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F\yn nwsmmmm A N E W S B U L L E T I N p u b l i s h e d q u a r t e r l y b y t h e NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY BRKS C141 STARLIFTER' Vol. 5, No. 4 52nd ISSUE DECEMBER, 1968 Winter and Summer bases. Scotr S u m m e r b a s e o n l y t H a l l e t r NEW ZEALAND Transferred base Wilkes _ U S f v A u s t - ! TASMANIA temporarily non -operational. .K5yowa . CvMybdl I. (n.j) <F *V Sl-!?5; 1 ^^Amundicn -Scott (U.S.) ' A N Tl A R /T'" ' " <* MawitfnV. AT1*1"' X «tf \ « £ ' .# DRAWN IY DEPARTMENT OF LANDS I SURVEY WlLLINGTON,NEW ZEALAND, MAR. I9G4- 1"." EDITION (Successor to "Antarctic News Bulletin") Vol. 5, No. 4 52nd ISSUE DECEMBER, 1968 Editor: A. S. Helm, M.B.E., M.A., 37 Worcester St., Wellington, N.2, New Zealand. Assistant Editor: Mrs R. H. Wheeler. Business Communications, Subscriptions, etc., to: Secretary, New Zealand Antarctic Society, P.O. Box 2110, Wellington, N.Z. CONTENTS Accident to Vehicles on Trek to Vanda Germans Like Scott Base Stamps Expedition to Mount Minto Proposed Visit by Governor-General Wilkes Station Belgian Activities in Antarctica during 1969 News from French Bases: May-August 1968 British Antarctic Survey News American Stations Comment on Tourism News from South Africa Russian Plans for 1968-69 Season Tenth Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition 1968-70 Antarctic Stations, 14: Plateau Station Norwegian Whalers Withdraw from Antarctic New Building for Scott Polar Research Institute New U.S. Officer-in-Charge at Christchurch News of the Sub-Antarctic Islands Mapping the Last Continent by Denys Rainey American Tourists Visit First Tourists Cross the South Pole: By Tracey Simpson Society News The Reader Writes Antarctic Bookshelf December, 1968 ACCIDENT TO VEHICLES ON TREK TO VANDA The completion of the wintering- Loaded with the huts, fuel and over station at Lake Vanda in the supplies weighing five tons, the trac Wright Dry Valley, about 80 miles tor-train made good progress, travel north-west of Scott Base, was ad ling non-stop where possible, the six- vanced further following a helicopter man team rotating between driving and ground reconnaissance on 20 and sleep. Shortly after midnight, on October. October 28, having travelled up tire This reconnaissance was carried Wilson Piedmont Glacier without ^ut by the Scott Base leader, Robin trouble, the party set up a tempor oubister; the deputy leader and ary camp high above the Wright Val leader of the Vanda Station, Bill ley. Then Bill Luey in the Snocat, Lucy; the base engineer, Allan followed by Hugh Clark in the bull Guard; the 1867-68 base diesel dozer, pushed on, when suddenly the mechanic, Alan Magee. The group rear of the 8-ton bulldozer broke was flown in by helicopter mainly to through a snow-bridge over a cre pinpoint a route into the Lower vasse. Lucy turned back to give as Wright Valley, which runs off the sistance but, when within 50 yards coastal Wilson Piedmont Glacier. of the bulldozer, the rear pontoons of his Snocat broke through another It was the first time that an at crevasse. Fortunately both men tempt had been made to have escaped from their vehicles un vehicles enter the valley, which is scathed. hemmed in by steep moraine-covered A severe radio blackout delayed slopes and the Lower Wright Glacier. communications, but as soon as They decided that after coming off word reached Scott Base plans were the glacier the tractor-train would made to get the two vessels out of have to descend about 700 ft. to the the crevasses. As expected, this took valley floor before travelling about several days, the bulldozer being re 16 miles up the valley door to the covered first, and then it was used to site of the new station, 150 yards haul out the Snocat after recovery south-east of Lake Vanda. A road gear was flown from Scott Base. way would have to be formed off Afterwards the party was dogged the glacier down into the valley. by mechanical breakdowns. While it This would be done by a Caterpillar was being recovered the Snocat D4 bulldozer which formed part of broke a differential and a universal, the tractor-train. and a spring which had been tem porarily repaired earlier in the sea Two huts had been erected at son. Spare parts had to be flown Lake Vanda last season, but the main from Scott Base to carry out the re accommodation hut for the five men who will winter over lay in a dis pairs. mantled state at the foot of Hog Following two weeks of intensive back Hill, where it was deposited bv effort, the vehicles were recovered, helicopter last summer. This hut had and the two Fergusson tractors and been formerly used as a summer all the equipment lowered to the val ley floor. The final task was hauling base for Canterbury University the loaded trailers by the Fergussons biology studies at Cape Royds. to the site of Vanda Station. Here The bulldozer, two tractors, and a the party ran into a new Antarctic Sno-cat used by Sir Vivian Fuchs on hazard — dust. The tractor wheels his Trans-Antarctic Expedition of caused large clouds of dust which 1957-58 moved out of Scott Base on hindered visibility and made driving October 22, and moved northwards conditions extremely difficult. The up the sea ice to Cape Royds before trailers also suffered — being con heading west to the Wilson Piedmont ditioned for Antarctic work, they Glacier. were not equipped with air cleaners. ^m December, 1968 By the time the tractor train reached Base Postmaster (Mr B. C. Hool, of Vanda the trailers had almost stop Thames), "until we received a letter ped—their engines choked to death which enclosed a newspaper cutting by dust and grit. But the main task depicting the four Ross Dependency had been completed — the vital sup stamps. Apparently this appeared plies and material had reached together with an article in a German Vanda Station. national newspaper." Most of the 500 letters sought the full set of stamps—two cents, three GERMANS LIKE SCOTT cents, seven cents and 15 cents—as well as the post office's three cachets. BASE STAMPS Payment has been made in inter national reply coupons which are New Zealand's southernmost post equivalent .to the cost of overseas office is attracting intense interest surface mail. from philatelists around the world. In six weeks prior to December Mr Hool's assistant is Mr R. J. more than 1,300 letters have been Hancock of Wellington. They said handled at Scott Base: 500 received that Scott Base was New Zealand's through the mail; about 400 date- busiest philatelic post office and was stamped for personnel at nearby New Zealand's only post office to McMurdo Base, and 300 from the have its own set of postage stamps. Byrd Memorial flight over the North New Zealand's new station at Vanda and South Poles. is also attracting its share of phila About two-thirds of the letters re telic mail. More than 100 letters ceived in the mail came from Ger have so far been received. These man philatelists. will all be cacheted and signed by "We wondered about the sudden the first winter-over party when interest from Germany," said Scott the station opens in January. December, 1968 EXPEDITION TO MOUNT MINTO PROPOSED Subject to approval by the Ross perience in Europe, Scandinavia Dependency Research Committee and North Africa. and the Minister of Science, seven All are members of the New Zea members of the New Zealand Alpine land Alpine Club, and five belon ri,,b, one of them a woman, are also to the Canterbury Mountaine ning a scientific and mountain- ing Club. Mr. N. D. Hardie, :ring expedition to Victoria Land, Chrislchurch, who has had ex^, ,- Antarctica, in November 1969. ence both in the Himalayas and the The expedition will be financed bv Antarctic, will be the expedition's personal contributions, and bv patron and advisor. grants from the Trans-Antarctic As Both the mountaineering and sociation, the New Zealand Alpine scientific work will be done in a Club, and the Canterbury Moun largely unexplored area centred on taineering Club. an unnamed glacier north of Mount Minto (13,340 ft.) in the Admiralty To be known as "MOUNT MINTO SURVEY EXPEDITION ANTARC Range, Victoria Land. Mount Minto TICA 1969", it will be the first Ant is the main mountaineering objec arctic expedition to have a woman tive. Mount Minto is on the south-west as a member of the field party. side of Robertson Bay and about -50 Those planning to take part in the miles from Cape Hallett. It was dis expedition are: covered in January 1841 by Sir James Leader, Surveyor: Mr. P. L. Squires, Clark Ross, and named after the an electrical and mechanical en Earl of Minto, who was First Lord of gineer, with previous experience the Admiralty. in the Antarctic during the sum Provided the Ross Dependency Re mer of 1965-66. search Committee and the Minister Deputy-Leader: Mrs. M. G. Clark is approve the expedition as part of its a geomorphologist, and has had scientific programme for the 1969-70 alpine experience in Europe, season, the party hope to leave Scandinavia and North Africa. Christchurch on or about 15 Novem She has also climbed extensively ber 1969, and spend six weeks in the in New Zealand, and has made field when snow conditions should ascents of Mount Cook and Mount be at their best.