6. The Antarctic-South Pole: The Last Frontier

The Antarctic… its mere name evokes remoteness, loneliness, extreme conditions and risk but adventure and discovery as well. Ice Mountains, gale-force winds, skies with different suns and the small bases with space appearance in the middle of nowhere make the Antarctic continent the closest thing to another planet that can be found on Earth. And nevertheless, the so called last frontier is actually the very heart of Gondwana, the original land from which, all along the geological ages, broke off the rest of the continents. It is also the place where were born heroes such as Shackleton, Amundsen or Scott – those who resisted, those who succeeded and those who left their lives in the attempt.
The Antarctic sky is like no other. Down there, the Earth’s magnetic field curves, producing spectacular phenomenon, like the aurora australis (southern equivalent to aurora borealis), circular rainbows, halos o the so called sundogs (the image of the sun multiplied) and attracts a huge number of meteorites. Sometimes, ice particles on suspension make the air shine as if it were filled with diamonds.
Whereas there is no life in the interior of the continent, its coasts swarm with a richfull sea fauna. Whales live on masses of plankton or, in the case of the killer whales, on seals, walruses or elephant seals. Antediluvian fishes and crustaceans swim in its water’s depth, adapted to cold in such an amazing ways. Emperor penguins reign in the beaches, meanwhile skuas, coastal birds of prey, nose-dive fishes, birds… or absent-minded explorers.
But overall, the Antarctic is ice. Immense ice amounts that overflow the continent (a 4.500 km diameter circle) forming kilometric platforms over the ocean – the so called ice-shelves. Ice that gets accumulated between 2000 and almost 5000 meters over the rocky base. Ice that means 80% of the planet water reserves. Ice, not snow. Despite appearances, the Antarctic Continent is the world driest: it is so cold that humidity cannot condensate, and, for this reason, its 14 million km2 record less rainfall than Sahara Desert –although the wind frequently produces cutting blizzards of ice crystals.
It also has the Earth’s lowest average temperature record – in the warmest month, thermometers are well below zero, and in 1983 in the Vostok’s Russian base -89,2° were recorded. During the summer (January), days in the Antarctic have light almost 24 hour a day, meanwhile on winter everything is under a long half-light. In the geographical South Pole, there is just one day and one night, 6 months long each one.
The Antarctic has not human inhabitants per se, but on summer almost 10.000 people occupy the almost a hundred scientific stations of about 20 countries, spread over the continent. Nations with the right of installing bases have signed the Antarctic Treaty, which is renewed every year and defines this as a human kind’s land, assigned for peace, progress and science, which fragile environment have to be looked after it by all means. For this reason, both scientists and explorers must follow very strict rules, among them, the prohibition of leaving any kind of waste. In short, it means a huge change in the perception of the white continent that, in the beginning, was interesting for seals and wheals hunters.
James Cook completed the first circumnavigation in 1772 but without seeing any land further than the parallel 60° south. William Smith claimed the first lands, in the South Shetlands, under the name of the United Kingdom and King George. Then they were followed by Ross, Weddell and other British men who explored the Antarctic Peninsula and the coast of that area of the continent. But soon the British aimed a more ambitious objective: the South Pole.
These are the years of Scott and Shackleton, of the crazy race to get first to the southern extreme of the Earth, of the victory of Norwegian Amundsen and the tragic British defeat – thousands of books have been written about a series of epic episodes in the history of exploration. With them on mind, José Mijares and Hilo Moreno plan in here the longest crossing of their project – and the most complicated logistically: 2.200 km from the Atlantic coast to the Sout Pole without external assistance, with no one else in thousands of kilometers around, with an average temperature of 30°C below zero, and Antarctic icy winds blowing on their backs… or at least that’s what they expect.
Although there is no an actual date to start the Antarctic stage of this project, the expedition members point out to 2011/12 season, exactly when the centenary of the South Pole conquest will be celebrated.

The definitive goal: The South Pole

The Geographical South Pole marks the southern extreme of the Earth, the latitude 90°S, where all the meridians converge. It is located approximately in the middle of the Antarctic, 2.835 meters over the sea level. Since Amundsen and his men stepped in this place for the very first time, the 14th of December, 1911, in the South Pole a few buildings have been built, being the most remarkable the American scientific base, Amundsen-Scott.
The exact South Pole must be calculated and relocated every year with a point sign because the ice where it stands on is moving constantly. It must be taken on account that, in the Pole, the ice layer has 2.7 km thickness. At midday, that is, on January, temperatures on the South Pole can be up to a nice 25°C; much better than the average -45°C at dawn and sunset, and the usual -60°C during the Antarctic night. Besides, the sun never gets up on the horizon more than 23 degrees. On the other hand, because of their location on the Pole every time zone will be right… or wrong. In fact, trying to follow a time-zone of 24 hours for day in the Antarctic is a task rather confusing. For some tacit agreement, the personnel of the Amundsen-Scott base follow New Zealand’s time-zone; but it could have been any one else.

Dangers and obstacles

The katabatic winds, created by the planet’s centrifuge force when spinning, are almost constant and blow on an average of 20km/h, but they can be as fast as 300km/h. With something like this, the thermal feeling (result of combining temperature and wind’s action) can be as low as… -100ºC! Generally speaking, the thermal feeling in the South Pole is around -43ºC.
Blizzards are frequent as well, and journeys with no visibility at all. Sometimes a real wall of clouds is formed which travels on a high speed together with ice – it is the frozen equivalent to sand storms. If the expedition members get to see the cloud in the horizon, they will just have 20 minutes to pitch the tent or to make their equipment secure (and themselves) before getting themselves involved in a violent blizzard. Antarctic dry blizzards does not include snowfall, but they lift ice crystals on the floor, making twisters so blinding that the expedition members won’t be able to see their ski tips, not to mention possible cracks.
In case of low clouds without wind, visibility disappears as well. Under white-out conditions there is no difference between the ground and the sky, what really affects balance and orientation. Like that, it is impossible to follow a straight line or to calculate how long you have progressed.
Of course that calculating distances is almost impossible even under clear skies because the ground is so irregular that there are not elements that can be used as reference points. And when you have one, as a mountain on the distance, the expedition member can despair when realizing that after days of walking, the mountain does not look bigger and it seems that any progress have been made. This is due to, with clean air of course, eyesight can distinguish with every detail geographical elements that can be 100 km far away actually.
On the other hand, solar explosions and its effect on the magnetism can be notice specially on this area. A high activity on the sun’s surface can affect the functioning of the telecommunication systems carried by the team members, specially satellite telephones, GPS Systems and positioning beacons that they connected during all the crossing. Besides, José and Hilo have to follow a route with not too many people, so there is no reliable information about the location of possible crack areas. They will have to watch their steps.