Spring and Summer Journeys (continued)
For the summer survey journey, thanks to the brilliance of Caesar as a lead dog we adopted the most economical sledging outfit having 3 sledges to 3 men with one 3-man tent and a pup tent, thus spreading the fixed weight of 437 Ibs (survey gear, radio, tent shovels, ice axes, ropes etc.).
In addition Pete and I sledged a depot of 2-weeks supplies down to the Wordie Ice Shelf, so that from there we could start with 8 weeks supplies. The addition of the Moomins from Horseshoe was now of great help and Pete drove this team.
The period from beginning August to the first week in January was one of constant travel, initially on support journeys or depot runs and then the main summer survey journey which lasted 59 days and took us through fascinating country, across the upper Wordie Shelf and Prospect Pass, first traversed by Alfred Stephenson of the BGLE. along inland glaciers not seen from the coast into the Traffic Circle and Mobiloil Inlet, partly surveyed by Doug Mason of Operation Tabarin and then home, the last part the way we had reconnoitred with such difficulty in the autumn.
The conditions were generally warm and kind in great contrast to autumn and winter sledging nevertheless, the rations were for men and dogs alike inadequate for the work output so that we ourselves lost up to 25 Ibs and the dogs too, tho’ I have no record of their weights on return. We gave the dogs one extra nutrican block every 5 days on this trip.
On Christmas day, in the magnificence of the scenery of Mobiloil Inlet, we discovered that each of us had packed a Xmas pudding as a surprise for the others, which on top of double rations provided a gluttonous surfeit. This was a varied journey of 422 miles of which 180 miles were on sea or shelf ice and the rest on glaciers or the plateau ice cap.
Out of 59 days only 14 were no-travel days but again on some of these we could have travelled had it not been for survey objective which dictated the pace. The dog teams worked consistently well. We varied loads according to the surface and performance of each team. Epsilon led the Spartans, and Ruth the Moomins and of special record was Caesar’s reliability in leading and breaking trail.
Peter Gibbs – Surveyor – Horseshoe 1957; Surveyor/BC – Stonington 1968