ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 73
Wednesday, 22 May 2002
News in this edition:
73-01. 'Routine' interior tour ops anticipated but adventurer plans still sketchy.
73-02. Two companies expected to offer air access to DML.
73-03. CCI preparing for 'Crystal Symphony' Peninsula visit.
73-04. Passage named for tour ship Captain.
73-05. 2003 KGI marathons proving popular.
73-06. Competitor interest in 'Antarctica Cup' said to be high.
73-07. 'Vista Mar' listed for Peninsula return in 2003-04.
73-08. Coming Events Relevant to Non-Government Activities.
'ROUTINE' INTERIOR TOUR OPS ANTICIPATED BUT ADVENTURER PLANS STILL SKETCHY
[ANAN-73/01]
Programs in the interior of Antarctica advertised by US-based tour company Adventure Network International (ANI) for the 2002-03 austral summer appear similar to the past few years. However, as is to be expected this early in the year, few details are yet available about private adventure activities that will be looking to ANI for support in inland areas during the coming season.
Analysis of programs advertised by ANI shows that the company hopes to conduct eight separate types of operation, made up of 31 individual activities, from its summer camp in the Patriot Hills of Ellsworth Land. The camp will again be fed by intercontinental flights from Punta Arenas, Chile. In addition, the air operator is also offering flights to Dronning Maud Land from Cape Town, South Africa (see ANAN-73/02 following).
The actual number of events that ANI will conduct from the Patriot Hills will depend on the level of interest shown by tourists and others in the programs over the next 4-5 months.
Should all currently advertised activities proceed at maximum levels, data available suggest that between 170 and 190 tourists could fly into the Patriot Hills during the planned three-month season. In the past, however, ANI has not had a full up-take rate of all of its advertised programs, therefore overall tourist numbers in the interior could be closer to 150.
ANI is also expected to support adventurers conducting their own trekking and climbing ventures in the interior and those programs will further increase the above numbers.
The company will be hoping that interest in private activities will pick up in 2002-03 as the events of last September and the general down turn of the global economy led to the curtailment of a number of planned programs (ANAN-60/03, 21 November 2001). The busiest private trekking season on record for ANI was in 2000-01 when just over 30 people undertook a range of ventures (ANAN-40/08, 31 January 2001).
The first revenue-earning flight on the Punta Arenas-Patriot Hills route is currently listed for 3 November and the last for the first few days of February. The range of planned programs suggests that 15-17 intercontinental flights will be conducted along the route during the three-month season. Flights on the 3,074 km-long route are very much dependent on weather conditions and ANI will be hoping for better conditions than it experienced early last season when long delays occurred (ANAN-61/04, 5 December 2001).
As in the past, the company's main source of revenue is expected to come from supporting climbers wishing to scale Antarctica's highest mountain, 5,140-m high Vinson Massif, and from tourists whose aim is to visit the South Geographic Pole (SGP). Vinson Massif is only a short flight from the company's Patriot Hills camp, while the SGP is a 12-hour, 2,000 km round-trip flight from the camp.
The current flight schedule could allow for up to eight separate groups, each possibly made up of 6-8 people who will pay $US26,000 for the privilege, to climb Vinson Massif, while up to nine parties could fly to the SGP from the Patriot Hills during the nine weeks between 20 November and 23 January. Indications are that around 50-60 people could climb the mountain, and a similar number reach the Pole by air, in 2002-03. Over 500 people have now climbed Vinson Massif over the last 20 years (ANAN-19/06, 12 April 2000).
In addition to those key programs, ANI's clients can also visit the Emperor penguin colony located on the south-eastern coast of the Weddell Sea near the Dawson-Lambton Glacier, travel and trek in the vicinity of the Patriot Hills area, and ski with guides either the 111 km from latitude 89° south to the SGP or the 1,100 km from Hercules Inlet on the coast of the continent to the Pole (ANAN-65/03, 30 January 2002).
Two $US22,000-per-person flights to the Emperors, seven Patriot Hills area programs (at $US14,000-$16,750 per person), three 'Last Degree' treks ($US29,500), and two 'Ski South Pole' trips ($US45,000) are currently on offer. In addition the company also plans to conduct its second marathon race on the high plateau in early January (ANAN-70/04, 10 April 2002).
This year, for the first time, ANI is planning to present a series of illustrated talks on its products in 13 cities across the continental US and in south-west Canada over the next month. The company says that it expects "past and potential clients, travel agents, climbing associations, and a range of adventure clubs" to attend the gatherings. Speakers at the meetings are to include "a selection of ANI staff, former clients and distinguished guests".
Entry to each event is free, however, those wishing to attend are required to book seats. Details of the location and timings of meetings and ANI's planned 2002-03 programs are available on line at: http://www.adventure-network.com/.
Two companies, one based in South Africa and the other in the United States, are offering flights for tourists and adventurers to Dronning Maud Land (DML) from Cape Town during the 2002-03 austral summer. While the general plans of US-based Adventure Network International (ANI) have been announced, few details of Transworld Tourism's proposed activities for the season have yet been made public.
ANI, who has flown its clients into DML on Polar Logistics flights from Cape Town in the past, is currently offering potential clients two three-week visits to the Holtedahl Peaks region in November-December for climbing and ski touring activities. Cost of the visits is put at $US25,000 per person ex Cape Town.
Peaks in that area are particularly spectacular and have attracted the interest of a number of climbing expeditions in the past (ANAN-41/10, 14 February 2001), and, according to ANI's website, "most remain unclimbed and un-named and the area is a paradise for mountaineers".
ANI is advertising departures from Cape Town on 7 November and 7 December, and a third is anticipated in early January to return the second field group to Cape Town. It is not known if any 'fuel only' flights are also planned. When the company last flew into the 'Blue 1' landing site in February 2001, the amount of drummed fuel in the area that might be available to the company was said to be low.
Chartered 'Hercules' aircraft are to be used for the nine-hour flights to the blue-ice runway 'Blue 1', while smaller 'Twin Otter or Cessna 185' will fly the company's clients from the field camp there to another that is to be established further south in the heart of the climbing area. The Cessna is not spending the 2002 austral winter in a snow cave at the Patriot Hills as, for the first time in over a decade, it has been flown to North America where it is undergoing a major overhaul in preparation for the 2002-03 season.
Information prepared by ANI suggests that the smaller aircraft will operate into DML to set up the field camps from the company's Patriot Hills facility in Ellsworth Land. However, the November flight is to occur only a few days after the first revenue-flight into the Patriot Hills, a potentially tight schedule given the vagaries of weather in the region (see ANAN-73/01 preceding).
Meanwhile, Transworld Tourism, the South African company that last year announced plans for visits by tourists to field camps near the Russian national program station Novolazerevskaya on the coast of DML, has yet to release details of its plans for the 2002-03 austral summer in the region. Usually, companies offering opportunities to visit Antarctica start advertising their product at least 12 months ahead of the target season.
A heavy-lift Ilyushin-76 [IL-76] jet aircraft was to again be used on the 4,120-km Cape-Novo route, monies from tourist activities being used to supplement the cost of the air bridge for national programs who work in that region. Transworld originally envisaged up to 40 tourists flying into DML in 2001-02 (ANAN-61/01, 5 December 2001), however, those plans suffered a set back when fuel usage on the first flight late last year, with national program personnel, proved much higher than anticipated (ANAN-64/06, 16 January 2002).
Five IL-76 flights were said to be listed for the 2002-03 season, but it was not made clear how many of them would be available for tourists passengers. Activities on offer for visitors next austral summer were said to include "hiking, ice biking, ice golf, ice tennis, cross-country skiing, kite flying, orienteering, mountaineering, a sledging trip to the ice barrier, lectures on the environment, and various indoor games for times of bad weather".
The cost of visits to the Novolazerevskaya area was originally anticipated by Transworld to be around $US11,000.
United States-based Crystal Cruise Inc. (CCI) says that it has had preliminary discussions with a number of US government agencies and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) about its plans to send the 'Crystal Symphony' to Antarctic waters early next year. CCI announced in March that its 940-passenger liner is to conduct a single, two-day, 'no-landing' cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula region from 15-16 February 2003 (ANAN-69/02, 27 March 2002).
Crystal Symphony's Peninsula visit is only a small part of a 104-day, around-the-world voyage that is to start and end in the south-eastern United States. Tourists who wish to visit Antarctica on the ship, but do not want to commit to the full voyage, can join it in Buenos Aires, Argentina, cruise South American and Antarctic waters, and then disembark in Valpariso, Chile. CCI is calling this 18-day leg of the ship's world journey the 'Last Frontier and Beyond', the cost of berths on that leg ranging from $US7,835 to $US33,655.
A CCI spokesperson told ANAN last week that as a result of the talks with the US Department of State, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Science Foundation, the company is currently "studying matters related to the preparation of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the ship's sojourn in Antarctic waters". While CCI is Japanese-owned (ANAN-69/03, 27 March 2002) and 'Crystal Symphony' is registered in the Bahamas, as a US entity it is required to submit an EIA for the planned Peninsula area operations to the EPA (ANAN-51/05, 18 July 2001).
The spokesperson also said that CCI is "studying the possibility of applying for IAATO membership". A decision on that, and whether or not CCI will seek to send a representative to IAATO's annual meeting in the U.K. this July, had as of late last week, yet to be made.
'Crystal Symphony' is not ice strengthened, but according to the spokesperson that "is not necessary" given the vessel's proposed itinerary in Antarctic waters. Plans for the two-day Antarctic Peninsula part of the cruise include passage past King George and Deception Islands, through the Neumayer Channel between Anvers and Wiencke Islands, and into Paradise Bay. Ice is quite often found in the latter two areas even in mid-February, therefore an ice pilot is to be employed on the ship during the time it is in the Peninsula region.
CCI says it will be providing passengers who visit the Peninsula on 'Crystal Symphony' with an educational package that will cover a range of Antarctic matters, and that lectures and other presentations are planned on the ship during the time it is in Antarctic waters. The company says that is has approached a number of potential providers for such services, but that "as yet [they] haven't made a hiring decision".
If next year's Peninsula visit is a success, it is possible that CCI could conduct another voyage to that region early in 2004. The company says, however, that it will not be considering 2004 scheduling for what will, by then, be its three-ship fleet, until later this year.
A narrow channel off Joinville Island near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula has been formally named in honour of Captain Peter Skog, a 30-year veteran of Antarctic tour ship operations. In 1988 Skog, as master of the 'Explorer', became the first person to pilot a cruise ship through the channel that now bears his name.
Skog Passage (63º 18' south, 56º 29' west), is just over 300 m wide and runs north from Suspiros Bay between the Madder Cliffs at the western end of Joinville Island and a so-far unnamed island off shore.
Captain Skog has been working on Antarctic tour ships since 1973, and in the time since he has often taken soundings of poorly charted areas in order to ensure the safety of landing operations. Data collected by him has regularly been forwarded to the British Admiralty and used in the charts they publish of the region.
The citation recommending the naming of the passage for him says that Skog's "tireless dedication [in] taking soundings in areas [that] are not well documented, coupled with a willingness to share his [data] with charting agencies, [has] increased the accuracy of many Antarctic navigational charts, [and] created a safer situation for ships operating in the Antarctic Treaty Area".
Like its counterparts in other nations, the US Board of Geographic Names (USBGN), who approved the new name on 16 April on the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, has a detailed policy that guides and coordinates the naming of geographic features in Antarctica. That policy says that what are termed "second-order" geographic features such as Straits or Passages, can be named after Masters of ships who "have made outstanding contributions in the field of navigation".
This is the second time the 100-passenger tour ship 'Explorer', which has been owned and operated by the US tour company Abercrombie and Kent since 1992, has been linked to the naming of an Antarctic feature.
The vessel, which in 2002-03 will be conducting its thirty-fourth consecutive season of operations in Antarctic waters, was designed and built as the 'Lindblad Explorer' by the late Lars-Eric Lindblad, who is widely regarded as the pioneer of Antarctic tourism. Lindblad Bay (63º 51´south, 059º 27´ west), a 5 km-wide embayment between Almond Point and Auster Point in Charcot Bay in the north-west of the Antarctic Peninsula, was named after him in 1995.
The USBGN says that the name Skog Passage will be included in future editions of their Antarctic Gazetteer, and in its Geographic Names Information System which is available on line at: http://geonames.usgs.gov/.
US company Marathon Tours says that it has already sold over three-quarters of the 117 places it has for runners in the marathon and half-marathon races it plans to run on King George Island (KGI) on 2 March 2003. Next year's events will be the sixth conducted by the company in the Antarctic Peninsula region since 1995, and the fifth run on KGI itself (ANAN-68/09, 13 March 2002).
Runners in both competitions will travel south from Ushuaia, Argentina, on the tour ship 'Akademic Ioffe' which is operated by Australian company Peregrine Adventures (ANAN-23/05, 7 June 2000).
Apart from race day itself, 'Ioffe' will be conducting a standard 10-day tourist voyage to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula region, with kayaking and overnight camping also offered to marathon participants during the voyage. Departure from and return to the southern Argentine port is scheduled for 26 February and 7 March respectively.
In addition to the 117 runners, up to ten support personnel from 'Akademic Ioffe' are expected to be on shore for the race.
Under current International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators By Laws, ships operated by its members are currently required to limit to 100 the number of ship-based personnel who can be ashore at any one place in the Antarctic region at any one time. Marathon President Thom Gilligan told ANAN this week that in order to meet that goal the two races start in separate areas and that the half marathon will be getting underway some 20 minutes after the full event.
Marathon says in its publicity that the KGI event is "the only opportunity to run a race on the Seventh Continent", although technically it is being run on an offshore island (http://www.marathontour.com/antarctica/). Another US-based company, Adventure Network International (ANI), plans to conduct what it calls "the world's toughest marathon" on the Antarctic plateau near the South Geographic Pole early next January (http://www.adventure-network.com/). The inaugural commercially organised race on the plateau was run earlier this year (ANAN-70/04, 10 April 2002).
The cost of taking part in Marathon's event starts at $4,400 ex Miami in the south-east of the US, while those who enter ANI's race will pay $US25,000 ex Punta Arenas, Chile. The price difference reflects the particularly difficult logistics challenges involved in organising and conducting the latter race.
Just under 350 people have taken part in the four full marathons run on KGI since 1995 and a further 90 in the half marathons. In addition, 92 runners undertook the full marathon run on the tour ship 'Lyubov Orlova' in February last year, and 26 in the half marathon (ANAN-41/13, 14 February 2001).
Teams from the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom have reserved places in the inaugural 'Antarctica Cup', the non-stop yachting event around the Southern Ocean proposed for the 2004-05 austral summer (ANAN-71/02, 24 April 2002). Race organisers say that they need at least 10 groups prepared to pay the $US4.625m entry fee before the race can go ahead, however, interest in it has been "very strong" and they are "confident it will proceed".
Details of the race's course were released by organisers Antarctica Cup Pty Ltd earlier this month. While it will be a non-stop race, the 23,400 km journey around Antarctica is to be divided into 11 sectors or 'legs', the end of each of the first ten legs having a narrow 'gate' through which the yachts must sail. The course has been designed to keep entrants "north of the iceberg zone" where they can "search for stronger winds and shorter distances", although icebergs and some ice is expected to be encountered en route.
After leaving Fremantle in south-west Australia, the fleet will head eastward via the south of that continent and through Gate 1 at longitude144º east. The second leg of the race ends at Gate 2, located in Cook Strait between New Zealand's North and South Islands, and the competitors are therefore not expected to venture very far south on legs 1 and 2.
Gates 3 and 4 are at latitude 55° south in the sub-Antarctic South Pacific Ocean, while Gate 5 is within sight of Cape Horn. Gate 6 lies10 km off the south-eastern tip of South Georgia, 7 is very close to the shore of Bouvet Island, 8 is just off Marion Island, 9 slightly north of the island of Crozet, and 10 a few kilometres off the northern shore of Kerguelen Island. From there the yachts head back to Fremantle to the finishing line.
The yacht that completes each leg in the shortest elapsed time, no matter what position in the fleet they are then in, will receive $US100,000. In addition, the first yacht to complete each of the eleven legs of the race will be awarded one point, the second two points and so on to 15 points, so that like golf, the craft with the smallest number of points at the end of the event will win $US1m, the second $US300,000 and the third $150,000.
Therefore should a yacht win each leg and also do it in the fastest elapsed time, it could win a total of $US2.1m, including leg-based 'bonuses'. In such a situation it would also receive $US2.5m as the overall winner, which the organisers say would bring its total winnings to $US4.65m. That total is just $US25,000 more than the entry fee for the event.
Apart from the overall winner's trophy and the various prize monies, a range of other trophies will be presented. The yacht that has the smallest number of points across all legs of the race will receive the 'Sir Ernest Shackleton trophy', the second best the 'Roald Amundsen trophy', and the third the 'Sir Douglas Mawson trophy'.
Race organisers say that entrants will receive the single-design, "high performance" 25-m boats, two months before the start of the race, thus limiting the time they have to practise. Design of the yachts is, however, "still very much in the concept stage", and exact details will not be finalised until after all interested parties have presented their views at a 5-day race conference scheduled for Fremantle this July.
While he is "looking forward" to the meeting, yacht designer Ron Holland says that his "basic aim is to produce a very fast maxi boat, he will be keeping in mind such things as safety factors, and the need for the boats to have a life after the race".
If the event proceeds, a maximum of 15 yachts, each crewed by 14 sailors from a single nation, will leave Fremantle in December 2004 and return there some 45 days later.
Details of yacht design, maps of the course, trophies, prize money and other aspects of the race can be found on line at: http://www.antarcticacup.com/.
The German owned and operated tour ship 'Vista Mar', which has operated spasmodically in Antarctic Peninsula waters over the last five years, is to return there again in 2003-04. Schedules released late last month indicate that the 110-passenger vessel will conduct 16- and 13-day voyages centred on the New Year period.
According to details provided by the ship's Bremen-based operators, Plantours and Partner, the 16-day voyage is to leave Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 19 December 2002, and call at the Falkland Islands, Poland's Arktowski Station on King George Island, Hope Bay, Cuverville Island, Paradise Bay, Deception Island and Half Moon Bay, before heading for Punta Arenas, Chile.
Its second shorter voyage, which is to depart from Punta Arenas on 4 January 2004, is to head first for the Melchior Islands, then moves on to Paradise Bay, Cuverville Island, Deception Island, Half Moon Bay, Argentina's Jubany station and Hope Bay, before visiting the Falkland Islands on the way back to Punta Arenas.
It is believed that the ship, which carries 9 inflatable rubber boats for passenger landings in remote areas, has also been listed to conduct similar operations in the region in 2004-05, although detailed plans for that season have not yet been released.
COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-73/08]
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 2002
1-5 July (Cambridge, U.K.)
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
15-19 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
15-26 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
10-20 September (Warsaw, Poland)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXV
YEAR 2003
4-11 January (South Geographic Pole)
High Plateau Marathon (ANAN-65/02, 30 January 2002).
Contact: general@adventure-network.com
3 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Sixth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon (ANAN-68/09, 13 March 2002).
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation required).
24 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-61/09, 5 December 2001).
Next edition issued on Wednesday, 5 June 2002 @ 0600 UTC.
Deadline for items: Sunday, 2 June 2002 @ 2359 UTC.
ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS (ANAN)
IN READING PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter is produced in the interest of improved information sharing in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic community. Inclusion of information in it should not be taken to imply endorsement, by the publishers of ANAN News, of any company, program or associated activity that is listed, nor that the activity has necessarily completed all environmental impact assessments required under the legislation of the 'home' nation concerned.
Links provided in ANAN stories are working at the time of first publication.
AVAILABLE ON LINE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY:
ANAN archive (including this issue with its built in links):
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/News/default.asp
Coming events related to non-governmental activity:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp
Links to tourist industry web sites:
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Industry/default.asp
EDITOR: Dave Moser (David.Moser@aad.gov.au).
POSTAL: Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 7054
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