Long darkness tests spirits of Ice dwellers

Press, 30 August 1988, Page 21

Long darkness tests spirits of Ice dwellers

By

YVONNE MULDER,

who will become Scott Base

information officer when she arrives there in October at the start of the summer season. Eleven men and one woman, who have had the base to themselves since mid-February, will return to New Zealand at the same time.

Fake fronts melt if selectors err

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wage, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness ... safe return doubtful." Although the chances of a safe return have improved significantly since the explorer Ernest Shackleton placed that advertisement early this century, the rigours of the Antarctic environment remain. The constant cold temperatures, the four months of total darkness in winter and the isolation of the bases combine to make an environment many people would find unbearable. The never-ending daylight and the constant activity at Scott Base in summer are a far cry from the winter months, and it takes a special kind of person to winter-over in Antarctica, says Bob Thomson, the recently retired head of the Antarctic Division, D.S.I.R. When the early explorers went to. the continent many had no choice but to stay for the winter. Expeditions lasted one, two or even three years in some cases. > The leaders of these expeditions chose men (the first recorded women landed in Antarctica in 1935) for a variety of Reasons.

'r'-These days winter-over staff at Scott Base are chosen for their forking ability, emotional stability, and social compatibility. Dr Tony Taylor, of Victoria University, has made a study of the pyschological aspects of

spending the winter in Antarctica. For the last 20 years he has interviewed the members of the Scott Base winter-over team both before and after their stay. “Wintering over can be a profound experience,” he says. “If they allow themselves to change, the men can get a lot out of it. Some people mature as individuals. They take a fresh view of personal or world affairs. When I see them at the end of winter,, some can be remarkable company.”

Other members of the winterover team do not have such a positive outlook at the end of their time on the Ice.

During the long, dark winter months many people experience bouts of depression, insomnia, fatigue, and irritability. “Some felt they had slowed mentally and physically. They became short-tempered with each other, ran out of conversation and spontaneity,” writes Dr Taylor in his book, “Antarctic Psychology.”

Even the annual mid-winter airdrop of supplies and mail from home is a mixed blessing, because it liberates feelings and fantasies that are afterwards difficult to bring under control again, he says. Symptoms of winter sluggishness, insomnia and mood swings have long been recorded both in the indigenous people of the Arctic and in travellers to the polar regions.

The winter residents of Antarctic bases (about 1000 people in 44 places) have not only the physical environment to contend with, but also the artificial interpersonal one. They are living in a confined area with people they probably had no hand in choosing, and usually they have nowhere to escape to.

The or so winter residents at Scott Base are luckier than most. With McMurdo Station only three kilometres away, the chances to get out of the base and meet other people are relatively frequent. “It is not isolation really ... not like other Antarctic stations,” says Bob Thomson. Most contact is through sporting activities, such as darts, basketball, and indoor bowls. Most of the 150 or so residents of the American base (McMurdo Station) are invited to Scott Base for a meal at some time during the winter.

The winter-overers at other Antarctic stations are not so fortunate, with only each other to look at and talk to for at least six

months, and the environment confining them indoors most of the time. Tony Taylor likens the situation to that of the old days of sailing ships or remote mining or construction camps. “You get to the stage where you just have to keep out of each

other’s way and become a bit thick-skinned,” he says. Dr Taylor says, however, that if the group experience is a good one it will make people want to return to Antarctica again and again.

So how do the Antarctic research programme directors choose people who are the most likely to make a positive contribution to the winter team?

Bob Thomson says selecting the people to winter over at Scott Base is probably the most difficult task that anybody could have.

Dr Taylor says there is an historical precedent for accepting less than perfection. The greatest selector, Jesus Christ, had a 25 per cent rate of error in his disciples — Judas, the betrayer, Thomas the doubter, and Peter, who denied Christ three times. The New Zealand Antarctic Division aims, naturally for 100 per cent success, but, as Bob Thomson says, "in retrospect we have chosen some people who probably should not have gone.”

The winter group is sent down to Scott Base at the beginning of the summer season, in October, along with the summer staff. In his book, Tony Taylor tells of one instance where the authoritarian style of the leader of the winter-overers led to the virtual collapse of the group even before the winter set in. Members of the Antarctic Division selection team had to make a special journey to Antarctica to intervene.

Sometimes people have been brought back to New Zealand before the winter sets in.

During the winter months men have developed psychological problems — one developed paranoid symptonis, two became very heavy drinkers, while another developed a facial tic and became preoccupied with printing pornographic pictures.

However, the vast majority of those in the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (N.Z.A.R.P.) over the last 30 years have performed well. Tony Taylor says only nine of the winter parties and two of the summer parties could be regarded as having developed specific psychological problems.

Bob Thomson says there is not one category of person who performs well in Antarctica. People applying to work for the Antarctic. Division complete an extensive questionnaire of the usual biographical, experimental and motivational kind.

“The replies enable the candi-

dates with the most bizarre, illiterate, immature and troublesome habits to be screened out immediately,” says Tony Taylor. The rest are interviewed.

Bob Thomson says he “gets a feeling almost straight away” about whether a candidate at an interview is suitable. He would chose people he would be happy to spend the winter with himself. He has wintered-over three times.

The person needs to be genuine. “No-one can hide behind a fake front. All that disappears during a winter in Antarctica,” he says. “The real true self tends to come out... and if that self is too different from the person you promote yourself to be, it could be difficult.” The selectors make their final assessments in a somewhat subjective manner, from written documents, including detailed references, and from personal impressions. Tony Taylor says the absolute failure rate was so low that any other selection procedure was unlikely to have done much better.

A few years ago the Antarctic Division sent a circular to all New Zealanders who have wintered over in Antarctica.

“In 99 per cent of cases the people had gained tremendously within themselves,” says Bob Thomson. “You learn a lot about yourself and other people.”

FOOTNOTE: Shackleton received 5000 applications for 28 positions in reply to his advertisement.