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OHYAT: Oh, what NOW?
Jul. 22nd, 2011 09:14 amBrief recap:
Bill Wilson, Birdie Bowers, and Apsley Cherry-Garrard have spent nineteen days in unimaginably severe conditions trekking along the south face of Ross Island to Cape Crozier, one of the coldest, windiest, harshest places on earth, where the Emperor penguins incubate their eggs through the Antarctic winter. They built a hut just down from the peak of a rocky windswept hill, and spent two days (one abortive) securing a handful of eggs for science and a few penguins for fuel. Bill got a spurt of boiling oil in his eye and they spent a miserable night in their draughty igloo in a blizzard.
They spent July 21 banking up the walls of the igloo with the snow which had fallen the night before, to stop up the holes which had made it so draughty; they also put blocks of frozen snow on the canvas roof to weigh it down so it wouldn't flap so much in the wind. They pitched the tent right outside the door of the igloo, in the lee of the wind, 'well dug in,' and stowed a large amount of their gear in it. After a hot dinner they moved back to the igloo and performed the agonizing ritual, now familiar, of thawing their way into their frozen sleeping bags, and tried to catch up on their sleep.
Bill Wilson, Birdie Bowers, and Apsley Cherry-Garrard have spent nineteen days in unimaginably severe conditions trekking along the south face of Ross Island to Cape Crozier, one of the coldest, windiest, harshest places on earth, where the Emperor penguins incubate their eggs through the Antarctic winter. They built a hut just down from the peak of a rocky windswept hill, and spent two days (one abortive) securing a handful of eggs for science and a few penguins for fuel. Bill got a spurt of boiling oil in his eye and they spent a miserable night in their draughty igloo in a blizzard.
The nearest approach to healthy sleep we had had for nearly a month was when during blizzards the temperature allowed the warmth of our bodies to thaw some of the ice in our clothing and sleeping-bags into water. The wear and tear on our minds was very great. We were certainly weaker. We had a little more than a tin of oil to get back on, and we knew the conditions we had to face on that journey across the Barrier: even with fresh men and fresh gear it had been almost unendurable."Things must improve" ... right?
They spent July 21 banking up the walls of the igloo with the snow which had fallen the night before, to stop up the holes which had made it so draughty; they also put blocks of frozen snow on the canvas roof to weigh it down so it wouldn't flap so much in the wind. They pitched the tent right outside the door of the igloo, in the lee of the wind, 'well dug in,' and stowed a large amount of their gear in it. After a hot dinner they moved back to the igloo and performed the agonizing ritual, now familiar, of thawing their way into their frozen sleeping bags, and tried to catch up on their sleep.
I do not know what time it was when I woke up. It was calm, with that absolute silence which can be so soothing or so terrible as circumstances dictate. Then there came a sob of wind, and all was still again. Ten minutes and it was blowing as though the world was having a fit of hysterics. The earth was torn in pieces: the indescribable fury and roar of it all cannot be imagined.( And then the tent blew away. )
