Trip to S2, April 6, 1958
By Seb Borrello, Wilkes Geomagnetician
Well it was yesterday April 6, when Casey Cronk and I packed up a weasel, IGY3, and a sledge and took off for Site 2 which is a tiny base 50 miles from the main base. It truly lies up high on the great Antarctic ice cap. This trip gives me an opportunity to do some magnetic work at S2. We left Wilkes about 9:30 in the morning in sunny calm weather. We had on the sledge a 4 cylinder, two kilowatt Wisconsin portable generator weighing 500 pounds. It was bolted and well lashed down. The old generator at S2 broke down and all they had was a little Onan to keep the base going, that is. We climbed the steep hill going up to the moraine with no trouble even though the ice was quite slick. From then on it was just a matter of following the trail markers which are 50 gallon drums set about two tenths of a mile apart. When we reached Site 1, just a thermometer box, the wind was blowing 5 to 10 knots with no snow. About twenty miles out we found the dead sledge dog lying up against a barrel, stiff as a board. About 5 miles from S2 the wind was blowing 20 to 30 knots with a lot of surface snow from ground level to about five feet. About half a mile out we saw the light on the anemometer mast. It was about 5 O'clock and would soon get dark, so we quickly found the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the Jamesway. After a hearty greeting from Dick and Don, they came out to help us unload and cover the weasel.
We found out that they got the old Wisconsin generator out by pulling it up a snow shaft with the aid of their weasel, a very hard job for only two men to say the least. We ate chow, fried chicken, and then I went with Casey and Dick down the tunnel passageway to the deep pit where glaciology studies went on last year. We climbed to the bottom, 120 feet down where there was a side tunnel 20 feet long. The shaft was 2 by 2 meters. Short sticks protruded from the walls of the shaft and side tunnel. Dick and Casey did some stick to stick measurements as part of a plan to determine ice cap flow over the years. The ice at the bottom was getting pretty solid compared to the surface layers which were compressed snow, just right for making igloos. I didn't trust the vertical ladders but they held real well. There were six ladders passing through as many small platforms. After climbing out we went to the Jamesway to hear Don broadcast at the 10:15 radio schedule to Wilkes that we arrived safely.
The Jamesway was an insulated Quonset hut about 20 feet long by 16 feet wide. It had been buried to the roof by blowing snow over the past year, and was heated by a kerosene space heater with its smoke stack ending 3 feet above the surface. The air temperature inside was highly stratified, below freezing at the floor and very warm above 4 feet. So it was warm boots on the feet and shirtless above the waist. We slept in sleeping bags on folding cots where the temperature was just right, even with the heater shut off. We stored our food in holes cut into the ice in the passageway just outside the door. The latrine was a hole in a wood board placed in a dugout further down the passageway toward the pit. During daylight hours the passage tunnel was illuminated by blue light filtering through the ice. The entrance from above was covered by a plywood lean-to having a door beautifully decorated in hoar frost crystals. It was nearly a daily job to clear blown snow from the doorway.
April 8. We got up late, 10 AM, grabbed a cup of coffee and went to work. First we put the old generator on a sledge and then cleared out the snow shaft. After lunch we wrestled the new generator off its sledge and down the shaft working it into the generator room. We built a platform of 4x4 timbers and wrestled it up on this, put up the switch box, put on the exhaust pipe, checked the oil and gas and then started her up. It runs very well indeed. Mucho work but mucho results. The outside work was made difficult by the 30 knot wind and blowing snow. My beard was full of ice as were my pockets. But now everything is well and I am tired. Tomorrow we will install a new generator in one of the weasels.
April 9. With the wind around 45 knots it was impossible to dig out the new shaft for an emergency exit so Dick and I went out to their weasel to put on the new generator. We used a blow torch to keep it warm in the weasel and to thaw out various parts. We got the Studebaker engine started and ran it to warm up. I tried calling Don, who was in the Jamesway, on the TCS radio inside the weasel. This worked fine. Then we started the weasel that Casey and I came in and let her warm up. This was all we could do outside since visibility was down to 20 feet. I fell asleep until 10 pm and then got up and made a fine strawberry pie guessing at the recipe and using strawberry preserves for the filler.
April 10. Well, the crust was OK but the filling was too sweet as I suspected it would be. Dick and I cut a hole in the wall in the generator room to hold the barrel for the Onan generator. I did some clearing out of the passageway near the generator room. After supper Dick made delicious pineapple tarts and Don made chocolate ice cream. So we did alright.
April 11. At 10am Dick and Don were all packed up and left for Wilkes shortly afterwards. The visibility was near zero so they followed weasel tracks as they left. Casey and I installed the emergency trap door near the generator room, and got the barrel in for the Onan fuel supply. We finally shut off the Wisconsin because it was making so much heat that the walls were melting and the roof threatened to cave in. At 20:30 I heard on the radio that Don and Dick were back at Wilkes. They had the misfortune that their sledge with the old generator turned over below the moraine. They left it there in the dark. Biggest event today is that the wind has gone from east to southeast after two weeks of east wind.
April 12. This morning was great - little blowing snow, wind only 25 knots, so I took some pictures from the 20 foot weather mast. Casey and I found the eight foot hole Dick and John Hollin dug. We rolled out another barrel of gasoline for the generators. For supper I made spaghetti sauce which turned out great. At 10:30 I made contact with base and learned that the two new puppies are doing fine after Dr. Sparkes fixed them up. Six had died of exposure before anyone knew about them. At 6 PM we had a gust of 58 knots.
April 13. Casey fixed the space heater. It is under better control. It was always too hot until we opened the door - then it got too cool. I did some magnetic measurements and Casey did pit studies for the next few days. We got some sun fixes on S2 under comfortable conditions by building a triangular shelter with plywood and snow blocks.
Written in May:
After a 10 day stay at S2, we decided to depart, having good weather settle in. I tried to start the weasel but the batteries were low. I hooked up the charger. While it was charging Casey was cleaning the spark plugs. The wrench he was using fell across the battery posts. Need I say it? The batteries exploded and were ruined, but Case was not hurt. We installed two spare batteries that were in the snow tunnel, but these proved to be of poor quality. We were stuck.
Lucky break; that night we learned via radio that Dick Robertson and John Hollin were in the process of doing an altimetry survey to coincide with the gravity survey done in January. We should expect them the following night. So we sat tight the next day and sure enough in they came with two weasels. Ah, lots of transportation; all we had to do was start our weasel with the jumper cables that we had made that day... so we thought.
That night all four of us got a good nights sleep. We were up at six with a temperature of 26F below. We had a devil of a time starting John's weasel, but we were able to start Dick's. Finally we got John started but it had a frozen gas line so I had to hand pump the gas for 15 minutes until the line opened up with engine heat. We could only get our weasel started by towing it, but after it was running for awhile there was an explosion in the base pan with oil and smoke coming out the dipstick tube. We crossed our fingers and ignored it. It was now one in the afternoon when Casey and I left S2. The others were to follow in one hour. At three miles out the oil pressure went to zero, so we stopped but kept the engine going because once stopped we would not be able to start it. We added oil and took off again. At five miles out there was a strong explosion in the base pan with oil spraying up out of the fill pipe. The pressure read 0. We stopped, shut off the engine and waited for the other weasels. After two hours we had decided we had best walk back to S2 as it was close and the sun had just set.
So we packed our sleeping bags, a tent and some food and took off to S2. It seemed surreal crunching along on ice 4000 feet thick following weasel tracks in the fading twilight. The barrels were easy to see against the sky because each one was propped up on a snow mound, and there was no wind. Snow packs on the lee side of each barrel, so they are periodically raised up on the resulting snow mound. Walking fast kept my body reasonably warm, and stopping was out of the question.
When we got back to S2 we learned that something was wrong with John's weasel, and thus they decided to stay until tomorrow. We told them our plight and decided to leave that night. We radioed the base our plans with the agreement they would send out a search party if we were not in by breakfast. It was a good plan since Dick and Casey hate to miss breakfast. Dick and I were in the lead weasel, and when we reached the broken down weasel we transferred its supplies. About 8 miles further on Dick's weasel heated to over 220F so we shut it off to let it cool down, which happens fast at 20F below zero. But then we could not get it started so we packed only sleeping bags, tent and food into the last weasel, and the four of us proceeded towards base 37 miles away. Since the headlights did not work we tied a Coleman lantern on the front with a shield behind it so the driver could see the old weasel tracks to guide by. To add to our misfortune this weasel had water or dirt in the carburetor so it kept missing and bucking if we went over 10 miles per hour. We usually drive 15 to 20 mph. Several times that night we lost the trail and had to backtrack until we found it. At 6 AM we were at the moraine and at 7 AM we were in the chow line for a really great breakfast.