ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 54
Wednesday, 29 August 2001
News in this edition:
54-01. Few Details Available about Reported DML Tourist Flights.
54-02. Court Agrees to Winding Up of SASCO.
54-03. Two Peninsula Visits Planned for 'Alaska Eagle'.
54-04. Mount Erebus Visit: Heli-skiing on Offer.
54-05. Removal of Private Cape Denison Hut Again Scheduled.
54-06. NZ Company Considers Indian Ocean Sub-Antarctic Visit.
54-07. Participants Named for Mooted 2002-03 SGP Traverse.
54-08. Book on the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition Planned.
54-09. Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities.
FEW DETAILS AVAILABLE ABOUT REPORTED DML TOURIST FLIGHTS
[ANAN-54/01]
A report tabled by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) at this year's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM-XXIV) last month advised of a proposal to fly tourists to Dronning Maud Land (DML) from Cape Town South Africa in 2001-02. As yet, however, little information has been released publicly about the venture and it is not possible to confirm at this stage that it will actually proceed during the coming austral summer.
A short, two-sentence paragraph on the DML proposal was contained in IAATO's report titled 'Overview of Antarctic Tourism', which was presented as Information Paper 73 at ATCM-XXIV (ANAN-52/01, 1 August 2001). IAATO has for many years provided ATCMs with a summary of all proposed Antarctic tourism activity, of which it is aware, for the austral summer season following the ATCM.
While IAATO's reference contains few details, ANAN understands that South African and Russian businesses are behind the DML venture, and that it probably involves an attempt to mix support for the activities of a number of national programs (that operate in that region) with a commercial tourist operation.
A so far unknown number of intercontinental flights by Iluyshin-76 (IL-76) aircraft from Cape Town, South Africa, to a compressed-snow runway near the Russian national program station Novolazarevskaya on the coast of DML are said to form the cornerstone of the venture. The one-way flight time on the route is around six hours with the aircraft having a 'point of no return' about an hour from the Russian station.
Information available suggests that early and late season IL-76 flights, sometime in late November 2001 and early February 2002 respectively, may carry national program personnel from several countries who operate year-round and summer stations in the DML region. Several mid-season flights, possibly in January, are thought to have been reserved for the tourists, although the exact timing of each flight will depend on weather conditions at the time.
Nothing is known publicly about just how long any tourists, who could number between forty and sixty on each mid-season flight, will stay at Novolazarevskaya, or whether they will be transported to other parts of the DML region. It is likely to take a number of hours to refuel the aircraft for the return flight once it lands and their visit to the continent could be limited to that period. On the other hand, IL-76s used by commercial air operator Polar Logistics (ANAN-28/03, 16 August 2000) for flights to the ice runway at 'Blue 1', 200 km inland from Novolazarevskaya, have in the past remained on the ground for several days before returning to South Africa, national program personnel being flown by smaller aircraft to various parts of DML during the intervening period.
In the past, flights from South Africa to 'Blue 1' conducted by Polar Logistics and its once-sister company Adventure Network International have suffered delays due to poor weather on the continent. Generally speaking, coastal weather is more changeable than that further inland at locations such as 'Blue 1', although Russian IL-76 aircrew have shown considerable skill in handling their craft in conditions of low cloud and poor visibility (ANAN-35/02, 22 November 2000). 'Blue 1' would probably be the preferred 'alternate' site for Novolazarevskaya should conditions there deteriorate below aircraft minima, however, such a scenario would require that reliable weather information be available from 'Blue 1'.
The former Soviet Union operated intercontinental flights from Mozambique in southern Africa to a compressed-snow runway at its then prime Antarctic station Molodezhnaya in the 1980s using IL-76s.
A compressed-snow runway was operational at Novolazarevskaya during those Soviet flights, its function being primarily as a back-up for Molodezhnaya in the event that weather there deteriorated to unacceptable minimums prior to an aircraft's arrival. During these operations, specialists in establishing and maintaining compressed-snow runways lived year-round at both stations to look after each strip. It is not known at this stage whether such personnel are wintering at Novolazarevskaya this year.
In the 1990s Russia promoted the establishment of an east Antarctic air transport system that would link Africa and Australia with year-round and summer national program stations located in the region (from DML in the west to Wilkes Land in the east). During the last few years there has also been talk of establishing a compressed-snow runway just inland of Russia's Progress station in the Larsemann Hills region of Princess Elizabeth Land. To date, no progress appears to have been made with either proposal.
COURT AGREES TO WINDING UP OF SASCO
[ANAN-54/02]
On 16 August an Australian court formally wound up the Southern Australian Shipping Company (SASCO) which had been attempting, over the past two years, to set up ship-based tour operations to the Ross Sea sector from Australia. A liquidator has been appointed to finalise SASCO's affairs, however, the company says that it intends to appeal the court's decision.
SASCO announced early in 1999 that it planned to commence ship-based tourist operations in Antarctica and intended to purchase the Russian vessel 'Olga Sadovskaya' from the Far East Shipping Company in Vladivostock. Despite public assurances by SASCO over a period of more than eighteen months that its plans were on track that deal was never finalised (ANAN-27/09, 2 August 2000).
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which made the application for closure to the Supreme Court in the State of South Australia, it commenced an investigation into SASCO earlier this year after becoming concerned "that [SASCO] had become insolvent at the same time as it was raising significant sums of money, which posed a significant risk to investors and their funds".
ASIC says that over $US400,000 was obtained from investors for the ship project in 1999 and 2000, including over $US250,000 raised for investment in SASCO by Onkourse Pty Ltd, which went into liquidation on 30 March this year.
ASIC also alleged that SASCO incurred debts of over $US60,000 "with suppliers, trade creditors and employees", mainly in connection with the setting up of its office in Hobart, Tasmania, last year. SASCO, however, disputes the amounts involved, Director John Webb being quoted in the local media as saying the debt involved was in actual fact only "an eighth" of the figures claimed by ASIC. SASCO's Hobart office, which opened in July last year, closed less than six months later and nothing further has been heard about the company's Ross Sea plans since November (ANAN-45/07, 25 April 2001).
A copy of ASIC's press release on the SASCO decision is currently available on line at http://www.asic.gov.au/
TWO PENINSULA VISITS PLANNED FOR 'ALASKA EAGLE'
[ANAN-54/03]
The twenty-two metre, United States' registered yacht, 'Alaska Eagle', is to conduct two, twenty-four day, voyages to the Antarctic Peninsula region from Ushuaia, Argentina, between 20 January and 13 March next year. 'Alaska Eagle' is operated as a sail-training vessel by the Orange Coast College's School of Sailing and Seamanship (OCCSSS) from its headquarters on the south-west coast of the US.
Over the past twenty years the School, a non-profit entity that relies on donations as well as the fees its receives for sailing and other marine-based classes it provides, has used 'Alaska Eagle' to provide its more-advanced students with experience in heavy-weather passage making and the challenges of running a sailing vessel in extreme conditions.
When "full" the yacht carries a professional OCCSSS crew of three made up of a fully licensed skipper, a licensed mate and a cook, plus up to ten fully active passengers who are classed as students. The latter will pay $US6,000 to take part in each Peninsula voyage.
The School says that all applicants for its Antarctic voyages are required to be at least eighteen years of age, and have "a fairly high level of experience with at least some blue water sailing under their belt". Skills in areas such as medicine, cooking and electrical systems are also sought from those who apply.
The first voyage early next year is scheduled for the period from 20 January to 13 February, and the second from 17 February to 13 March.
According to the School's web site, Deception Island in the South Shetlands is the likely first landfall in Antarctica for the yacht on each voyage after what is hoped will be a three-day trip across Drake Passage. Once in Peninsula waters "around ten days" are to be spent "moving southward through icebergs and snow covered islands toward the Antarctic Circle", and during that time "visits will be made to manned and abandoned research stations, a wrecked whaling ship, and anchorages surrounded by snow and ice".
'Alaska Eagle' was designed by Sparkman and Stephens and built by the Royal Huisman Shipyard in Holland in 1977 as 'Flyer' specially for the 1977-78 Whitbread Round the World Race, which she subsequently won. She was given her current name four years later and took part in the next Whitbread, finishing ninth out of twenty-seven, before being donated to the School in 1982.
In the twenty years since then the OCCSSS has used 'Alaska Eagle' to conduct twenty-five crossings of the Pacific Ocean and three of the Atlantic, all voyages being conducted in sail-training mode. Early last year she visited both Macquarie Island and the Auckland Islands in the sub-Antarctic during what was in total a seventeen-leg, thirteen-month, return journey across the Pacific from the west coast of the US to Australia and New Zealand.
OCCSSS were also involved in the coordination of a single visit to the Peninsula from Ushuaia by the yacht "Polar Mist" in 1995-96. She also undertook three "heavy weather sailing clinics" for students off the coast of Cape Horn at that time.
Images of 'Alaska Eagle', information about its forthcoming Peninsula visit, reports on its on-going activities, and details of the OCCSSS, are available on line at: http://www.occsailing.com/.
MOUNT EREBUS VISIT: HELI-SKIING ON OFFER
[ANAN-54/04]
Up to a dozen relatives and close family friends of victims of the Air New Zealand (ANZ) DC-10 crash on Mount Erebus, Victoria Land, which killed 257 people in 1979, are being offered the opportunity to visit the disaster site during a voyage proposed for the thirty-seven metre tour ship 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' in January-February next year. Mount Erebus, a 3,975-metre active volcano, is the highest point on Ross Island.
Heli-skiing and snow boarding down Erebus, kayaking and scuba diving off-shore, and access to "mountains in the Ross Sea area" for mountaineers, may also be provided for other suitably qualified individuals during the voyage, although exact details have not yet been finalised.
The Australian company Ocean Frontiers (ANAN-21/01, 10 May 2000), which operates the 'Sir Hubert Wilkins', has scheduled two Antarctic visits during the 2001-02 austral summer. The first is a month-long journey to George V and Adelie Lands starting in mid-December (see ANAN-54/05 following), and the second the five-week Erebus-related venture which is to commence on 20 January. Both trips are to depart from, and return to, Hobart, Australia, and are expected to visit sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island on their return northwards.
The potential to visit the ANZ crash site was the focal point of Ocean Frontiers' press release last week. The firm's principal, Don McIntyre, said in the release that his company "will only allow a maximum of twelve people to be a part of this special visit [to the vicinity of the crash site] and we are keen to speak with those wishing to be involved". It is understood that the other berths available on the vessel are being reserved for general tourists and adventure personnel.
Provided ice conditions allow, McIntyre says that his ship will spend up to ten days in the first half of February close to Ross Island. Although 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' is ice-strengthened, it has little ability to move through heavy ice and the sea-ice situation in the Ross Sea region will dictate just how close the vessel will be able to get to the island.
The crash site, which lies on the northern, or seaward coast, of the island at an elevation close to 500 m, is designated as an "official tomb" under the Antarctic Treaty as the bodies of most of the victims of the disaster were never recovered (ANAN-5/04, 29 September 1999). Access to the area is controlled by a permit system administered by New Zealand authorities. A memorial cross erected as a tribute to the victims on the edge of the area three kilometres from the crash site will be the focus of the proposed visit says McIntyre.
Current plans call for the ship's single-engined Hughes 300 helicopter to be used to deliver those involved to the cross and that they would camp there for up to a day. McIntyre also said that planning also calls for two motor toboggans to travel overland to the cross, but told ANAN last weekend that no decision has yet been taken on the route the toboggans will use should the venture proceed. Given that the ship carries only one helicopter, surface transport is needed to ensure that search and rescue cover is available should a problem be experienced with the aircraft.
During the ship's time at Ross Island, Ocean Frontiers also hopes that its clients will be able to visit Shackleton and Scott's historic huts, as well as the United States and New Zealand national program stations located there. Landings at Capes Adare and Hallett in the north-west of the Ross Sea are also planned on the southward journey. While the company's web site says that "Opportunities for kayaking and even heli-skiing, snowboarding and scuba diving may be offered to appropriately qualified people", no other details were provided of those activities.
"Sir Hubert Wilkins" visited Ross Island for the first time last February to pick up Liv Arneson and Ann Bancroft who almost completed a traverse from Dronning Maud Land to Ross Island (ANAN-42/04, 28 February 2001).
The cost of participating in the five week voyage is close to $US15,000. Full details of Ocean Frontier's 2001-02 plans are available on its web site at: http://www.oceanfrontiers.com.au.
REMOVAL OF PRIVATE CAPE DENSION HUT AGAIN SCHEDULED
[ANAN-54/05]
The dismantling and removal of the small, privately-owned expedition hut at Cape Denison, George V Land, which has been used to support three non-government winter expeditions since 1995, is the prime task for a voyage scheduled for the thirty-seven metre tour ship 'Sir Hubert Wilkins' over the coming New Year. The hut was originally to have been removed last austral summer, however, weather conditions and other constraints precluded its safe dismantling and return at that time (ANAN-41/16, 14 February 2001).
The compact nine square metre prefabricated structure, 'Gadget Hut', was set up at Cape Denison early in 1995 and its owners, Australians Don and Margie McIntyre, wintered there that year, to be followed by solo winterer Alfred Winklemeyer in 1997, and husband and wife pair Yvonne and Jim Claypole in 1999 (ANAN-8/05, 10 November 1999).
'Sir Hubert Wilkins', which is operated by Australia-based company Ocean Frontiers, is expected to leave Hobart, Australia, on 16 December and, commencing around 25 December, is to spend around ten days in the George V and Adelie Land regions visiting Cape Denison, the South Magnetic Pole, the French national program station Dumont d'Urville and possibly the former French facility at Port Martin. The ship conducted a similar visit to the region in 2000-01 (ANAN-38/08, 3 January 2001).
Ocean Frontiers' web site (http://www.oceanfrontiers.com.au ) also says that time may be spent while the ship is in Commonwealth Bay off Cape Denison to search for three anchors lost from Sir Douglas Mawson's ship 'Aurora' in 1912 (ANAN-21/06, 10 May 2000). It also says there may also be "an opportunity to use kayaks and for experienced divers, the chance to dive" during the voyage.
'Sir Hubert Wilkins' is due back in Hobart on 10 January visiting sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island on the way, and is then scheduled to head south again ten days later for the Ross Sea (see ANAN-54/04 preceding).
New Zealand based tour operator Heritage Expeditions says in its July newsletter that it will "almost certainly" be offering visits to French and Australian sub-Antarctic islands in the Indian Ocean in November-December 2002 during a single voyage by its forty-six passenger vessel 'Akademic Shokalskiy'.
If the voyage proceeds as currently proposed, 'Shokalskiy' is expected to leave Mauritius on 14 November 2002, travel first to Iles Crozet, and then would visit Heard, Kerguelen, Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands, before arriving at Albany in the south-west of Australia on 14 December after a thirty-one day journey. All of the islands to be visited, except Heard, which is an Australian Territory, are administered by France.
Authorities in both nations have been contacted and Heritage says that it is currently preparing the necessary environmental impact assessments.
The company indicated that it had hoped to include a visit to Marion Island on the itinerary, but that it has not been possible to obtain permission from South African authorities for a landing to be made.
Heritage, which has operated tours to the Ross Sea and sub-Antarctic islands south of New Zealand since 1994 (ANAN-41/14, 14 February 2001), planned a similar Indian Ocean voyage for the 1998-99 austral summer, however, it was later cancelled. The company says that it expects to be in a position to confirm its 2002-03 plans sometime next month. No details of the cost of participation have yet been released.
A limited number of tourists visit the French islands, and on rare occasions Heard Island, using the French-government chartered supply vessel 'Marion Dufrense' (ANAN-7/05, 27 October 1999). Occasional visits to Crozet, Kerguelen and Heard Islands have also been made by the tour ship 'Kapitan Khlebnikov' over the last ten years.
The two women who are expected to accompany Australian adventurer Brigitte Muir on a proposed three-month trek along a "previously unused", 1,800 km traverse from the edge of Antarctica to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) in 2002-03 have been named.
Sumiyo Tzuzuki from Japan and Lily Leonard from the United States joined Muir for training sessions in Australia's snow country two weeks ago at the start of eighteen months of preparation for the proposed trek which they hope will also see them training in Patagonia or Greenland.
Like Muir, Leonard has climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, while Tzuzuki reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1998. Media reports indicate that part of the training earlier this month involved the three using parasails for propulsion for the first time.
The planned traverse, which was first made public late last year (ANAN-37/03, 20 December 2000), was originally scheduled for 2001-02, however, it was deferred for twelve months early this year.
Nothing has been released about which route the 2002-03 trek will use, although if it is to start from the edge of the continent then there are only four broad locations in Antarctica where the coast is 1,800 km from the Geographic Pole. They are: the western end of Dronning Maud Land; the central cost of Victoria Land; the south-west corner of the Weddell Sea; and parts of the coast of Marie Byrd Land. Adventure treks to the SGP in the past have been undertaken from all except the Marie Byrd Land sector.
Brigitte had planned to ski to, and climb, an "unclimbed", Antarctic peak during the coming 2001-02 season (ANAN-50/03, 4 July 2001), but told ANAN last week that that program has been cancelled due to lack of sponsorship.
Sponsors are still being sought for the 2002-03 venture. Its cost is understood to be in the order of $US500,000, the majority of that being required for aircraft support from commercial air operator Adventure Network International to get to, from and about, Antarctica (ANAN-28/02, 16 August 2000).
Work is under way on a book entitled "Trollbundet" on the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition (NAE) with publication due late this year. Four members of the NAE spent the austral 2000 winter in Dronning Maud Land (DML). Two of them, Rolf Bae and Eirik Sonneland, later crossed the continent in what, for some outsiders, were controversial circumstances (ANAN-42/05, 28 February 2001).
Oslo-based journalist Sindre Bø is currently working with Bae and Sonneland on the text of the book and aims to complete it by late September. He says that the aim is to "tell the full story of the NAE", including "the participant's background, the years of planning, how they ended up wintering over, their traverse, and troubles arriving at McMurdo too late to catch their scheduled ship" (ANAN-40/03, 40/04, 31 January 2001), as well as the perspective of Rolf and Eirik's family and friends in Norway. In writing the book, Bø has contacted a range of groups and individuals from a number of countries who had direct experience with the NAE in order to seek their perspective of various aspects of the venture
Bø, a journalist since 1991, currently works for the 'Stavanger Aftenblad' newspaper and is a climber who has experience in both Norway and the European Alps. He has been writing about the NAE since planning for it started in 1996.
"Trollbundet" is an expression from Norwegian fairytales and roughly translates as 'Spellbound'. The title is also a pun on the Norwegian base "Troll" in DML from where the expedition set off. The book is due to be released in November by Norwegian publisher Commentum in Sandnes (http://www.commentum.no). It is currently only expected to be available in Norwegian.
COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-54/09]
Please forward notice of events via e-mail to: tourism@aad.gov.au. Up-dates are made to ANAN's web site at
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp as soon as new information comes to hand.
YEAR 2001
27 August - 1 September (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
VIII SCAR Biology Symposium (Session on "Antarctic research, human impacts and environmental policy").
For registration contact: vu_conference@dienst.vu.nl
14-20 September (Brittany, France)
Second International Exhibition for Polar Philately.
Contact: philex.pole@laposte.net
12-16 November (Wilton Park, U.K.)
Conference: "40 Years On: The Antarctic Treaty System in the 21st Century".
Participation by invitation only.
YEAR 2002
4-11 January (South Geographic Pole)
South Pole Marathon.
Contact: Adventure Network International (www.adventure-network.com).
2 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fifth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon.
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
Last week of June [Dates/location to be set] (Europe).
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
15-26 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
15-19 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
3-14 September (Warsaw, Poland)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXV
YEAR 2003
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
23 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-3/08, 1 September 1999).
ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS (ANAN)
ANAN's aim is to provide a periodic summary of non-government activities in Antarctica. It is prepared from contributions from company, governmental, academic and private individuals with an interest in this area of endeavour on or around the southern-most continent.
EDITOR: Dave Moser (David.Moser@aad.gov.au).
POSTAL: Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 7054
TELEPHONE: +61-3-6232-3347 (2200-0600 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
RESEARCH/WRITING: Martin Betts (Martin.Betts@aad.gov.au)
TELEPHONE/FACSIMILE: +61-3-6267-4790 (2200-1100 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
NEXT ISSUE: ANAN-54 to be issued on Wednesday, 12 September 2001
Deadline for items: Sunday, 9 September 2001 @ 2359 UTC. (send any items to tourism@aad.gov.au)