Autumn Plateau Journey (continued)
We were held up a week in a gale where it entered the Neny trough. The cold gales were a bit of a trial for us as we had to ration paraffin and food due to delays but the endurance of the dogs outside was remarkable. We had 35 days on the Plateau but could not travel on 18 of them due to blizzards when the average temperature was -26F and the coldest -45F. This was Monty’s last journey. He gave up pulling and slunk behind. He lost 19% of weight. Quite amazingly Babe with her thin coat expended much extra energy shivering but still had spare to pull. She lost only 9% of weight and Caesar only 4%. To us, dog feed nutrition, weight loss and their condition were top priority topics for Henry, as scientist, and for me as leader and planner in the weights we needed to carry and the journeys we wanted to accomplish, apart from concern to cause any suffering due to poor condition.
This journey was 42 days, 50% lie-up in cold windy conditions. The dogs’ weights before and after were as follows (Ibs).
These losses were put on within a few days with seal meat. Clearly the 1 lb nutrican block per day was a slow starvation ration for the dogs at this time. I recall reading the account of the Trans -Antarctic dog journey of 1989, air supported all the way, when the dogs were fed 6000 calories per day, the equivalent of about twice our dog ration, and this kept them in good condition all the way.
Peter Gibbs – Surveyor – Base Y – Horseshoe 1957; Base E – Stonington 1958