crushed and he obviously had great difficulty in breathing. Also he had numerous lacerations on his head and face, and he was bleeding from the mouth.
There was no sign of Rob, and I assumed that he had gone through the secondary bridge about 20 feet below. John knew he was going to die, and he knew that I could not get him out. I stayed with him for about ten minutes and a quarter of an hour, but I knew that I would have to leave him and go to help Nige who was on the surface alone. When I was about 20 feet above John jumaring up the rope, he shouted and then lapsed into unconsciousness, l think at this point he died.
It took me twenty minutes to gain the lip of the crevasse as my strength was failing, and God knows how long to get over the lip. I tried to winch again but after a short while I just had to give up.
We managed to get the tent up and sort out a unit from what was left, and I informed the base of the accident at 1930.
See Note 2 below for additional narrative
We were picked up the next day and taken back to base. See Note 3 below for additional narrative
Steve Tait
Notes:
- Chapter 15 – “Shambles” by Stephen Tait describes the lie-up in greater detail – Read On
- Chapter 23 – “Shambles” by Stephen Tait describes the crevasse accident in greater detail – Read On….
- Chapter 29 – “Shambles” by Stephen Tait describes the subsequent rescue – Read On….
Statement to Press and BAS Bases by Director Dick Laws:
“John Anderson and Bob Atkinson were killed yesterday while trying to get back to Rothera. They had been on a field trip and were laid up in their tents for many weeks during violent storms. While returning, they drove over a snow bridge covering a huge crevasse. The bridge collapsed. They both fell into the crevasse along with their skidoo. Steve Taite managed to climb down to them. He found John Anderson on a ledge still alive, but he died shortly thereafter. There was no sign of Bob Atkinson. He is presumed to have died instantly at the bottom of the crevasse. Steve Taite and Nigel Hadley were with John and Bob. Mark Lewis has sent a rescue party to assist them back to base. All our heartfelt sympathies have gone out to the families of John and Bob.”