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Patriot
Hills, located on the Antarctic ice cap,
is the base camp for all expeditions, whether
you're climbing Mount Vinson or setting out
on skis dragging a pulka. The Ellsworth Mountain
Range is near the camp, and it was there, on
a natural landing strip, that the Hercules landed
and the Twin Otter took off for the starting
point of the expedition, Berkmer Island. |
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Our
first steps on the great white continent. The
nearby ocean gives rise to thick
fog that makes it extremely difficult to
find your way. Each of the sleds is packed with
170kg of light gear!!! |
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Frequent
and very powerful katabatic winds sometimes
turn huge surfaces into icy skating rinks.
At the foot of the Pensacola Mountains, it became
very difficult to make headway over this slippery
ice. The pulkas skidded and slid from side to
side, and refused to stay behind us. It took
us many hours to get past this kind of obstacle. |
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At
the foot of the Pensacola
range, we had to make sure we knew exactly
where we were going. We planned to climb the Frost
Spur glacier and its crevasses, which would lead
us onto the Antarctic Plateau a few hundred metres
higher. |
The
immensity and solitude, the distance and cold,
the wind, blizzards and ice, the struggle, the
fear and the challenge were daily companions.
Good night! |
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The
snow, blown by violent winds, forms icy waves
called sastrugis.
They become daunting obstacles, sometimes reaching
heights of 1.5 metres. Hard as rock, impossible
to avoid, they are almost everywhere in Antarctica. |
Every
sastrugi called for considerable
effort, since we had to pull our sleds
up to the top, and then slow their descent on
the other side. It was terribly hard on the
muscles and on the joints. The sleds had to
be very tough to withstand such shocks over
a distance of 1,500km (and so did the men pulling
them!). |
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The
constant glacial wind
made everything more fragile. Thierry had several
deep patches of frostbite on his face. He had
to summon up all his strength just to keep going
and to make it all the way to the Pole. |
The
Geographic South Pole.
January 12, 1996. 10:47 a.m. Quebec time. We
finally touched the Pole, after skiing 1,500km.
Surrounded by the flags
of the signatory countries to the Antarctic
treaty, this is the most remote spot
on Earth. Nathalie, with friends and a cameraman,
came to pick us up six days after we had achieved
our dream. |
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The
U.S. Scott-Amundsen Station is located
at the South Pole. Here scientists carry out studies
in glaciology, astronomy, geology, physics, meteorology,
seismology, etc. This dome was designed by Buckminster
Fuller, the same architect who designed the U.S.
Pavilion (now the Biosphere) for Expo 67 in Montreal.
It houses a number of buildings and protects them
from destructive blizzards. The South Pole is
at an altitude of 2,850m. |
Accompanied
by Thierry, Bernard explains the movements of
the ice at the Pole to Michel Perron and Tim
Kenny. This metal rod
precisely indicates the axis of rotation of
the Earth. All the meridians meet at
this point, and every way you turn is north.
Between Thierry and Bernard there is a difference
of 12 hours in time zones. (This photo should
be the other way around, since our heads should
be toward the bottom!) |
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