Vostok traverse

The Vostok Traverse was a crossing of the Antarctic in the summer of 1962/63 by an Australian ANARE team, while in four months 3000 km lay back. They used two red, 1943 -built M29 Weasel tracked vehicles and two D4 Caterpillar tractors from 1950. The six members of the expedition launched on September 17, 1962 in Wilkes - station on the coast and traveled to the Soviet Vostok station deep within the Antarctic. A large part of the journey performed previously unexplored area. The Weasels and the tractors extremely consumed a lot of fuel, so that the USAP had to jettison fuel.

Navigation through the empty landscape was made possible by a vehicle traveling at the top Weasel, which was equipped with a compass, which was suspended from an aluminum frame in front of the vehicle. Characterized has been avoided in that the steel of the vehicle covered by the weak nature of the magnetic field close to the pole. The lead vehicle, leaving all four kilometers bamboo pole, the other vehicles could well follow.

When the team arrived at the Vostok station on 18 November 1962, the Russians had evacuated the station twelve months previously with such haste that still half- cooked food was to be found. The generators were powered up and the frozen steaks were cooked. On November 25, we set out on the way back which was completed on 14 January.