A Southern Polar Adventure

We just made it back to “civilization”.
Whiteout conditions had been lurking on the horizon throughout the day and as we got closer to ‘home’,
the Novo Ice Runway, we knew we had just made it in time.  

The four of us had just snowmobiled 110km, each pulling a sled, in a little over 5 hours.  Our four new Lynx Commander snowmobiles performed well – we didn’t have to stop to add oil or refuel!  

We had left Lake Untersee, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica – our research site, at noon and knew from the forecast it was a bit of a gamble; but our camp had been struck, so relying on GPS we made our way off the lake, up the Anuchin glacier and across the featureless ice sheet.            

Somewhere a couple hours behind us, the “ice train” – a tracked vehicle pulling a packed sea container with all our gear, along with a cargo sled and a small sleeping cabin (caboose) must now be depending on GPS as visibility dropped to less than a few metres.  Fortunately 9 hours later the ice train arrived safely, albeit extremely late and a little off the GPS track.

Needless to say, after 6 weeks of camping out on the ice, we were glad to reach the Novo Ice Runway, and the showers!  The Novo Ice Runway is a 3km long blue ice runway which is maintained by ALCI (Antarctic Logistical Centre International) and in late spring (November) brings new personnel, fuel and supplies to the nearby Russian base as well as other multinational bases around Queen Maud Land.  A series of huts adjacent to the runway houses the multinational personnel, albeit mostly Russian and us. 

This year the weather continued to be a problem and our 5.5 hour flight back to Cape Town on a Russian Illushyn 76 was delayed; we made it to Cape Town on the day of our flight home.  Unfortunately, COVID protocols meant we had to have a PCR test and wait for the results, so we had to rebook our flight.  So, we spent Christmas in a hotel room and I eventually returned home to Inukshuk Farm in Lakefield, Ontario on December 28th, bringing another polar adventure to an end.

Submitted by Miles Ecclestone, Inukshuk Farm
www.inukshukfarm.ca