Piece of UM arrives at South Pole

Oddly enough, home came to me over the holidays this year when the University of Maine arrived in the form of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition – after a 10-season, 1,250-kilometer overland journey.

If being in Antarctica seems adventurous, being part of a trans-Antarctic traverse is especially daring. When the newly arrived expedition members joined us for meals and began working in our garage to fix their equipment, I savored every opportunity I could to talk with them about their journey.

The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition, or ITASE, researches how the recent atmospheric environment is represented in the upper layers of the Antarctic ice sheet. The aim was for an expedition – or rather, several seasons’ worth of expeditions – to travel on land across the Antarctic continent collecting ice cores and snow samples. This research then will be used to help our understanding of global change and Antarctica’s sensitive environment. The ITASE is a multinational collaboration, but the primary university involved is the University of Maine, led by ITASE chairman Dr. Paul Mayewski.

The dozen individuals on the expedition took what amounted to a mechanical wagon train – now parked behind my own Jamesway shelter – across the continent. Divided into two sections, each “train” was pulled by a Challenger 55 bulldozer. Hitched up behind the bulldozers were several modules and sleds: a galley module, a science sled – all of their equipment, living spaces and supplies. Generators, riding on a sledge, provided heat. The expedition of modern-day explorer-scientists slowly crawled its way to the South Pole, drilling for ice core samples along the way.

A Piston Bully track vehicle led the trains, carrying crevasse-detecting radar in front of it on a long boom. Someone monitored this radar constantly, preventing the entire train from falling into an otherwise invisible snow crevasse.

The expedition saw little but flat white on the traverse until they were able to spot Amundsen-Scott base in the distance. Deep radar recorded the topography below the train all the way down to the bedrock, showing them moving over mountain ranges and valleys buried far below.

A traverse across the Antarctic continent is a dangerous and difficult undertaking. Explorers have only themselves and what they can carry. The 300-mile journey to the South Pole completed this season represents the last leg of a 10-season expedition.

With only a dozen people – scientists and support staff – the expedition had to operate in shifts. They drove for 16 hours at a time, switching drivers as they went. They would stop, have one hot meal and sleep for eight hours and then begin another 16-hour drive.

“The pace was strenuous, but within reason” said Lucy, the expedition cook.

The expedition included varied levels of experience, from two UMaine graduate students who had never been to Antarctica to Antarctic veteran Mayewski, who has spent decades on the ice.

For the first 150 kilometers they traveled on an easily passable, hard-packed surface. After that, the snow grew softer and they often became stuck. When the train foundered and began to bury itself in the snow, both Challengers would have to team up to pull out a single train. The bulldozer operators described to me how, working in unison to haul the modules through deep snow, they had to shuttle the entire expedition relay-style the final 100 kilometers to the pole.

They arrived at last, the Piston Bully carrying a broken axle, just in time for Christmas dinner. “It’s a real relief,” said Mayewski when I asked him how it felt to arrive. “I mean, there’s always so much risk – if one of the Challengers were to break, we would have to build a runway for the C-130 to get us out of there … so much could go wrong.”

The ice and snow samples are en route to the U.S., where UMaine scientists await them.

Theirs is not the only traverse through the remote continental interior this year. Several other scientific expeditions also are en route to the South Pole right now. One, a Chilean traverse, is expected to arrive at our station in the next 48 hours. A Norwegian traverse is expected later this month.

Now that the ITASE is over, I wanted to know: What next? Luke and Lucy, the camp manager and cook of the expedition, plan to travel. “I want to rent motorcycles in Southeast Asia,” Lucy told me.

For the University of Maine scientists back home who have been awaiting the ice cores, though, the journey has only just begun.

Meg Adams, who grew up in Holden and graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, shares her Antarctic experiences with readers each Friday. For more about her adventure, information about Antarctica and to e-mail questions to her, go to the BDN Web site: bangordailynews.com.