Somewhere approximately 270 miles inland from the edge of the Filchner Ice Shelf and close to the Whichaway Nunataks a time capsule lies buried beneath the snow and ice of Antarctica’s high Polar Plateau. Undisturbed for 54 years, the capsule consists of an aluminium-framed hut of just 16-feet-square. Furnished by Morris of Glasgow and with its equipment and stores still intact, for nine long months, this hut, known as ‘South Ice’, was home to three members of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58: Hal Lister, team leader, Ken Blaiklock, surveyor, and Jon Stephenson, geologist and assistant glaciologist.
The hut was finally abandoned on 6 January 1958, when a four-man RAF contingent departed to complete the first aerial crossing of the continent made with a single-engine aircraft. The land party, including Lister, Blaiklock and Stephenson had left long before to take part in the expedition’s main vehicle crossing. When the RAF party left, they closed the door behind them and left the hut to be swallowed by the swirling snow. It has remained untouched ever since – and, as the RAF party could not carry unnecessary weight, they left almost everything behind in the hut.
Of the three base huts built for the TAE, only South Ice remains fundamentally unchanged. The main hut used by the Crossing Party was lost when the Filchner Ice Shelf calved in the 1970s. The New Zealand base, built at Pram Point on Ross Island, still serves as the headquarters for all New Zealand activity on the continent but only the mess hall from the original base survives. South Ice is, therefore, a unique survival – and a monument of international importance. Its design was enormously strong – so strong, indeed, that Lister joked that it could have been air-dropped into position and survived the fall. There is, therefore, every hope that it remains intact – just waiting to be rediscovered. Volunteers wanted....
The hut was finally abandoned on 6 January 1958, when a four-man RAF contingent departed to complete the first aerial crossing of the continent made with a single-engine aircraft. The land party, including Lister, Blaiklock and Stephenson had left long before to take part in the expedition’s main vehicle crossing. When the RAF party left, they closed the door behind them and left the hut to be swallowed by the swirling snow. It has remained untouched ever since – and, as the RAF party could not carry unnecessary weight, they left almost everything behind in the hut.
Of the three base huts built for the TAE, only South Ice remains fundamentally unchanged. The main hut used by the Crossing Party was lost when the Filchner Ice Shelf calved in the 1970s. The New Zealand base, built at Pram Point on Ross Island, still serves as the headquarters for all New Zealand activity on the continent but only the mess hall from the original base survives. South Ice is, therefore, a unique survival – and a monument of international importance. Its design was enormously strong – so strong, indeed, that Lister joked that it could have been air-dropped into position and survived the fall. There is, therefore, every hope that it remains intact – just waiting to be rediscovered. Volunteers wanted....
