Feature: We're just going for a walk, we might be some time
10/10/2002

We're just going for a walk, we might be some time.

Lisa Holliday and Catrin Thomas have much in common.
They have both devoted their lives to the mountains. They both lived in the village of Brynrefail in Snowdonia. They both lost their hearts to the Antarctic. Snowdonia Active was interested to find out more.

Since the 1770’s, when captain Cook succeeded in the continents’ first circumnavigation, the Antarctic has exacted a powerful attraction to explorers and scientists from all parts of the world. The scale and significance of the continent is often undervalued. Containing over 90% of global fresh water, and with an ice sheet whose thickness is measured in kilometers, any significant changes to the continent are likely to have serious global consequences. It is thus an important place for scientific evaluation of major global processes. It is, in effect, the Global Laboratory. Today the continent hosts as many as 10,000 scientists and support staff from twenty-seven nations.

As the first Autumnal gales hit Wales, unceremoniously ending all thoughts of summer, and we prepare for the long season, Lisa and Catrin head south. For Lisa this is her sixth migration to the Antarctic.

In 1997 she joined Adventure Network International, the only commercial tourist operator on the Antarctic mainland. Three seasons later she moved on to become a field trainer for Polar Logistics. She is now carrying out the same role at Scott Base for New Zealand research scientists. The job entails support and training for project scientists so they can operate safely with the Antarctic weather and conditions. “That means I take them out and get them cold and tired (but happy) so they recognize what a different environment they’re in, and how to cope with it. A field-training course lasts about two days with an overnight in tents or snow mounds. We then take them for a walk into the icefall, in order to show them how scary crevasses are and why they never want to go near them! We also show them how to cope with cracks in the sea ice – how to recognize the dangerous cracks and how to cross the safe ones.”

Catrin will be carrying out a similar role this year, although at the opposite end of the continent. She began her Antarctic career last year - also with Adventure Network International - “taking tourists out on small trips from the camps. Lots of doddery stuff – skidoo trips to ice features. Short walks in the local hills. Lots of oohing and aahing.”

With holidays on ice costing up to £30,000 per person, what sort of characters were your clients? “Rich. Very rich,” replies Catrin. “Generally mid-40’s with a seriously high disposable income. Many of them are visiting in order to get to the pole – an air trip. The other clients are there to do Vinson.”

Vinson is the highest peak on the continent, at some 4900m, and so is a lure to the seven summiteers – those wishing to tick the highest summit on each continent. Having to work on Vinson was, according to Catrin, “like being sent to heaven.”
This year, however, Catrin has joined the British Antarctic Survey and will be based on the Antarctic Peninsula.
BAS carry out most of the UK’s Antarctic research, involving ecosystem research and environmental protection, plate tectonics, atmospheric research including climate change and ozone depletion, and studies of land and sea ice.

“I’ll be doing some field training which can be anything from basic campcraft through to crevasse rescue. We’ll be training anyone at the base who is likely to be out on a trip – and including the support staff who’ll be overwintering.”

The scientists are, according to Lisa, “often quite absent-minded – as they are more interested in what they are doing than what their bodies are doing. They are often endearingly child-like as they get used to such a new environment. They are wondrous about little things like peeing into pee-bottles.”
But it is important to remain focused in such a climate. Lisa and Catrin are summer migrants, so they see the best of the conditions. Temperatures in the Antarctic summer, however, range from zero to minus 25 Celsius, and it is often windy, with winds up to 100 knots. “It is a very dry cold,” says Lisa, “which is difficult to get used to. It’s easy not to drink enough – until you realize your pee is bright orange and your kidneys are struggling. You know it’s cold when your eyes water and your nose hurts within two minutes, and your inner thighs are ‘burnt’ by the cold inside four layers of clothing”

So what qualified two women from Brynrefail to train scientists to stay alive in such conditions? Lisa, in her forties, has always worked in the mountains of Wales and Scotland. “The snow and ice stuff in Wales trained me for Scotland and that trained me for the Alps, Greenland, and other white places. I have always been teaching and training in the mountains and rivers of Wales, so transferring to other places has been fairly straightforward. Although Antarctica is obviously a lot colder and bigger and more scary, the steady head you need comes from dealing with scary places and circumstances elsewhere, and that was mostly Wales for me.”

Catrin adds, “They’re pretty keen to have people who’ve been in remote situations before so they know you’re not going to lose the plot. Certainly for British Antarctic Survey, they’re more concerned that you’ve got adequate mountaineering skills in glaciated areas.”

What is overwhelmingly apparent, when talking to both women, is their love of the Antarctic. “The place is truly beautiful,” says Lisa. “While everything is bright white during the day, when the sun is at its highest, in the evening (which lasts all night) the light is softer and colours can be grey, mauve, pink, purple, or yellow. It is a huge place; so big that our brains can only deal with local areas, but when I’ve flown to the South Pole, the immensity becomes real as we travel over hours of ‘nothing.’ I love to remember the early explorers as they trudged slowly and painfully over this land of ice.”

Catrin also enthuses. “For me the place is simply gobsmacking. Generally it’s a pretty raw environment – bloody windy, so you have to get used to pretty constant heavy weather noise. But occasionally you get a calm period and when that happens you can literally hear a pin drop. That is something I have never experienced before. You can hear someone walking in the snow from hundreds of metres away. The space thing is fantastic and when you’re up high it seems to be white forever.”

After four or five months in such an environment it must be quite a shock returning home.” I wouldn’t describe it as a culture shock,” says Catrin, “more like sensory deprivation. For me it’s the lack of that awesome space that’s hard to adjust to. Having said that, it’s great to get back to showers, home comforts, and milder weather. Socially it’s quite an intense experience out there. You are living and working with a small team day and night, and while it feels odd to be back on your own, it’s great to have a bit of personal space.”

For Lisa, home is no longer a village in Snowdonia, for on her first Antarctic season she met Max, a pilot and Antarctic veteran. After marrying back in Snowdonia, Lisa now lives in Max’s native New Zealand.

“It’s amazing how far you have to go to get your oats,” says Catrin.

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