Monday 10 December 1973
On going in to breakfast I found the late mouse had done an inadequate job. Ross Cooper, the culprit, has now volunteered to do late mouse tonight as well. No helicopters could fly because of the weather. Caterpillar engine overhaul is complete and the engine can be replaced when the work on the heat exchanger pipes is finished. We received a visit from Spivak of the Wall Street Journal. He asked me whether New Zealand’s presence here was partly motivated by economic and political considerations rather than scientific ones. Told him I didn’t know. Mike Mudrey also called to finalise arrangements for the three we are sending to Vida as honorary drillers.
A C141 arrived bringing Peter Gill, Peter McNoe, Peter Ramsden, Gary Lewis, Tim O’Neil, Bob Park and Paddy Fenton. We entertained some departing helicopter pilots to dinner.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 20 knots Temperature -10.6
Ration Strength 38
Tuesday 11 December 1973
At 0745 hours this morning Cdr Bob Balchunas rang with the news that there had been a disaster in the Dry Valley area. He asked that we make two field assistants available and cut off all communication with NZ. I had Gary Brehant and George Kendall ready at our helipad in 10 minutes. I am unhappy about the way US people try to stop all communications whenever there is a disaster. I made it clear last time that I could not comply with requests to conceal information from my employers. It should be sufficient merely to withhold the name of any victim.
Today was a busy day for Tony Atkinson. Most of yesterday’s arrivals had work connected with the Laboratory. Nevertheless Tony handled the crowd with his usual unruffled efficiency. Another ice collecting party took 8 of the staff away for half of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon Gary and George returned. A man had been killed in a fall on Mount Baldr. He had visited one of his project sites and on his return somehow slipped over a 500 foot cliff. The helicopters could not reach him directly and our two men, together with a US doctor, having been set down 1500 feet below the body climbed up to it, moved it to a small shelf where the helo could put down one skid and load it aboard. After the exercise they made the following comments.
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A rescue party should always have a portable radio and not rely on the helo radio. Since I was about to dispatch our men when Shaun appeared and gave them a radio he had drawn for them I must record his foresight and quick thinking.
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The helicopter should have a radio with which to speak to the party on foot even when the helo motor is shut off. A porta-phone might suffice.
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A signal mirror is handy.
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The foot party should carry more than one smoke canister.
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Stretchers should have “tie on” straps.
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Ice axes and crampons should be carried even in the dry valleys (there is often ice under the shale on higher slopes.
We took an RNZAF crew on a tour of the Base in the evening.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 20 knots Temperature -10.6°C
Ration Strength 38
Wednesday 12 December 1973
A disappointing day. We were able to get our two caretakers and Maurice Conly airborne in a helicopter headed for Cape Royds but it turned back because of bad weather. Event 2 with Peter Blattner, Max Tunnicliffe, Mike Chapman-Smith and David Feary arrived back from Mount Dromedary. They had achieved less than they hoped because of unusually bad weather.
Gary Lewis was delivered to Vanda to check some of the electronic scientific instruments. Our survival and rescue group ran a one day course for a party of scientists involved in the RISS project. Alistair Watson, the Vet, now suspects that Ivak the husky died of an infectious disease. As a consequence we shifted the dog lines to new snow. Bill Johnson, rather sadly pointed out that this new job took 16 man-hours of his precious maintenance time. Tony Atkinson tells me he detects a rift developing between the maintenance staff and the Laboratory. Both groups are doing an excellent job and it would be a pity if poor communications caused any bother.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind East 15 knots Temperature -10.3°C
Ration Strength 43
Thursday 13 December 1973
Today the helicopters were all committed to transporting a party of US newsmen to various places. So we dispatched our caretakers and Maurice Conly to Cape Royds using a SnoTrac driven by John Fenwick and Barry McKelvey. The DVDP people found a couple of helicopter hours by means of which they got Chapman-Smith, Cooper, Colliver and Whitley to the drilling rig at Lake Vida. Stuart Clarke has taken over as Base cook and is doing a first class job.
We collected seven incoming people off today’s aircraft (Nigel Bingham, John Starr, Alex Wilson, Tim Healy, Chris Renolds, John Falconer and Bob Stanley) Colin Monteath arrived back from duty with the Italian party at Lake Fryxell with the intention of collecting some of their belatedly arriving equipment and rejoining them at their next Base.
Lake Fryxell
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-East 2 knots Temperature -21.°C
Ration Strength 44
Friday 14 December 1973
Today we received instructions from Antarctic Division to make substantial fuel savings. This is going to be hard to do as we already waste very little fuel. All the diesel that comes into the Base is either converted directly to heat as in the Waterbury heaters and diesel-becks, or is converted to electricity and used a light and power. We can do without some lighting but the fuel savings will be negligible. If we are to make real savings we must reduce either direct burning or electric appliance usage. The scientific and Post Office transmitters are major power consumers as also are the ventilating fans. Since we cannot touch the transmitters the choice narrows down to:
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Manually switched appliances like the dough mixer.
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Letting down the overall base temperature which will automatically reduce the power consumed by the fans and burned by heaters.
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Reducing the use of water and the cooking stoves in the kitchen and Mess.
I have issued instructions to this effect which were less than enthusiastically received. A number of US newsmen visited the Base and also answered our questions. Rowe, Humphreys, Blattner and Feary left for Christchurch. Shaun Norman got away on a 24 hour trip to Vostok.
The Russian station at Vostok (note the French and American flags)
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind East 5 knots Temperature -3.9°C
Ration Strength 40
Saturday 15 December 1973
We had a tremendous panic getting Alex Wilson’s party away this morning. With Shaun away at Vostok I managed this myself and, being unfamiliar with the routine made a number of mistakes. I did not personally check that Alex had all of his gear weighed and he hadn’t. He had planned to have two long fairly heavy boxes strapped to the skids but I was unaware of this and did not check that the pilots would agree and they didn’t. In the end we had to send them off less one man, Chris Reynolds.
A firm called Image Associates came for the day and took a number of shots including long sequences with the dogs. We shifted a lot of compacted snow from the front of the Base using our transients as a work force.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-West 8 knots Temperature -0.5°C
Ration Strength 38
Sunday 16 December 1973
This morning we set out to take Nigel Bingham up to Cape Royds to make tapes of the penguins and interview Maurice Conly. We also were worried that something was wrong with the Royds radio. We could hear them and knew they were all right but could not talk to them. Finally to show willing about fuel I planned to use the dogs. They need work and I had not been for a decent run with them. We got away at 5am and were at Cape Evans by 0900 hours. We had a long breakfast and went on to reach Royds by 1300 hours. We had not been able to bring one of the best dogs, Osman, because on attempting to harness him up by Bob Newland discovered he had a badly sprained leg. Of the dogs we did take three, Asinga, Merlin and Steve would only pull occasionally.
The Cape Royds party had counted the penguins (2163), accepted our replacement radio gratefully and hosted us very cheerfully.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 5 knots Temperature -2.7°C
Ration Strength 35
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