Narrative

Fitzgerald and Woolfe flew from Christchurch to McMurdo on November 20. The morning of November 21 was spent busily preparing field gear for transportation to Beardmore Camp (84°00′13.897″S, 164°24′42.226″E) before departing on a condensed survival course in the ice-fall. Friday, November 22, we checked personal gear in at Hill Cargo, McMurdo station, for transportation to Beardmore on a C-130 flight that day, this flight later being cancelled due to mechanical problems with the aircraft. We arrived in Beardmore on a fuel flight the following day, our cargo arriving that night on a later flight, although we did not find most of it until the Monday morning. Sunday, November 24, was spent arranging field logistics and field gear preparation which continued on into Monday. We left Beardmore Camp at 1500 hours on Tuesday, November 26, putting in a camp just west of Granite Pillars before doing close support in the Eastern Queen Alexandra Range, sampling Mount Hope, the Gateway, Cape Allen and the summit of Mount Ida. We were unable to make radio contact with any station upon put-in and the helo left us with their AN/PRC-90 VHF radio. Construction of 10′ radio masts solved this problem and communications from Granite Pillars was always, excellent after that. A helo returned the following day and picked up the VHF radio. November 27 and 28 we worked on spot height .1363 and Granite Pillars but only managed 1 hour's work on Friday, November 29 owing to bad weather. Nevertheless, we managed to complete just about all desired work at this camp. Snow and poor visibility continued Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We had originally planned a move to Mount Kyffin on Saturday, November 30 for a two day camp but had cancelled this request. This was because upon closer examination from Granite Pillars, the outcropping granite at Mount Kyffin on which we wished to take a vertical sampling profile contained no horizontal component. It was therefore deemed unsuitable for our purposes.

Despite not leing on the helo schedule for Tuesday, December 3, bad weather elsewhere enabled a change in the schedule allowing us close support in the Queen Alexandra Range. The helo arrived 1440 hours and we sampled spot height .1810, Mount F.L. Smith, Sirohi Point and The Cloudmaker before proceeding to the fuel cache at Lhasa Nunatak. Returning to Granite Pillars to pick up the camp, we returned to Beardmore Camp, sampling Threshold Nunatak en route, and arriving back at 1900 hours.

Wednesday, December 4, we packed rocks and repaired the radio aerial before bad weather elsewhere in the Beardmore region presented us with another opportunity flight leaving Beardmore Camp at 1700 hours, and we put in a camp on the Krelling Mesa in the Miller Range. Despite blustery conditions the next day, we worked on top of the Mesa and around spot height .2440 before descending to the Marsh Glacier via a gully just to the south of .2440, completing a vertical samplinq profile of 800 m. The samples were left at glacier level before ascending the bluffs back to the Mesa to encounter 40-50 knot southerly winds and blowing snow. We dug the tent out, repaired the radio aerial and secured the camp before spending an uncomfortable night in the gale. Unfortunately, a strong gust in the night propelled the radio off the kitchen box and onto a primus. After repairing the aerial again in the morning, we discovered that the flight of the radio had proved fatal and it had ceased to function. Bad weather on December 6 kept us confined to the tent. Good weather on December 7 and also the knowledge that we had now missed two radio skeds prompted us to break camp and await "rescue". The helo duly arrived at 1200 hours and since we had achieved our immediate objective, we returned to Beardmore Camp, our camping gear remaining. This page 28 remaining gear plus the rock cache at the base of MacDonald Bluffs was picked up on Sunday, December 8 by a helo checking the fuel dump at Moody Nunatak just across the Marsh Glacier.

Monday, December 9, was spent at Beardmore Camp packing rocks and gear. On the Tuesday we were put in for 1.5 hours at Moody Nunatak and took a 400m vertical sampling profile off the north ridge and west face. This was followed by close support in the Queen Elizabeth Range, sampling granites from Bartrum Plateau, Haven Hill, spot height .2790, Mount MacBain and the Fazekas Hills. Wednesday, December 11, was spent at Beardmore camp and on Thursday we did close support in the eastern Commonwealth Range sampling granites at Mount Patrick, Celebration Pass, Mount Kyffin and Mount Robert Scott, before being put in at Cleft Peak for 5.5 hours and returning to Beardmore at 1620 hours. Scheduled C-130 flights to McMurdo on December 13 and 14 were both cancelled. No flying on Sunday December 15, but on Monday we returned to McMurdo. The C-130 flight to Christchurch on December 17 was cancelled, but on the following night Fitzgerald departed McMurdo, arriving in Christchurch on the morning of December 19. Woolfe remained at Scott Base to join up with K043.