CREVASSES AND CHASMS

Evening Star, Issue 20322, 2 November 1929, Page 15

CREVASSES AND CHASMS

THE BYRD EXPEDITION SUPPORTING PARTY'S EXPERIENCES Special to Press Association from the Byrd Expedition by Russell Owen. (Copyright.) BAY OF WHALES, October 31. (Received November 2, at 9 a.m.) Messages from the supporting party, including M'Gonahl’s description of their two days in the crevassed. area, show that they have taken their loads over the most dangerous part of the trail. When they return it will be with lighter sledges, for they took through that dangerous region supplies for depot 4 at Sldeg 4omin south. There they turn back. Apparently the party found much worse travelling than did Captain Amundsen on his journey seventeen years ago, lor lie went through the crevassed area three times when vision was (poor, and without much trouble. The trip back to the northern edge to leave warning for the snowmobile was made at Commander Byrd’s order, for although he had given instructions that the machine was not to go so far, he was arfraid that they might be carried away by zeal and attempt too much. It is evident that no machine could pass such treacherous and broken area. Joe M‘Gonahl, navigator of the supporting sledge party, sent the following radio from just south of the eighty latitude: “The peaceful barrier showed its sternest when the monotony of 160 miles of sledging was broken by our efforts to penetrate the maze of crevasses, covered chasms, and hollow haycocks, eleven miles south of depot 3. Tents were pitched to-night between two pitfalls three miles east of the scene of our escapes from whatever is below the countless hollow crusts over which we passed. The barrier trembles and roars occasionally as new traps open in this area, where the pressure of ice is equalised from eighty-one south. This morning the long line of knolls, jagged peaks, and rolling domes glistened majesticaly on the crest of the hiltop, stretching east and west. )Ve had gone five miles when Bursey, who was leading the roped caravan, swung his sled to a halt. His dogs were on the roof of a round, hollow pit, 50ft in diameter.” ‘‘There were many such invisible caverns on tho ascent of the hill, some filled, somp bridged, with snow. They are evidently craters of haycocks opened by released pressure, soon to become crevasses. A few were open and some were filled, most were roofed. Five miles of dodging and rushing brought us to a stop. Well roped we planned a short reconnaissance on foot. Walden stepped away from his sled into a crevasse and sank down to his waist. He was pulled out again, arid went down into a second. We crossed a safe looking ridge, and slid down ten feet from an open hole with blackness for a bottom, and turned the teams to the west. Bursey slipped over the brink of a pit as we crossed a narrow bridge between it end tho haycocks. Braathen, roped and on skies, tested the largest and we rushed the dogs around and over the dome to retrace our steps a few hundred yards. Bursey stopped to fix the harness, and the surface sank under him. Braathen’s sled teams were hurried forward and pulled him up. A flag slipped through into space below Everything was hollow. Wo tried vainly with many crevasses, but Braathen’s experienced and short dodges brought us safe abound. Perilous reconnoitering over a valley checkered with crevasses and a mountain of broken ice, pitted and honeycombed by pressure, brought us to the firm barrier at midnight to-day just as the fog closed in on what we believe is the most treacherous area ever crossed in the Antarctic. Great upheavals have taken place here since Captain Amundsen’s time. Nothing he describes can compare with the last ten miles of our journey. It was a restless sleep for all, for every few hours we were awakened by t bunder announcing the birth of a new crevasse and shaking the hollow snow beneath us.

“After an early breakfast Burscy and Braathen placed a warning on the Barrier for the snowmobile. Braathen, Bursey, and I proceeded on skis in an effort to thread our way through the open holes, connected by covered crevasses. On approaching the range we finally found a narrow- ridge between the open chasms leading to a network of canyons. In three hours we marked a zig-zag trail a mile and a-half through the heart of the ridge, and returned with doubts about our sledges getting over the dubious bridges, sharp shoulders, and steep inclines, but there was no other way through, the hills being impassable to the cast and west. The team and men, roped separately, followed our ragged line of flogs. It was time for expert driving and obedient dogs. The veteran Walden said he had never seen anything like it, and the bridges ■ were taxed to the limit. The dogs sensed danger, and time and again disappeared in crevasses and were hauled out by their beam mates. Bursey and his leader St. Lunaire worked in perfect accord, when a few feet to the right or left would mean a dangling sled and driver. Walden’s foresight, Braathen’s care, Bursey’ e driving, and luck brought us to the end of the range and a wide, open road bordered by crevasses leading down to safe ground and a clean trail Towards midnight we stopped and turned to view the area we had crossed before the fog set in. It seemed as if the gods had bean playing with chalk cliffs and had left them scattered and broken on the Barrier floor.”