Wally Berg

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We're only in our second day of delay; certainly not, in the whole scheme of things, a very serious situation yet, but of course we're anxious to talk to Koos [Loock] the pilot — the captain, I should say — of the C-130 crew.

[click to zoom]

He came by along with Rachel, the operations direction of ANI here in Punta Arenas, and some of the other staff. He talked a bit about the program. Safair is the owner of the Hercules C-130. This aircraft and the crew is leased out of South Africa. It's one of seven Hercules C-130s that this South African company operates around the world. They've got a couple of aircraft in Africa right now, one in Singapore, one out of the UK, and elsewhere around the world. This must be, to my mind, one of the more interesting places these crews who rotate around all these locations, actually operate — flying down onto the ice from Punta Arenas.

Basically, Koos described to us that two inches of snow on this runway is the maximum amount that can be allowed, and he knows from recent numbers recorded via the radio communication from Patriot Hills, there's considerably more than that there, now. The depth and coverage is still pretty extensive.

The blue ice runway at Patriot Hills, Antarctica [click to zoom]

That these Hercs, these C-130s land down there is pretty amazing. On the blue ice, wheeled aircraft — they don't use brakes — reverse thrust from the props, of course, is what slows them down. Good visibility is essential. They use a pair of mirrors held by individuals to help them. They also use GPS to help get them located properly, but it's strictly a visual situation as they land on the blue ice, putting it between the two mirrors, basically. And the interesting thing that I always am fascinated by is, they send one of the staff from Patriot Hills out on the snow-mobile just as the Herc is coming in to land, with a hand-held anemometer. We calculate that there's a tolerance for a 15 knot cross-wind as this thing's landing, and of course winds are gusty down there. This fellow will be out there with the anemometer radioing to Koos and his crew as they come in, wind speeds in the period of time before they land. And it allows Koos to calculate or make a very good guess about when there's a lull between gusts, and put his plane down at that time. Very skill-oriented operation, as you can imagine, landing one of these things down there.

Obviously we go down with enough fuel to return. One over-run or one pass and the decision not to land, is basically all the fuel they have to mess around with, though, and then they have to start back on the six and a half hour return flight to Punta Arenas. There are critical decisions involved in when it's time to go, whether the conditions are going to be right when we get down there.

Now, of course, it's not even a matter of worrying about what the weather is going to be like in terms of visibility or winds when we land; we just need the wind to blow to clear that runway. Right now, as of a few hours ago, there was only about a six knot wind down there. They're still running the tractor and the snow-blower. Basically the area we need to be cleared is about 200 meters wide and two kilometers long. Yesterday they managed in the slight wind, to clear — believe it or not — 12 meters of runway. Not very much in the scope of things. So obviously this is a situation where the wind has to blow — the natural wind is going to be what it takes to clear this runway, and that's what we're waiting to see develop.

I also mentioned in one of my other dispatches that the snow that has gone through the blower has densified and is less likely to blow away naturally once it's been blown. So that makes the whole operation with these tractors pretty dubious when there isn't any wind to begin with. You kick the stuff up and it's blowing away in natural wind, that's the most efficient thing that can happen. 30-40 knots wind, which I might add is not unusual at Patriot Hills at all, it's basically the norm, will, we believe, clear that runway in about a 24-hour period. So that's what, at this point, we're still hoping for.

However, there is, we believe, right now, according to the meteorologists down there, not much hope to think the weather is going to change in the next 24-hour period. So as of the morning of the 7th of January here in Punta Arenas, we are not planning to fly for about 72 hours at the most optimistic. This is based on not anticipating any wind for 24 hours, and then knowing that when Koos and his crew goes down with the fuel flight, which is absolutely essential to be down there prior to us — this is the fuel that will allow us to fly in the climber's case on into the Ellsworth Range and Vinson base. And in the case of some of our fellow passengers, to go on to the South Pole.

So we're in a big time holding pattern here, still, in Punta Arenas. Joe LeRoy just passed through the lobby here. He, at about 9:30 this morning went into the kitchen where he has befriended the food service people and arranged to cook what I can see now is going to be Joe's famous homemade Italian spaghetti. This is the big highlight of our day now that our briefing is over: that Joe is in there making spaghetti for us.

Some of our group — I'll post you on who does what in a later dispatch — some are thinking about renting a car and going to Torres del Paine tomorrow. We're down here in Chilean Patagonia and some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world is not far up the road. I think a few people will head in that direction; others will find various other things to do as we wait these three more days before we anticipate things might begin to open up.

That will be it for now. Basically, this group's spirits are extremely high considering what's going on. It's a big deal being flown down there. It always is, we've known that. Last year, a five-day delay. We've got to remind ourselves this is only the second day of delay on this trip, so no reason to despair at this point.

Hope you're well and I'm sure we'll talk soon.

—Wally Berg, Expedition Leader

DISPATCHES