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.

Transportation

Transportation to Antarctica was by RNZAF C-130 Hercules. Flights into and out of Beardmore Camp were on board VXE-6 ski-equipped C-130 Hercules as was the return to New Zealand.

Helicopters

K044 was allocated 20 helo hours for use out of Beardmore Camp. These were not included in the NZ allocation for the 1985/86 season. A total of 18.6 hours were used in the following way:

1985	November 26
	Put-in camp Granite Pillars. Close support Eastern Queen Alexandra Range (4 stops)	2.2 hours
	December 3
	Close support Queen Alexandra Range (4 stops) Pick-up Granite Pillars camp. Return to Beardmore with one close support stop en route	4.4 hours
	December 4
	Put-in camp Krelling Mesa, Miller Range	1.8 hours
	December 7
	Pick-up from Krelling Mesa, Miller Range Return Beardmore	1.1 hours
	December 8
	Pick-up camp and rock cache. Miller Range Return Beardmore	2.2 hourspage 29
	December 10
	Close support Moody Nunatak (1.5 hours ground time) and Queen Elizabeth Range (5 stops)	3.8 hours
	December 12
	Close support Commonwealth Range (5 stops) and Cleft Peak (5.5 hours ground time)	3.1 hours
	TOTAL	18.6 hours

Without a doubt, the ability of a field party to liaise directly with the person controlling helicopter operations as well as pilots and crew makes for a more efficient use of helicopter time. A substantially greater amount of work was accomplished this season than had originally been planned. It is appreciated that for NZ field parties this situation is only likely to occur at deep field camps of similar nature to the Beardmore. This situation was aided by the fact that a well organised two person field party is easier to accommodate on flight schedules and resulted in two of our first three helo moves being "opportunity flights"; a result of bad weather elsewhere and changes in flight schedules. Our pick-up from the Miller Range was also an opportunity flight, but it resulted from failure of our radio, and as the work planned had been finished we returned to Beardmore Camp.

Communications

The Berg Field Centre at McMurdo provided us with a Southcom International Inc. Patrolfone Model SC-120, the radio usually supplied to USARP field parties. The radio was tested at Scott Base and again at Beardmore Camp before deployment in the field. K044 skedded with Beardmore Camp at 0730 hours on 4770 KHZ each day in the field with an optional 2100 hours sked at night. Beardmore relayed our field status to McMurdo Sideband each day. Communications with Scott Base were on 5400 KHZ on a casual basis, the Southcom normally being used when at Beardmore Camp due to poor aerial orientation of their main radio.

On our put-in to Granite Pillars on November 26 we were unable to make contact with any station on any frequency and were left with a AN/PRC-90 VHF radio. Joining bamboo poles together to elevate the aerial 10′ above the ground solved this problem and communications with all stations after this were excellent. On the night of December 5 in the Miller Range a violent southerly storm blew the radio off the kitchen box onto a primus and it ceased to function. The same storm shredded the aerial in numerous places and it was noticed that even on a new aerial with this braided wire construction that fraying and eventual breaking occurred much more frequently than aerials with plastic coating.

On day trips into the field an AN/PRC-90 VHF radio was taken for communications with helos. Our Southcom radio was returned to McMurdo Station for repair after the Miller Range trip and was then returned to Beardmore Camp for use by other parties.

Weather

Generally the weather in the Beardmore Glacier area was good, however, at both field camps we suffered bouts of bad weather. At Granite Pillars we spent four days in the tents due to localised low cloud and snow reducing visibility to less than page 30 100 metres. This seems to be a common occurrence at localities adjacent to the Ross Ice Shelf. In the Miller Range we weathered a short storm with blowing snow and winds of between 40-50 knots with occasional stronger gusts.

Field Equipment

All field equipment supplied performed satisfactorily. Being the only NZARP party operating out of Beardmore Camp, it was very noticeable the better quality of field clothing compared to standard USARP issue. Two further recommendations concerning equipment are made. Primus spares should include new burner heads, not only used ones from previous seasons. All field parties working above 200m or at latitudes greater than 80°S in the Transantarctic Mountains should be issued with double climbing boots which are much warmer than the standard issue and are much safer on steeper slopes, especially when using crampons.

Itinerary for K044