Visitors Get a Frozen Reception Here

It was 10 years ago this December that my wife and I were on a flight over Antarctica with Sir Edmund Hillary, looking down at the untracked eternity of ice and snow and listening to Hillary’s commentary on the route he followed to the South Pole in 1958.

Now, preparations have been made for what is expected to be a record-setting 1989-90 season of travel to Antarctica, with about half a dozen operators in the United States and Canada offering tours that range from raft landings off expedition ships to ski-plane landings at the South Pole and a climb up a 16,000-foot mountain of ice.

This has also been a year when expeditions have set new challenges for Antarctic travel, highlighted by the 10-person, U.S.-Canadian group, including two women, which reached the South Pole on skis.

Supplies left along part of their 750-mile route will be of some help to another expedition that set out this month in an attempt to traverse the continent, a distance of 4,500 miles.

In 1979 we were among those on one of Air New Zealand’s pioneering flights over Antarctica, and Hillary had been invited to talk to us about his 1958 expedition to the Pole. Only five years after climbing Mt. Everest, he had become the first person to cross the ice to the Pole since Robert Falcon Scott in 1912.

Not long after our flight, another Air New Zealand flight over the Antarctic crashed into an ice mountain in a storm. Those on board, including two travel writer friends of ours, were killed, and further flights were canceled.

This season more than 3,000 Americans are expected to be among travelers to Antarctica from the end of November to March, when sunlight and weather conditions are best.

“Summer’s coming up now in the Antarctic region,” Hillary told us during our December flight. “Surface temperatures below us are warming up to about 35 degrees below zero.”

Protecting the Antarctic environment is of prime concern, and responsible tour operators are cooperating with the National Science Foundation and familiarizing themselves with the Antarctic Conservation Act. Guidelines to protect the Antarctic will be presented at a meeting in Paris in October to the 38 nations that have signed the Antarctic Treaty.

Here are some details of Antarctic tours:

Among other speakers with in-depth knowledge about Antarctica, Shirley Metz, who took part in the U.S.-Canadian expedition this year, will share her polar adventure with passengers aboard several Society Expeditions Antarctic cruises, which begin Nov. 24.

Between then and February the 96-passenger Society Explorer and the 139-passenger World Discoverer will be making 12 voyages of from 15 to 26 days, visiting the Chilean fiords, the Falklands and other islands as well as the Antarctic Peninsula.

Raft landings on the peninsula will visit U.S., Soviet and Polish research stations. Fares for these adventures will start at about $5,790 per person, not including air fare to Punta Arenas or Puerto Williams at the southern tip of South America. For more information, call the Seattle-based Society Expeditions toll-free at (800) 426-7794.

Mountain Travel of El Cerrito, Calif., in January organized a 50-day cross-country skiing trek, with participants, carrying light packs, covering about 15 miles a day from the continental ice shelf to the 9,300-foot elevation at the South Pole.

Snowmobiles pulled sleds carrying the bulk of the tents, food and other supplies, and the expedition was resupplied by air every 200 miles. There was constant daylight during the trip, which reached the South Pole on Jan. 17, the 77th anniversary of Scott’s arrival there. All seven members of the expedition completed the trek, at a cost of $70,000 per person. They were then picked up by ski-plane for the return to their starting base. A similar expedition will be undertaken in about three years.

For the next season, Mountain Travel’s 39-passenger Nordbrise will be making 12- to 17-day Antarctic trips, landing passengers by raft at the scientific research stations maintained by several nations. Cruise fares start at $3,975, plus round-trip air fare from Miami estimated to begin at $3,975. For information call (800) 227-2384.

Adventure Network of Vancouver, B.C., has scheduled three 15-day trips by Twin Otter plane equipped with skis from Chile and Punta Arenas to the Antarctic Peninsula. There will be seven passengers each trip, with the plane serving as a mobile camp. Participants will join in research of the environment, penguins and seals. The plane will carry a raft, and the fare from the South American point of departure will be $6,990.

The same company also offers a five-passenger ski plane flight to the South Pole in December at a cost of $30,000 per person. A 10-day climb of 16,028-foot Mt. Vincent is priced at $18,500, including ski-plane transportation to and from the base of the mountain. For more information, call (604) 683-8033.

Travel Dynamics of New York City has scheduled seven 10-day cruises from December through February aboard its 120- to 146-passenger Illiria. These cruises are themed to university and museum research, and last year were permitted by weather conditions to make two or three raft landings daily. Fares begin at $5,000. Call (800) 367-6766.