BYRD'S MEN COME BACK OVER FROZEN BARRIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 615, 18 March 1929, Page 9

BYRD'S MEN COME BACK OVER FROZEN BARRIER

RAD WILD JOI'RNEY. BUT LAID THE BASES THEY SET OUT TO LAY tty jn xxklx, oiri'.v Coi‘>righted, I?'.'.-, by the New Vo . Times" company and the St. Louis 'Test - j Dispatch." All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wire.-. ! to the "New York Times.” BAY OP WHALES, Friday. Six happy men returned to camp last evening, with their dogs barking and waving their tails, having succesfully made the first journey south on the Barrier. They were tired anti hungry as wolves, but they bad laid tli« bases they had been sent to lav They came through a week of bad storms without even having a finger frost-bitten in the hitter weather. This ' is a bad month on the trail with the ihermometer dropping to 20 degrees i below- zero, and Quick storms that blind one in a moment, and crevasses lying in wait for the unwary traveller The worst crevassed district on Ihe Barrier is just south of the Bay of ; Whales. Before they returned they learned : all that, could be learned about the region into which they were going, and they chose a course where only one large crevasse had to be crossed to reach the Barrier. Once they were on its surface they turned eastward to avoid the badly broken district at the foot of the bay, then went straight south. They were roped together, and i Vaughan. Bursey, Petersen, Deganahl j and Crockett took turns at leading. The first night they camped a short j distance south of the edge of the Barrier. The next day they were lashing their sledges in a dead calm when a few sharp puffs of wind struck them. In two or three minutes it was blowing hard, and they thought it wise to camp again. It was fortunate that they had acted at once, for before they had the tents up it was blowing at a velocity of 40 miles an hour, and they could not see ten yards. Petersen did not even have time to unlash his radio gear and to set up his poles, and if he had they would probably have been blown dow-n. When the tents were up every one crawled inside and. got into the sleeping bags to keep warm. A 60-MILE WIND During the day the wind blew at 60 miles an hour as measured by the anemometer at the base. The tents shook under the impact of the storm, and the sides were whipped with sharp reports, as if someone outside were shaking a piece of sheet-iron. The tents were placed facing each other, about three feet apart, so that it was possible to get from one to the other through the sack opening. Cooking was done in one tent, and those across the way either went on then* hands and knees through the tunnel formed by the sacks,, or took what was handed to them. The dogs broke loose during the storm, and climbed on to the snow that banked against the tents, seeking shelter. When the time came to feed them, Vaughan went out in the smother. He could not see a thing, and as he stepped from the tent his foot struck a dog that was curled up in the .snow, tail to wind and nose buried under liis paws. Most of the dogs were lying about in this way. and as he got out the food the snow would move while the balls would unroll, and there would be a dog, its fur so filled with snow that it was almost indistinguishable in the drift. They met a little more wind after this storm, but nothing which stopped them, and when they turned yesterday they made the 50 miles return trip in one day, not a bad day’s run. Thev waited for a day and a-half. hoping that the plane could bring them out more supplies, so that they could continue their trip further, and they sp u\ a day and a-half in the tent during the storm. So they made the entire distance, through the drift most of the time, in four days. When they start south next spring the experience gained on this short trip will be very valuable. FREAKISH CONDITIONS On the way home the freakish behaviour of the winds down here caused an odd phenomenon. The teams made their way up a hill, from which there is a long slope down to the bay. They had an east wind all day, but as they got to the top of the hill they found a dead calm, and looking back they could see the drift below them like a blue lake stretching away into Ihe distance down below. Over the "pressure ridges of bay ice were little putts of snow rising and whirling away like steam from a kettle. When (hey got down into this snow cauldron they found the wind was blowing from ihe west, exactly the opposite direction to the wind on the other side of the hill MEN IN THE MOUNTAINS Larry Gould with Balcheu and June are still at the mountains with their plane. Bad weather had held them there in their tent for days. They are snug enough but becoming bored, in a space just about big enough for them to turn round in. It needed only this experience to clinch Commander Byrd’s beliefe that flying in the Antarctir must end in February. The one good day when they could have returned was just after a 60-mile storm, when the field was so badly cut up that landing would have beeu dangerous. On another day. when the weather here was suitable and the field had improved, it was blowing hard in the mountains, and Balchen could not risk a take-off in the blind ing drift. There is no anxiety about ihem. as they are safe enough and warm enough in their tent and sleeping bags, and they have food enough for two months. But they will undoubtedly be glad to get home. The temperature to-day was 15 degrees above zero, and it was warm outside. The lowest tempera ture yet experienced is 25 degrees hlow zero.