Winter of isolation begins tomorrow

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 5

Winter of isolation begins tomorrow

A winter of 'isolation will begin tomorrow for about 165 New Zealanders and Americans working in Antarctica until October.

The last flights between Christchurch and McMurdo Sound will be made tomorrow, and after that no more aircraft will land there until after the winter.

When the last flights leave Antarctica they will leave behind 12 people at Scott Base and about 129 at the, nearby McMurdo Station. There will be 39 civilians at McMurdo Station, and about 90 military personnel. South Pole Station is home to 17 civilians for the winter, while Siple Station will be inhabited by six civilians and one military medical

corps man.

The McMurdo Station, Scott Base, and South Pole Station winterers will receive mail, fresh food, and supplies in a midwinter airdrop. The next flights to land there will be in late August, when a few preliminary Hercules flights will take more people and supplies to Antarctica.

Regular flights will resume in October, when the United States Air Force Star Lifters will start taking in summer staff and scientists. The 12 men at New Zealand’s Scott Base for the winter include a base engineer, deputy engineer, electrician, chef, dog handler, technicians, mechanic, and Post Office staff,, who will keep the

base running through the winter months.

An addition to the winter team is a doctoral student from the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University. He is studying sea ice strain.

At nearby Cape Evans, a further three men will winter over at the James Hayward Base of the Footsteps of Scott expedition. The three, including Gareth Wood who was one of the successful Pole trekkers, were left behind when the other expedition members and crew of the sunken vessel Southern Quest were flown back to New Zealand last month by the National Science Foundation. ■ w