Traverse Took 47 Days

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 17

Traverse Took 47 Days

The second leg of the major Queen Maud Land traverse, planned to take five years, ended on Saturday at the new Plateau Station 47 days after the three vehicles and 10 scientists eight Americans, a Belgian, and a Norwegian set out from the Pole of Inaccessibility.

According to the leader (Dr. E. E. Picciotto), all the scientific research planned for the traverse was successfully completed, although strong winds, low temperatures, and soft snow caused problems. Dr. Picciotto said that the party left the Pole of Inaccessibility on December 15 instead of December 1, the delay being caused by vehicle repairs. On the journey of 830 miles—loo miles shorter than originally planned—the three snocats behaved well, he said.

“At one stage we almost lost a vehicle when we ran unexpectedly into a bad cre-

vasse zone. This caused us two days’ delay. About the time we were pulling out of this area we had a supply drop. Luckily the aircraft warned us that if we continued on our present course we were headed into another crevasse area,” said Dr. Picciotto. “Naturally, we changed direction.”

A second delay was accidentally caused by Dr. Picciotto. After drilling a hole for seismic soundings he dropped some of the drill sections down the hole. To get them out the men had to dig a pit 59ft deep. This took them three days and nights. All but one of the air drops were successful, said Dr. Picciotto. The one failure occurred when a parachute failed to open. “It contained, among other things, fresh eggs and tomatoes which we were looking forward to eating. The food throughout was very good, but were were about those eggs and tomatoes.”

One result of the traverse, said Dr. Picciotto, was that the scientists now had more detailed information about the surface and sub-ice topography of the area. Another good feature, he added, was that all taking part felt better physically than when they started. Dr. Picciotto will leave Christchurch today for Belgium to return to work at the University of Brussels by February 15.

The others of the traverse party and the three vehicles will be flown to McMui j Station this week. The vehicles will there be overhauled in readiness for use in two years, when the third leg of the traverse will begin.

When asked whether he would like to take part in that traverse Dr. Picciotto said he thought he might be too old. “But I would like to be in on the last leg to the King Baudouin base, where 1 wintered in 1958,” he said.