Moon-Regan Trans Antartic Expedition

Saturday 11 December, 8.40am From Jamie:
Quite an unbelievable 31 hours since we left the Leverett Glacier and we are back at the South Pole! We left the Ross Ice Shelf at around 1pm on Thursday afternoon, after some Steak and bean in celebration of the crossing. The vehicles were fully reloaded and we were keen to make a start on the return crossing. The sun was shining and the temperature moderate down at 200m above sea level so Pete and I took the opportunity (on separate occasions I might add) to wander far into the quiet of the Ross Ice shelf with the loo seat! We had very quickly learnt that any chance to avoid exposing oneself to -40 Celsius with 50km/h winds was very sensible.
Whilst the mechanics were fixing the vehicle prior to departure they noticed that the drive belt in SSV1 had split from one eight-strand belt to two four-strand belts, so still attached and working but at serious risk of breaking. Unfortunately we had used both the spare drive belts on the way to the Pole and the mechanics hadn’t expected this many to break – they were all brand new pre-Expedition and have a (theoretical) lifespan of 100,000km. We were faced with a dilemma, the Union Glacier nearly 2,000km away, The South Pole 600km and McMurdo over a 1,000km. Since we had no idea whether it had split before we came onto the ice or 5 minutes earlier, Andrew and Andrew decided the most sensible option was to carry on with our plan back to the South Pole and Union Glacier, since nothing could be done in the middle of nowhere on the Ross Ice Shelf. If it broke we would have to come up with a solution further along the line.
We travelled back up the Leverett Glacier with relative ease, the wind still blowing strong, gusting at 122km/h at one point but the visibility was much improved. It was fantastic to see the mountain-range coming up the glacier, in a different light with everyone feeling on a massive high in the trucks. The journey back to the South Pole from here was a dream, expect the drive-belt issue which was entirely out of our control, the trucks were in good shape and running well. In our tracks once again we easily drove across the plateau at 25km/h. Everyone was keen to make good progress on this part of the journey, where everything ran well and at speeds we had expected of the entire journey. Having bid the South Pole Traverse farewell less than 24 hours earlier we caught up to them at their campsite, now entirely different with all the vehicles dug out the snow, we carried on past them and into the sastrugi once again.
The weather over the past few days meant that the flatter ground was much easier to drive over but it seemed to have a negative impact on the sastrugi, which seemed rougher and more jagged than before. As we climbed higher and higher we eventually found our fuel cache and previous camping ground. We re-loaded the empty barrels onto the recovery sleds to tow back to the ALE cache at the Pole. It dawned on us that we had camped at one of the highest places on our route with high speed winds and worst conditions, the visibility once again down very low.
With the barrels in tow we continued through sastrugi which flattened out to much more amicable conditions. We shared the driving in the SSVs, pushing on through the night to make progress to the South Pole. People slept in the bench seats and we continued to diet on Ribena, chocolate Digestives, nuts and dried fruit. We continued onwards to the Pole, in SSV2 merrily driving along when Valdi seemed to plot a new route through the snow, entirely in the wrong direction, he suddenly piped up ‘Sorry, I was asleep’, at which point we insisted on changing driver’s once again! As we closed on the waypoint of the trailer, we saw it half buried in the snow. We quickly pulled it out using the winch and within minutes had the spare tyre re-attached and it hitched empty onto SSV1. One thing we had learnt was that travelling light made a huge difference to the performance of the vehicles, in terms of steering response, power and fuel economy.
‘The Swamp’ of thick snow which we had struggled through on the way out of the South Pole was now much harder and easy to cross, making the South Pole approach much more bearable. When at the South Pole and near the Station we have always tried to remain invisible and stay entirely out the way of the scientists and residents here. It seems the Arctic Trucks Expedition from Iceland took an entirely different, and somewhat arrogant, approach, marching into the station to use the private shower facilities. It perhaps explained the quieter welcome we received on our return to the Station, them trying not to encourage such behaviour, after all it is home to all the people that work here, who are only entitled to two two-minute showers per week. From all on the Moon Regan TransAntarctic Expedition we would like to thank the South Pole Station and its staff for the kind welcome we have received and hope that we remained respectful and the right side of the line at all times. There is something very special about the South Pole and once we got here for the second time we couldn’t resist standing at the bottom of the World once again. The plan is to camp overnight and set-off on our return to Union Glacier Saturday morning, with all our equipment and the Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle.
Del blog de la expedición