"Pack Ice: sea ice made up of a floating mosaic of unconnected plates of ice that is free to drift with currents, tides and wind"
(New Zealand National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research)
This section of the website is for things that do not fit anywhere else. Don't assume that this means the leftovers! Pack Ice contains a wide range of interesting material that is well worth your time to explore. You never know what might show up here, so check back often!
Bach of the Antarctic
Who would have guessed that the first intrepid explorer of the Antarctic Continent was none other than Johann Sebastian Bach? Yes, that Bach. This short film includes a cameo appearance by our own Antarctican Society Past President, Dr. Art Ford. To learn more about this previously unknown connection of history, first plant tongue firmly in cheek and then click HERE.
First Welcome Manual of McMurdo Station 1956-57
This is the original manual compiled by the crew that built and spent the first winter at McMurdo Station in 1956-57. At that time, it was not called McMurdo but rather the Williams Air Operating Facility. This manual was submitted courtesy of David Grisez, who was a Navy Machinery Repairman on that crew.HERE.
Mapping Amundsen's and Scott's Routes through the Transantarctic Mountains Fifty Years Later
Peter Otway was a young surveyor when he participated in the 1961-62 Southern Party which explored and mapped the Queen Maud Range under New Zealand's Reconnaissance Mapping Programme. During that season, his team became the second group of explorers to navigate down the Axel Heiberg Glacier, the treacherous path that Roald Amundsen's team followed to reach the Pole in 1911. This is Peter's account of that experience. HERE.
U.S. IGY Roster 1957-58
This roster of the U.S. IGY Program was compiled by the Geophysics Research Board. It is based primarily on the names of scientific participants that appear in the "IGY General Report No. 21, Report on the U.S. Program for the International Geophysical Year, July 1, 1957 - December 31, 1958", issued by the Geophysics Board in November, 1965, and the report "Operation Deep Freeze - Third Phase: 1957-58". HERE.
On the Current Location of the Byrd "Snow Cruiser" and Other Artifacts from Little America I, II, III and Framheim
This article, authored by Dr. Ted Scambos and Clarence Novak, appeared in Polar Geography, Volume 29, Number 4, October-December 2005 , pp. 237-252(16). Analysis of maps, sightings, satellite images, and aerial photos indicates that a ~105 km2 section of the eastern side of the Bay of Whales, containing the buried remains of several bases from the "heroic era" of Antarctic exploration, calved away around late 1961. A small iceberg from this event (or closely spaced events), with the remains of Little America III exposed in the ice face, was sighted in February 1963 near the western Ross Ice Shelf front. Satellite observations of more recent calving events show that most small icebergs from the Bay of Whales area drift westward and repeatedly impact the shelf, fragmenting as they move. This implies that a number of artifacts from the bases, such as the 1939-1941 Snow Cruiser, are likely strewn along the seabed near the 1962 ice-front position. Major Ross Ice Shelf calvings of 2000 and 2002 have removed the ice cover from parts of the 1962 front area for the first time since that period. Thus a search for the artifacts is technically more feasible for the next few years until shelf ice flow re-covers the area. You can read this article by clicking HERE.
The NSF/OPP Contribution To Antarctic Glaciology
Dr. Terry Hughes composed this personal perspective on the NSF-supported glaciological program in Antarctica. Dr. Hughes participated in this program for many years, so his insights are based largely on first-hand experience. You can read this interesting summary by clicking HERE.
Exploration of Vanderford Glacier, 1957
Bob Long provided this account of his experience during the IGY, when the limits of man and machine were still being tested by scientists. Read the full story HERE.
"A job like any other, a life like any other"
Far from it. This article from December, 2009 in the online BMJ Journal tells the remarkable story of Dr. Vladislav Rogozov. Dr. Rogozov was the winterover physician at the Russian Station Novolazarevskaya in 1960-61. He came down with appendicitis in mid-winter and was forced to perform one of the few auto-appendectomies in medical history. The quote in the title was Dr. Rogozov's response to his subsequent accolades. Read the full story HERE.
Using Tourism to Protect Antarctica
Antarctic tourism has been somewhat controversial. A number of Society members have been and continue to be guest lecturers on these cruises. This article makes the case that tourism has been a positive force for preserving the Last Place on Earth. Click the title above to read the article.
The South Pole Winter Experience
Wintering in Antarctica is always a challenging experience. Wintering at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is perhaps the most challenging of all the American bases because of the elevation (9000+ feet above sea level), cold (record -117 F), period of no sun (6 months) and extreme isolation (no possible access for 7-8 months).
The papers below represent two perspectives on the winterover. The first was written by Dick Wolak as a Masters degree thesis at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dick was the South Pole Station Manager during the transitional year of 1974-75 during which the original Pole Station established during the IGY was abandoned in favor of the new domed Pole Station. His account and analysis of managing a team in extreme isolation is a fascinating glimpse into the challenges he faced. Read it by clicking the link below:
Management of Small Groups in Isolation by Richard Wolak
The second paper was written by Marc Levesque, Logistics Coordinator at South Pole Station during the 1981-82 winterover. Marc planned and conducted a series of interviews of the Pole crew during the winter to assess how his colleagues were adaptating to the long winterover.These interviews eventually became part of his graduate work at the University of Southern Maine. It is a different perspective from Dick's, but no less valid as an insight into how people deal with the challenge of wintering at the bottom of the world. Read it by clicking the link below:
Paul Dalrymple, Antarctican Society Treasurer and long-time editor of the Society's Newsletter, hosted another of his infrequent gatherings at his house in Port Clyde, Maine. The the purpose of this one was to bring together Antarctic veterans of the original International Geophysical Year (IGY) during the 50th anniversary of that historic global project.
USGS Open-File Report 2006-1116 by Tony Meunier
Long-time Antarctican Society member and former President Tony Meunier developed this compilation of USGS Antarcticans and cachets over many years. This is an excellent summary of the USGS participants and projects from the beginning of the Geological Survey's involvement in the U.S. Antarctic Program.
The Signature of Glacier Ice
Article No.1of this piece of Antarctic research by long-time Society member John Splettstoesser appeared in OFF BELAY mountaineering magazine. Article No.2 appeared in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, the scientific humor magazine (www.jir.com) and is reproduced here with their permission. John has been waiting for the Nobel Committee to call ever since. It remains a unique "scientific" achievement.