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NEWS BULK DISTRIBUTION LANCHILE FLIGHTS RESUME TO STANLEY: Chilean air line LanChile re-commenced its weekly service from Santiago, Chile, to Stanley in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) on 7 August in a move important to some Antarctic tour operations planned for the 1999-2000 season. In the four months from 7 November at least twelve tourist voyages to and from the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands of the Scotia Arc are scheduled to use Stanley as an embarkation or disembarkation point. As such they rely on connecting flights between Santiago and the islands to 'feed' each operation. Just over 2,000 people will probably use the service at least one way in 1999-2000 as a result of the twelve ship visits. The regular service is used by tour operators to move their passengers where possible, and when not convenient special charter flights are sometimes arranged. At the moment the flight operates once a week on Saturdays, the route flown being Santiago, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas (all in Chile) then Stanley, the return flight being in reverse. In October the schedule is expected to change to a week day and one flight a month will land at Rio Gallegos (Argentina) en route. Flights from Santiago ceased in March and resume following agreement being reached on a number of matters by the Argentine and British governments in July. Companies starting or finishing voyages in Stanley schedule their air-ship transfers on the island so that they do not normally stay on shore overnight. Given the limited accommodation available on the islands other persons planning to travel there are being warned to ensure that their accommodation is booked well prior to arrival. In addition to the twelve voyages, more than fifty other tour ship visits will be made to the islands in connection with Antarctic operations from and to either Ushuaia (Argentina) or Punta Arenas (Chile) in the coming season. [ANAN-2/1] MILLENNIUM SHIPS: At least sixteen tour vessels with a total capacity of up to 1,600 passengers plus staff and crew are expected to see the New Year in in the north-western Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands region on 31 December. The build up of vessels begins on the 29th with eight ships being present, rises to thirteen on the 30th, and the peak of fifteen on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. It then decreases to thirteen on the 2nd and to seven by the 3rd. IAATO members commenced the task of coordinating their preferred sites for New Year at their 1999 meeting held in Hamburg, Germany, in late June. The large numbers of ships present in such a relatively small area over the peak period is likely to present a challenge to Expedition Leaders in keeping vessels out of sight of one another. It will be much quieter however in the South Pacific Sector over New Year, with one Antarctic tour vessel being in the Chatham Islands (New Zealand), and the other in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands north-west of the Ross Sea, both to try and catch the first rays of year 2000 sunlight. Only one ship with tourists on board is expected to be in the South Indian Ocean sector, and it will be at the French island of Kerguelen. A number of yachts will also be in the Antarctic Peninsula and other regions for New Year although at this time the numbers involved are unknown. [ANAN-2/2] 'PELAGIC' TO SUPPORT TWO CLIMBING TRIPS: U.K. based yacht operator Pelagic Expeditions is to support two commercial climbing trips to the Antarctic Peninsula in 1999-2000. A six-person climbing group from New Zealand (NZ) has chartered 'Pelagic' for an attempt on majestic 2,760 m Mount Francais on Anvers Island. Departure from Ushuaia, Argentina, is scheduled for 20 December, and return there 7 February. Francais, the highest peak in the maritime Antarctic, was first climbed in the 1950s, and last season two Australians, Duncan Thomas and Dave Adams ascended it via an unclimbed rib on the eastern face. The second climbing expedition should depart Ushuaia on 11 February and involves a British team of three, including Pelagic's owner Skip Novak. They will make attempts on the Cape Renard Towers and other peaks in the Gerlache Strait region. The Towers are prominent rock pillars at the northern end of the Lemaire Channel. Return to Ushuaia is currently scheduled for 15 March. Some mountaineering experts believe that the area around the intersection of the Nuemeyer Channel and the Gerlache and Bismarck Straits will attract many climbers over the next few years, the number of mountaineering visits there in the last decade showing a steady increase. [ANAN-2/3] MAWSON'S HUTS EXPEDITION POSTPONED: On-going conservation work planned for 1999-2000 on Sir Douglas Mawson's 1911-14 expedition huts at Commonwealth Bay, George V Land, has been postponed until the following season. The group behind the conservation work, the AAP Mawson's Huts Foundation (AMHF) of Sydney, Australia, which is partly funded by the Australian Government, commenced the conservation work in 1997-8. Two reasons were given for the delay by the Board of the AMHF, one the difficulties in aquiring transportation to and from the site to allow sufficient time to complete their tasks, the other to enable further data collection on the conditions inside the huts in order to finalise the recently developed Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for them. The postponement will also allow time for the Foundation to raise additional funds to ensure completion of the conservation program. In 1997-8 AMHF work at Commonwealth Bay concentrated on the external roof cladding on the Workshop part of the main living hut as it needed urgent repair, the internal structure of the Main Hut to prevent the roof collapsing, removal of explosives from the site, and further documentation of historical artefacts. Information was also gathered to support development of the CMP, including setting up instrumentation to monitor temperature and humidity inside the main hut. Private expedition members Jim and Evonne Claypole, who are wintering at Cape Denison this year, have been relaying the data collected back to Australia for analysis and will continue to do so until they leave in January 2000. Results obtained so far indicate a high degree of stability of both the temperature and humidity inside the hut. The AMHF can be contacted via e-mail at: mhuts@aap.com.au. Their web site is at: http://www.mawsons-huts.com.au/ [ANAN-2/4] IAATO PROVISIONAL MEMBERSHIPS: Plancius Oceanwide (The Netherlands), Expeditions Incorporated (United States) and Peregrine Expeditions (Australia) were recently elected as IAATO Provisional Members. Plancius Oceanwide will use "Viktor Bonitsky" on ten voyages next season in the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc region. With a capacity for thirty passengers she will be the smallest non-yacht tour vessel in the Antarctic in 1999-2000. Expeditions Incorporated will operate the thirty-six passenger vessel "Baron Von Wrangel" for seven voyages this season in the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Peregrine plans to operate fifty-two berth "Boris Petrov", which has peviously operated in the South Atlantic and Peninsula regions, on nine voyages. [ANAN-2/5] YACHT SOUTH GEORGIA AND PENINSULA BOUND: The 14.5 m, Australian registered, steel sloop 'Tooluka' plans to operate out of Ushuaia, Argentina, to South Georgia and Antarctic Peninsula area in 1999-2000. 'Tooluka', which was built in 1972, will have a dedicated crew of two plus 6 passengers who will share duties while on board. It left Australia on 12 July and is experiencing very bad weather as it tracks across the South Pacific Ocean to Ushuaia, where arrival is currently expected around 15 September. This is some three weeks later than originally anticipated. Tooluka's first task is to transport and support an Australian climbing group to South Georgia (see following story), before taking another group of Australian mountaineers to the Danco Coast area for climbing in January-February. Skipper Roger Wallis has sailed to Antarctica in two previous seasons, first on the 'Spirit of Sydney' to Commonwealth Bay in George V Land in 1996-97, and more recently to the Peninsula area as owner-skipper of the 'Parmelia'. An EIA has been submitted to Australian authorities for yacht operations in the Peninsula area. [ANAN-2/6]. SOUTH GEORGIA TRAVERSE PLANNED: Three Australians and a Briton intend to traverse the spine of South Georgia from Cape Alexandra to Cape Disappoinment in the last quarter of the year. The group, which will use the yacht 'Tooluka' (see previous story) for transport to and from the island, and as a support base while there, is expected to leave Ushuaia towards the end of September and return in December. First stop will be at Grytviken to check in with authorities. The 200 km trek is expected to take between six and eight weeks, and involves travel on ice, snow and rock, including crossing between 30 and 50 glaciers. The most difficult part will be along the central part of the island where the peaks rise to between 2,000 and 3,000 m where steep and confused ice falls are present. Members of the party are Angus Finney, Pat Lurcock, Jay Watson and Grant Dixon, all of whom are experienced in high latitude and mountaineering activities. [ANAN-2/7] MACQUARIE ISLAND 2000-01 VISITS: The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TPWS) in Australia is presently calling for expressions of interest in tourist visits to Macquarie Island during the 2000-01 season. Responses are required by the end of August 1999 and visit allocations are expected to be completed late the following month. TPWS normally has a limit of 500 on the number of tourists who can visit the island each season. Contact address for submissions is: peterg@dpiwe.tas.gov.au PEOPLE: Dr Louise Crossley, lecturer on a number of tourist voyages to Antarctica in recent years, academic, environmental consultant and historian has been appointed as Station Leader (SL) of Australia's Macquarie Island station for the year 2000. Louise commenced work with the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart on 2 August, and is scheduled to leave for a year on the island in November. It is anticipated that during that time up to nine tourist vessels may call at the island. Louise was previously SL at Mawson station in 1991. [ANAN-2/9] COMING MEETINGS:
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