N.Z. PARTY’S ROUTE TO SOUTH POLE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27896, 18 February 1956, Page 8

N.Z. PARTY’S ROUTE TO SOUTH POLE

Journey To Join British Expedition

“WILL BE HARDEST EVER ATTEMPTED”

The route which the New Zealand Antarctic base-laying party will follow from the foot of the Ferrar Glacier to the South Pole next season, to join the British section of the Commonwealth trans-Antarctic expedition, will be the hardest ever attempted. This is the view of Mr Bernard Gunn, of Otago University, who returned yesterday in the icebreaker Glacier after two months in the Antarctic. He was a member of the three-man party of New Zealanders who went south with the American expedition to choose a base for the Dominion’s Ross Sea party and select a route to the pole. With him were Dr. Trevor Hatherton, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Lieutenant-Commander W. J. L. Smith, R.N.Z.N.

A site beside the Ferrar Glacier near Butter Point has been recommended by the party as the site for Scott base. The route is up the Ferrar Glacier on to a high plateau, to an advanced base near the fo of Mount Albert Markham (10,460 ft and then roughly following longitude 155 degrees east to the pole. “This route, which is the best for our purposes, will be higher, colder, and more rugged than anything Scott or Shackleton tackled,” said Mr Gunn yesterday. Tractors will be used over the first 50 miles up the Ferrar Glacier, and possibly further if the terrain is suitable. From there, dog teams will be used to haul the sledges over the windswept plateau as the New Zealand party lays out caches of fuel and food along the route which it and the rest of the Commonwealth party will follow back to McMurdo Sound, on the Ross Sea.

“In fact, the Ferrar Glacier stretch will be the easiest lap.” said Mr Gunn. “Following it is like a quiet walk up the Tasman Glacier to the Ball Hut —on a good day. “We were lucky with our weather this summer,” he said. “Trevor and Bill did a 100-mile survey round

the shore of McMurdo Sound, I flew over much of the route —to within about 300 miles of the pole—in a Skymaster, and together we made a 160-mile trek up the Ferrar.” As the expedition is planned at present, the New Zealand party will be seriously handicapped by lack of tractors, other motorised units, and aircraft. The three men who returned yesterday will recommend that further efforts be made to have the Dominion party more fully mechanised. Beaver aircraft, as already in use in New Zealand, would be suitable for their work.

“If all goes well,” said Mr Gunn, “we should meet Dr. Vivian Fuchs and the British party at the South Pole on Christmas Day, 1957.” Among the first visitors aboard the Glacier when the icebreaker berthed yesterday were Mr W. A. Breach, chairman of the Christchurch subcommittee of the Ross Sea Committee, the secretary (Mr M. B. Hayes), and the organiser (Mr G. F. King). Mr Breach welcomed the New Zealanders back, on behalf of the committee, and arranged for them to speak at meetings throughout New Zealand and for the display of the photographs they brought back with them.