57

Balloon Life,April 2000

So there we were, one late Sunday evening
in an almost deserted Madrid Barajas Air-
port,readytoboardtheplanefor a15-
hour flighttoSantiago,capitalofChile.
‘We’meanttheFlyingCircusballoon
teamwithAnulfoGonzález,Faustino
Mortera, Diego Criado del Rey and Steven
Vlegels.FromSantiagoitwouldgoto
PuntaArenas,veryneartoCapeHorn,
whichwasthemeetingpointfor allthe
participantsoftheMillenniumExpedi-
tion. If all went well, our final destination
would be the South Pole, some 4000 kilo-
metersfurther.
The idea for this adventure had been
ripening since April of 1999 when Anulfo
andDiegohadparticipatedinthe North
Pole 99 expedition. Upon their return, the
positive response from press and sponsor
invitedus tostart dreaming. What would
benext?Woulditbepossibletoflya
balloon at the Geographic SouthPole?
Someresearchlearnedthatworld-
champion Bill Arras had madetwo flights
fromPatriotHills,ablue-iceregionat
1080 kilometres from the Polewhere large
planescansafelylandonwheelsand
where Adventure NetworkInternational
(ANI), a commercial expedition operator,
had establisheda base camp for a limited
number of tourists.However,during the
secondflight Bill’s balloonhadbeende-
stroyedby the fierce windsAntarctica is
famousfor. ObviouslyPatriotHillswas
not a good place for ballooning.
On the other hand the meteorological
reportsfromtheAmundsen-ScottBase
indicatedthatatthePole,windswere
normallycalmbecausethecoldairde-
scendsnearthecenteroftheAntarctic
continentandstartsflowingtowards the
coast. Only when this river of air is devi-
atedandcanalized, windspeedscanin-
crease drasticallyina matterof seconds

and 320 km/h has been measured near the
coast.
Soweknewthatwehadachance
although nobody had done it before. The
prob lemwasgettingthere.Untilwe
learned of the plans of BobChrist to lead
agroupofskydiverstotheSouthPole
supportedbytheRussianPolar Airforce
underthecommandofthe veteranRus-
sian polar explorers VladimirChukov and
Evgeni Bakalov, who had also been lead-
ingthe North Pole trip: The Millennium
Expedition was born!We would fly to the
base of Patriot Hills via Punta Arenas in a
hugeIlyushin-76cargoplane,together
with all the equipment. To reach the Geo-
graphicSouthPole over landwewould
use‘snowbugs:’specially-designed6x6
vehicles, with large wheels and a low tire
pressure that wouldpermit them to clear
obstacles without sinking intosoft snow.
Things went well up to Punta Arenas,
although Santiago’s 32º C was not a good
preparation forthetemperatures that would
await us in Antarctica! Fortunately Punta
Arenas is a much cooler place and we had
plentyoftimetoacclimatize.Weather
conditions inPatriot Hills were marginal
during various days and as the plane has to
land onthe ice runwayunder visual con-
ditions we wereforced to celebrate Christ-
masonPatagonianground.Finally,on
December31we leftPunta Arenasand
celebratedtheNewYearinthecargo
compartment of the IL-76at25,000feet
above the Antarctic Peninsula.
InthebasecamptheRussianshad
installeda Christmas-tree (thathadtrav-
eled with them inthe plane from Minsk),
and the dinner tables had been dug out of
the snow. As the weather was splendid—
blue sky, nowind—there was no time to
loose: in a couple of hours the plane was
unloaded and 35 skydivers climbed aboard

for a jump over Patriot Hills whichwas a
great success and a very spectacular view
indeed.
Meanwhile8snowbugswithitsre-
spective trailers hadbeen assembled and
were being loaded for the 3-day trip to the
SouthPole.Asthe convoyleftthebase
camp, itquickly became clearthat it would
becomea longertrip. Despiteachieving
anaverage speedof 25to30 kilometres
perhourenroute,thesnowbugswere
frequently plagued by a problem with the
drive units on each wheel. Repairing them
delayedthetripenormouslyandafter
three days we had advanced 550 kilome-
ters instead of the planned 1080 and made
camp near the Thiel Mountains. It became
clear that our provisions and fuel reserves
wouldnotguaranteeasafereturnany-
moreandahardbutnecessarydecision
wasmade:only4vehicleswouldcon-
tinue with half of the participants, and the
otherpartofthegroupwouldwaitfor
them to return. Fortunately we were able
toconvincetheRussianstoinclude our
hot-airballooninthecontinuinggroup,
althoughhalf ofour team wasforcedto
stayandwait.IvanTrifonovdecidedto
leavehiscloudhopperinthecampand
joinforceswithour team.
After an emotional farewell the four
vehiclescontinuedandquicklydisap-
pearedintothewhitewilderness.Com-
munication between the twogroups was
onceadayatbest,relayingtheradio
messagesviathebasecampatPatriot
Hills, but after 3 days, dodging deteriorat-
ingweatherconditions,poorvisibility
andtemperaturesaslowas-45ºCwe
learnedthatthefrontgrouphad reached
theGeographicSouthPolewherethey
werereceivedbythescientistsofthe
Amundsen-ScottBase.Theseformeda
group of enthusiastic volunteers who came

Over the other Pole

by Steven Vlegels

North Pole having been conquered by balloon, no one
had yet flown a balloon over the South Pole. A new
challenge for a new millennium.

Balloon Life,April 2000

58

in very handy, as the fan had been left
behind because of weight limitations,and
the balloon had to be inflated in the old
way, flapping the mouth (an idealway of
keeping warm!)and with two Cremation
Charlies inside the balloon.
Inflationwent withoutproblems and
soonAnulfo Gonzalez, FaustinoMortera
andIvanTrifonovtookoffin‘LG Flatron’,
a Cameron Concept-60. Weather condi-
tions were perfect, a crisp blue sky and
almost no wind. Soonthe crewhad a
perfectviewofthe Amundsen-ScottBase,
where a lot of construction is currently
under wayin order to amplifythe existing
infrastructure.All balloonsystemsbe-
haved perfectlywell. The tanks had been
pressurized with nitrogen three days be-
fore, on leaving the intermediate camp,
and the Sirocco burner gave a very work-
able pressure.
Missionaccomplished, the first bal-
loon flight on the South Pole had been
made. Unfortunatelythere wasno time to
enjoythisparticular place of ourearth:the
return journey was waiting and our re-
sources werelimited.In orderto save
weight and fuelon the trip, itwas decided
to leave the balloon basket behind in the
Amundsen-Scott Base, where they now
have anoriginalpiece of furniture intheir
cafeteria!
Due to the logistics and difficulties
involved, Antarctica is not going to con-
vert itself intothe nextannual meet inour
calendars, butknowing that a balloon can
safely takeoffandland at thePole it
certainly invites to start dreaming again.
What about an intercontinental flight to
Antarctica for example? Or a crossing of
these frozen lands from coast to coast?
There are still things to do with a bal-
loon…

Russian built IL-76 sitting
on the runway at Patriot
Hills, Antarctica.

Antarctica SUV of choice,
the snowbug. Harsh condi-
tions made travel difficult.
Half the equipment and per-
sonnel would not make it to
the So uth Pole.

Left to right: Faustino
Mortera, Ivan Trifonov,
Anulfo Gonzalez become the
first to fly a balloon over the
South Pole.

LF Falatron flying over the
South Pole at the beginning
of the new millennium

GPS reading confirms the balloon is fly-
ing over the South Pole.