|
|
|
Ice Mobile
13:06 p.m. EDT Oct 7, 2003
Remember the news last week about Polar Circle picking up a wrecked plane at the South Pole in custom designed snow buggies? We'll here they are. The pic shows one of the rugged vehicles, ready to take on the ice with or without the Antarctica highway planned for the continent later next year by polar scientists.
Polar Circle Expeditions and Travel are a veteran North Pole logistic outfit. With the recent gap in Antarctica transportation caused by ANIs dropout this year, Polar Circle have joined a few other organizers and gone south to offer logistics for expeditions and climbers to the continent. Polar Circle have also been assigned by the Russian authorities to try to recover the Russian Antonov-3 biplane aircraft abandoned at the South Pole last year.
The snow buggies are an interesting addition to the modern era of Antarctica exploration, but the idea is old. Already Scott and Amundsen tried out motorized vehicles almost a century ago in the first quest for the South Pole. Let's hope Polar circle's mechanics prove more successful than the ice trucks of our early pioneers.
Polar Circle offer custom-made logistics on Antarctica, individually tailored to each project. That includes Antarctica round trip transportation plus logistics on the ice, including the South Pole.
Polar Circle added a new feature to polar transportation - ice buggies: "From Patriot Hills, out-going trips will be undertaken in snow buggies specially created for Polar Circle expeditions," they state.
Each snow buggy has an 8-wheel drive seating eight passengers and can haul 1500 kg. At optimal speed they can link Patriot Hills to the Pole in four days. Three buggies will operate between Patriot Hills and the South Pole or the Mount Vinson base camp during the 2003-04 Antarctica season.
Image courtesy of Polarcircle.
|
