ANTARCTICA 2000

27 December -> 7 January |  9 -> 27 January

Thirsday 27th January : They are still waiting

We have just received some items of news from Patriot Hills regarding the trek between Mount Vinson and the base.

  • "Go places, leave no traces": 5.5 kilos of human waste wrapped up in plastic bags were brought back by Rudy and Dixie from the second part of their expedition. Apart from natural liquid requirements, no other waste of any sort was left out in the virgin environment.
  • Dixie lost more weight during this trip. He weighed 68 kilos when he left à Punta Arenas. Today, he is down to 59. As Julie notes, he puts it all back on again when he is eating well. So why this loss of weight? They were not quite careful enough in terms of calories for the food they took with them. Of course, they had thought they would be coming back under sail power, which would have enabled them to cover the ground more quickly and so spend less time out on the ice.
  • They only made one climb; that was on the final day of the trip (Friday 22nd January). To reward themselves for accomplishing their aim, Dixie and Rudy climbed one of the nunataks located at the entrance of Horseshoe Valley. The pilot of the Twin Otter was able to locate the tracks they left in the snow when they were on their way to the summit. Although this was hardly enough to satisfy their hunger for climbing, they were finally able to enjoy the pleasure of the ascent after two weeks struggling through the snow with the wind in their faces.
  • What slowed them down most of all? The bad weather first of all, but you know all about that. Day after day they were faced with white-out conditions, headwinds and extremely low temperatures caused of course by the windchill. But they also had to negotiate areas with large crevasses while the visibility was very poor. In addition to all that, they had to contend with very deep snow, which also slowed them down. As for their powerkites, they were only able to use them on the final day when they were close to Patriot.
As far as the expedition's return is concerned, we had Dixie on the phone yesterday evening, Wednesday, and he still didn't know when it would be. Because the bad weather (there it is again!) is not allowing the Hercules to land. It would seem that the weathermen are forecasting a brief break in the weather for today, but no-one knows whether it will last for long enough to allow the C130 to make the return trip between Punta and Patriot.

Monday 24th January : Safe and sound at Patriot since dawn on Saturday

It was during the night of Friday 21st to Saturday 22nd January that the Van Snick-Dansercoer duo arrived without any problems at the Patriot Hills base.

To be able to board the Hercules C130 for Punta and so get back to their base as quickly as possible, Dixie and Rudy finally opted for a forced march. And what a march it was - the little business of 19 hours and 20 minutes, during which they covered 43 kilometres, made up of 15 km under sail power and the rest on skis. The whole thing was accomplished on just two portions of soup as fuel - which just goes to show how low the two men were on food. As it was, they arrived within sight of the tents at 4.00 am on Saturday morning and were immensely happy to see that the third member of the expedition, Dixie's wife Julie Brown, was still at the base.
So on their final day, they had still had the time to climb a nunatak and make the odd detour here and there to explore these granite rocks that protrude like black or a reddish-ochre coloured cathedrals out of the ice-cap.

Of course, we will be letting the three members of Antarctica 2000 provide the details of their experiences during the two parts of the expedition. In fact, Dixie and Julie are already in the process of writing a book, to be called De Witte Passie (White Passion) which will be published by Van Halewijck (Leuven).

But in the meantime, here is a summary of what Dixie had to say to us on the telephone from Patriot, just a few hours after getting back - which confirms what has been written in these reports since they left the base camp at Mount Vinson. "The wind was against us all the time," explained Dixie, "and really strong winds sometimes, reaching 100 km/h at times. And when the wind wasn't blowing, we had white-out conditions… not very funny! You won't believe it, Michel, but of the 12 days we were on the march, we had 5 days of white-out! The remainder of the time, we had head-winds. Fortunately, as it was never colder than -27°C, we did not suffer from the cold too much, even with the windchill. Having said that, we did have the opportunity to observe some of the terrain in areas never before explored by man. And on the last few days, we explored a number of nunataks before arriving back at Patriot. Even though the programme did not go entirely to plan - we would, of course, have preferred to have done more climbing - I am, we both are Rudy and me - extremely happy to have made this trip. It was an unforgettable experience…"

As far as the expedition's return is concerned, it would appear that the window in the weather that opened up at Patriot at the beginning of the week has closed in again very quickly; the Hercules chartered by ANI was not able in the end to be called in by the base manager. The wait for fine weather that started off this pleasant expedition is now back in place - although this time the wait is for an end, which sounds a final note of suspense for the adventure.

Thirsday 20th January : New (and final?) uncertainties

The final part of Antarctica 2000 is taking place amid a certain amount of confusion, to say the least. According to the latest news received by us (during the night of Wednesday to Thursday by phone from Julie and an e-mail this Thursday morning), it appears that ANI - which according to Julie also wants to see Dixie et Rudy leave Antarctica as soon as possible, i.e. on the next flight to Punta - is suggesting a number of different options to ensure their return.

First solution : fetch the men by Twin Otter, once the plane that is due to make a final trip to Mount Vinson today, 20th January, has returned - provided they are not too far from the return route (this option is free).
Second : take the Twin Otter out specially and collect them. Cost: 2,500 dollars per flying hour.
Third : go and meet them on skidoos - this solution would only be considered if Dixie and Rudy were no more than 25 kilometres from the base during this Thursday.
Fourth : they get back to base under their own steam, i.e. by continuing their trek. If this option is taken up, the two would have to wait until the end of the month and the operations for shutting up the base before returning to Punta - which of course would delay their return home by ten days or so at least.
This end-of-expedition situation is all the more unclear because communication between Dixie and Rudy and the base at Patriot is not working very well any more. Julie is able to contact the two men using the Irridium telephone - she can hear them all right, but they cannot receive, which means that they do not know that ANI is making these four suggestions. So today, they could see the plane arrive to pick them up even though they have not requested anything.

On the other hand, what is certain is that the two men are well, and fine weather has finally returned to this part of the 6th continent. Julie no doubt returned to Punta last night because Stephen, the base manager, had to make the most of the favourable weather to operate the Hercules yesterday afternoon. As we publish this release, Thursday evening 20th January, we still have no news about what has happened to Dixie and Rudy. More news this week end, of course.


ANI's reactions

Hi there Michael,

I really enjoyed your web site, the layout, graphics and content are really great!!

I have just read your comments about ANI and Steve Pinfield, and am sad to see that you have not checked with Steve Pinfield for his reasons, rather choosing to criticize his decisions.
I suggest that you report more evenly, there may be safety considerations that he has to factor in.

Secondly, you imply that ANI is a government supported monopoly. Nothing could be further from the truth. ANI is not a monopoly, any company can start operating in Antarctica, witness the Illusin [sp] that is flying in.
ANI has had competition in the past, all of which has gone out of business. ANI has also in the past been actively hindered by a number of governments, and only now has some contact with governments operating in Antarctica because of the longevity of ANI operations.
ANI survives because the the owners really enjoy Antarctica and are prepared to take financial risks that no one without a vested interest would consider!!

Certainly explorers such as Alain and Dixie help ANI continue to operate and also fuel the passion that the ANI team feels about Antarctica. Great adventures are what ANI is about!!

Thanks once again for a great web site,

Regards,
Martyn Williams Director ANI

 


Michel Brent's reply

Dear Martyn

f I have not taken the trouble to contact S. Pinfield, that's because since I have been handling the overall monitoring of the Antarctica 2000 expedition, I have had to contact the Patriot Hills base by e-mail on a number of occasions. Each time, I did not receive any sort of confirmation that my message had been received, as is usually the case across the Net when people correspond. I find it hard to imagine Stephen answering my questions quickly (quickly on account of publication deadlines). 
As far as a monopoly is concerned, I never wrote that ANI had a government monopoly. I wrote that "ANI has a de facto monopoly over tourist activities on the 6th continent ". Let's not even talk about the Ilyushin proving otherwise, because since we have been visiting the polar regions, we have never heard anything about a Russian Tour Operator taking people to the South Pole, for example.
But there are three things that we should say in relation to ANI's monopoly. One: there is a difference between a state (government) monopoly and a de facto monopoly. In ANI's case, of course, it is a de facto monopoly. And everyone who visits the area agrees on this point: before any other TO would be able to do what ANI has done to ensure the safety of its flights and set up fuel dumps in the middle of nowhere between the South Pole, Patriot Hills and Blue One, an awful lot of snow will have fallen on the polar ice-cap. Two: it was very probably the lobby of polar explorers that caused this monopoly to be put in place, because they like travelling with a professional outfit - and the least that can be said is that ANI does its job well. Three: despite everything, there is still a degree of artistic licence (which very much does exist, whether or not it is maintained by ANI) with regard to what professional adventurers can and cannot do on the 6th continent. Insurance, authorisations, relations between the TO and the Antarctic authorities, etc.
I would not like to finish without wishing you every success with your "Pole to Pole 2000" project (starting in April, Williams' aim is to take a group of young people from one pole to the other) - which is something we will be talking about here very soon. Michel Brent

Friday 14th January : Unheard-of, violent, awful…

The Antarctica 2000 expedition really is not having any luck; bad weather - rotten, awful, stinking weather - has once again set in over the region around Patriot Hills. Julie was the one to give us this news, in an e-mail first, then by telephone. To recap, Julie has stayed behind at Patriot Hills and is acting as a staging post for communications between the two men out on the ice and HQ in Brussels. Every evening, after setting up camp, and no doubt having their dinner, Dixie calls Julie at around 9 pm to give her the news of the day. Half an hour later, Julie calls HQ and the following morning in her meticulous manner, she begins writing up her notebook and sending out e-mails.

Windchill table
For example, to find out what the real temperature is when the mercury plummets to -30ºC and the wind is blowing at 60 km/h
click here

So here is what Julie told us last night about the wind that is blowing on Patriot: "It's incredible how strong the wind is here. Michel, you simply can't begin to imagine what it's like. It also has to be said that the gusts are even worse because we are located just a stone's throw from the mountains, which makes the toboggan effect of the wind all the more spectacular. Yesterday morning, the wind was so strong, blasting along at over 130 km/h - can you imagine? - that my tent was comprehensively ripped to pieces. This is how it happened. After a sleepless night - the noise of the wind and my concerns about the two men - I took refuge in the mess tent to wait for the storm to pass. It was around 10 o'clock in the morning. Then one of the ANI people burst in to warn me that my tent was in the process of being ripped to shreds! Of course we then rushed outside, which was no easy task in itself, I can tell you… It's quite simple: the gusts of wind were so strong that we had to hang on to one another just to stand up. By the time we reached my tent, there was nothing left to do; fortunately, we were able to rescue everything that was inside, but the tent itself was well and truly trashed! Luckily, ANI plans ahead for this type of misadventure and I have been given a replacement tent that I am sharing with a very pleasant American lady tourist from New York, called Lori. "
In view of that, it is not hard to make a status report of the situation. Rudy and Dixie are going through real hell; for the past two days, the wind has not let up and has continued to blow at them head-on at over 60-80 km/h! In view of the low temperatures they have experienced in recent days, the windchill factor must be worse than anything the South through the Pole 1997-98 expedition encountered!

As for their progress, that's not hard to work out either: after a day on which only 17 kilometres were covered (Thursday 13th January), the two men had reached kilometre 92 by yesterday evening. They still have another 158 to do before reaching Patriot. In ideal conditions, they should require less than a week to make the trip.

To those ones who would like to
know more about the heavy
polars and catabatic winds
cliquer ici

Thirsday 13th January : Love and fear…

While we wait for fresh news from the Antarctic and our two traveller-explorers, here are some more lines taken from Julie's log. As we sometimes experience problems with our satellite transmission system (via e-mail and Compaq), we are not sure whether these lines follow on directly from what we published here four days ago (see the report for 9th January). In any event, the extract talks about the day of 4th January, when Dixie's wife stayed alone in her tent at camp 2. The lines themselves are very interesting because they are written by a woman with no experience of this type of adventure, and just for once, they take us to the innermost door of love and fear…

Tuesday, January 4, 2000
I have never been so alone in my life. I am sitting in a tent in Camp 2 and there is no one else around. No one.
As we started up the ice wall between here and Camp 3, I knew that it was just too steep for me. And so I told Dixie that I needed to go back down, knowing that I was giving him and Fernand, who was roped to us, the chance to stay together and reach the summit with the others. Had I gone higher and then needed to go back down, I would have cost them precious time and perhaps a weather delay, as mist was just beginning to enter the valley we were ascending.
I like knowing that Dixie would not be alone and I truly hope that he makes the summit with the others. But more than that I hope he realizes that I gave it my best effort. He was unable to hide his disappointment at first, but quickly found a way to express his support over my decision. As for the situation I face now....I need to survive by myself.
But Dixie has left the camp in the best shape possible for me; plenty of food, fuel to melt snow, an excellent tent. But the fact that it is so cold today (I no longer have an outside thermometer because it is with Dixie) is unnerving. My large toe on my eft foot is again frozen and painful and the tent is not nearly as warm with just one person inside. Dixie's body heat and his sleeping bag with mat insulated our tent better.
But, I'll figure out how to make my new home more cozy. The silence is heavy. Each movement of my arm is making a sound as I write. I do love the silence.
Since I have no method of communication available I will probably get very used to it. I expected to be on my own for the ten days after our climb at Patriot Hills, but that is a much simpler task than going it on my own halfway up a mountain in Antarctica.
There is no sun and the weather looks threatening. I suppose that my biggest fear is a windstorm and being in the tent alone. I expected to go through at least one storm with Dixie, but not alone. Still the winds remain calm. At least there are no polar bears to worry about.

Stop press : Tuesday 11th January, 11.30 am.

We have just learnt that since they left Mount Vinson last Saturday at midday, Rudy and Dixie have only covered 40 km ! Which doesn't take them much closer to Patriot... The reason for this is the lack of wind, and so they have not been able to use their powerkites. Despite that, they are in great shape and morale is high...

Tuesday 11th January : The countdown begins…

We found out yesterday evening through a phone call to us from Alain Hubert and Julie Brown in Patriot Hills where they met up (Alain coming from Blue One and Julie from Mount Vinson) that Julie had been able to take the plane on Saturday at 12.30 pm to come back to the base. For their part, Rudy and Dixie had finally left for their return journey an hour earlier - i.e. Saturday at 11.30 am. The weather was slightly cloudy and they had to leave on foot because there was not a breath of wind.

On the map published here, you can see the return route that Dixie and Rudy will be taking from the Vinson base camp back to the base at Patriot Hills - which is located a little to the right on the outside of the map. The little red arrows drawn to indicate the route - and perpendicular to it - represent the opportunities that the two men may have to climb one or two of the rocky peaks here and there along the way. It is perhaps of value to point out that although this route has been taken three times already in the past, none of the summits on the way between Mount Vinson and Patriot has ever been climbed. Which is exactly what our two Flemings are just about to undertake - along with all of the dangers that an adventure such as theirs represents. The figures 1 to 8 are merely markers that have been placed at random on the map by the two men to provide a line of beacons for the route; they are landmarks in a way by which they are due to pass and which they have to reach within a certain period of time - although we do not know what that particular schedule is. By Saturday evening, they had already reached point 1. So there are just another 7 to go…

As far as communication between the two men and the rest of the world is concerned, the agreement is that Dixie will contact his wife every evening, who is on standby at Patriot Hills; Julie will act as a relay point with HQ in Brussels. And if she has no news from them for more than 4 days, her job is to set a rescue operation in motion.

Sunday 9th January : Sleeping in - 35°C ! Brrr….

We have not had a great deal of news from the Antarctica 2000 trio for the past 48 hours. On the telephone on Friday evening, Dixie told us that they had taken advantage of this short interruption to their schedule to carry out a reconnaissance of the glacier that they will be taking for their perilous return to Patriot. "It looks all right," he said. "We will doubtless be getting underway tomorrow…"
After which, Dixie told me to reassure everyone in Belgium as to their health (all in excellent shape and morale sky-high, even for the Belgian who fell on the wall - what's done is done) and he gave me some news about the weather (rather cloudy). Our conversation was then interrupted; it has to be said that as it moves away, the satellite first of all converts Dixie's voice into a sort of disembodied computer voice as the distance increases (we can barely hear him), then disappears for good. We'll try and let you share these little moments one of these days…

Apart from that, antarctica.org had a nice surprise this weekend when a group of American tourists met up with Alain Hubert in Queen Maud Land. And because the leader of the group - a certain Ronald Ross, a Scotsman - is a computer enthusiast and had the equipment required in place, he sent us some extremely interesting photographs via his correspondent in San Francisco, Ed Anderson (hi, Ed!). They not only illustrate the type of peak that Dixie and Alain will be attempting to climb next year, but also provide another face of the Patriot base, as well as the plane that crashed in 1990 - an amazing shot - that the Antarctica 2000 group went out to visit (see the report of 29th December). Once again, many thanks to Ed, Ronald and all the others.
Another surprise today: Julie managed to send us, by e-mail this time, a brief extract from her logbook, which we reproduce below - which of course brings us closer to them:

Day 2 on Mount Vinson, 3rd January.
How reality can slap you in the face! It was - 33°C when we got up this morning. My pen isn't working any more. Fortunately, we brought some pencils along, too. A hard, very long night. Dixie has already made some hot coffee so that when I wake up I can drink some straight away. I can't think of a nicer guy. I do not like what follows: last evening, I was so tired from the long and difficult day's work (Ed. note: I always wonder why these "explorer-travellers" talk about "work" when they refer to the burdens placed on them by their journeys, because in the end, it is only for the pure pleasure of it that they leave themselves open to these problems) that when the temperature fell, I was unable to get to sleep. Dixie also experienced problems finding sleep. Because in fact, our sleeping bags are not as warm was we had hoped and they are not designed to cope with such extreme temperatures. Dixie tells me that the sleeping bags he used with Alain on their crossing were much better; he also tells me that they were never as cold as this inside their tent. As for our Thermarest mattresses, these are "kaput". You can feel the cold through to your back and backside. I try to roll myself up and adopt the foetal position to try and keep my body as warm as possible. But this tactic doesn't work. My breath freezes almost instantly when it hits the slightest obstacle; my nose is both aching and sore, with my left nostril bleeding because it is so dry. I had a slight headache yesterday evening, but I think this is due more to the altitude than from intensive exposure to the brilliance of the sun that splashed us with its rays the other day. I am trying my best to get motivated for the days to come. Hot drinks help me do this…