Evening star., 1950-06-28
Overland Expedition
To South Pole Planned
Argentine TO Sponsor First
Such Trek in 40 Yeors
By Thomos 4. Henr

The nrst overland expedition "a the
South Pole in 40 years is being planned
for next December. the start OF the Ant
arctic summer.
1t is an Argentine government enter
prise designed primarily for exploration
and secondarily. 1t is presumed to boil
Ster claims to the sector OF Antarctica
which Argentina considers part OF its
territory due both to contingency and
TO the inheritance OF Spanish claims.
This extends from the coast south Of
South America to the pole in q pie
shaped wedge and overlaps claims both
Of Chile and Great Britain.
At the Argentine embassy ii was said
that no details are available on the
expedition although reports have been
received that it was being considered.
Last Tricks In lslo-ll.
The last treks to the pole were made
almost simultaneously in the southern
summer OF l9l0-ll by Norwegians under
Raoul Amundsen and an English party
led by Sir Robert Falcon Scott The Nor
wegians won the race by nearly a month
and returned TO their base on, the Bav
OF Whales. the future base OF Admiral
Richard E, Byrds expeditions, with un-
expected ease. Scott and all his COM
panlons periShed in an unexpected bli1-
card on the Ross ice shelf.
Both Amundsen and Scott used dogs,
The Argentine explorers according to re-
ports here. plan TO use weasels. or snow
tractors. OF improved design, making
possible much heavier loads and at the
same time considerably better speed
over large part of the terrain II will
be necessary. however, to cross crevaSSed
areas which might prove impossible OBJ
stacles to the tractored vehicles.
Presumably. although this could not
be confirmed because of the lack OF
details received by embassy officials It
Is proposed to make the trek through
Argentine-claimed territory. Much OF
this lies in the region which Admiral
Richard E. Byrd calls the land beyond
the pole, the last completely unknown
region remaining on the earths sur
face. No planes have gone far inland
from the rim of mountains which face
the Weddell Sea and the shelf. Sir
Ernest Shackleton proposed to approach
the pole from this direction in 1914. His
ship was crushed in the ice of the We'd
dell pack and he and his men escaped
only after drifting with the pack for
more tnan year,
The coast itself has been explored only
recently. The mountain ranges were
mapped two winters ago by Comdr, Finn
Rome, Previously German expedi-
ton had conducted extensive air ex-
ploration further eastward,
Longest Route Picked
All previous attempts to reach the
pole--those of Scott. Amundsen and OF
Shackleton in l908-have proceeded by
the shortest possible route from the Ross
Ice Shelf south Of New Zealand. via one
of the glaciers cutting through the
Queen Maud mountains. and across the
high plateau. This Is a distance of
about TOO miles. 1t is described as "the
hardest journey in the world" In mid
summer temperatures are below free2-
ing. The glacier roads are rough and
checker-boarded with hidden crevasses.
Terrific blizzards come without warn
ing and force long delays.
Assuming the way picked by the Ar
gentines is from the other side of the
continent. 1t will be rougher and at least
100 miles longer. 1t will be necessary
to pick one OF the glaciers cutting
through the Weddell coast mountains.
several of which we're mapped by Comdr.
Rome, in order to reach the high pla-
teau. Once there 1t is likely progress
will be fairly smooth. although nothing
actually is known about 1t. The gen.
eral conception is that the plateau is
fairly level plain throughout with a
slight depression around the pole itself.
The pole has been crossed twice by
air. both times by Admiral Byrd On
his last flight in 1947 he was able TO
60 a little beyond the pole In the direc-
ton of Africa. From what he was able
to observe, there was no difference in
the appearance of the terrain of limit
less whiteness, wind-blown into hum
mocks known as satrugi. A major at
tempt to cross the pole and proceed
beyond was planned by Admiral Byrd
last year and the best assembly of Ant
arctic experts in the world had made
preparations to sail Then the expedi-
tion was called off for economy reasons.
The United States makes no claim
to Antarctic territory, and at the same
time recognizes no claims.
The region is OF great practical inn
portance to Argentina since It is the
brew-pot Of much OF the country's
weather.