Mini Wadhwa, 9 December 10, 2012, McMurdo Station

Imagine being stranded in a small, drafty hut in one of the coldest, most desolate places on Earth, surviving from day to day for months on end on a diet of not much other than seal meat and the occasional cabin biscuit, not knowing whether there was any hope for rescue…

These are the conditions under which some surviving members of Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917) found themselves. The drafty hut in question is Discovery Hut at Hut Point on Ross Island, which still exists, with much of its contents, in an exquisite state of preservation. It was originally built byRobert Falcon Scott during the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) and was subsequently used by three other British expeditions including Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. This was indeed the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, when expeditions were feats of endurance and survival was no guarantee. Comparatively speaking, modern expeditions to remote field areas in Antarctica (like ANSMET) are a cakewalk. This was vividly brought home to us today on our tour of Discovery Hut. The first two photos  show typical clothing and food supplies of the Heroic Explorers of Old; for comparison, the two following photos show the cold weather gear and the food issued to us (the Not-So-Heroic but Oh-So-Thankful Explorers of Today).

As of yesterday, all our preparations for being flown out to the field are complete. So it was time to play! Besides the tour of Discovery Hut, we also had a tour of the pressure ridges near Scott Base. These are spectacular features that form when ice sheets break up and collide due to stresses that build up in the sea ice – you can think of these as resulting from “miniaturized ice plate tectonics” (see last photo). Oh yes, in case you noticed, we were quite pleased to be in the Great Antarctic Outdoors. The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration may be over, but you will find none of us complaining about it!

Old Clothes

Old Food