In our blog entry for the 13th of January, we told you how Svante’s team built a 400 metre long runway on the snow and ice, so that one of their team members could be picked up by aeroplane. He needed medical attention for frostbite. What we haven’t told you, is the full story of how John actually beat everyone else on his expedition to the South Pole!
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“I have no idea exactly how the frostbite happened. But it was foolish, really. My problem is that I didn’t wear inner silk gloves inside my mittens. It must have happened when I had the mittens off, perhaps when I was fiddling with the pulk.
“It was Otto who noticed that my face didn’t look right when we stopped for a short pause. Børge immediately asked to see my hands. The left one was fine – the right one was not.”
Critical Antarctic challenges
In 2006 John Bourke joined Børge and Thomas Ulrich on an expedition to the North Pole. He says he didn’t have any problems then.
“Before the present expedition to the South Pole, I recall asking Børge which he thought was tougher. He used to think the Arctic is more punishing; now he’s not so sure.
“You see, there are two critical challenges in Antarctica, in addition to the cold. One is the wind, which is almost ever present, and which can be quite fierce. When temperatures fall down to –30˚C and the wind is blowing at 8–9 metres per second, it’s no joking matter. The other is the altitude, and quite a few members of the team had difficulty with that.”
Others have had difficulty, but John’s frostbite required medical treatment. After the expedition split into to groups, John’s good friends went to work with shovels, evening out a long stretch of snow and ice.
Twin Otter and hot chocolate
“They did indeed build a runway, and I am very grateful for that. And I must also confess that I had a most interest time after leaving Svante and the others. That Twin Otter was on its way to the South Pole to fetch a Canadian team – so I had a good hour and a half there. It’s quite an irony, really, that I beat the others there by a week.
“Eric Phillips and the rest of the Canadians served me vast quantities of hot chocolate. They had spent 38 days advancing south and had many stories to tell. Eager to talk, they basically adopted me into the group.
“With their team was a 60-year-old Norwegian doctor, Merete Spilling Gjertsen from Porsgrunn, who had done a lot of skiing on Svalbard. She examined my hands and told me they would be ok.”
Camping out with the pilot
The flight back to Patriot Hills, a base that is equipped to provide full medical treatment, did not proceed entirely as planned.
“No, it didn’t. On the way back, our pilot received a message that the weather had worsened at Patriot Hills. So we extended our refuelling stop at a depot in the Thiel Mountains. The others, and even the pilot, set up their tents, while I slept on board the Twin Otter.”
Treatment for frostbite
“What the treatment is for frostbite? Well, when we got back to Patriot Hills I was taken care of by a Danish doctor – a Hans Christian Andersen, believe it or not. First he had me hold my hands in tepid water, about 40˚C, for about 20 minutes. That softened them up. Then he cut open the blood blisters and drained them of fluid. He also cut off dead skin from all five fingers on my right hand, and from one finger on my left.
“The next step was to put on a special jelly and gauze, which both protect the wound and drain away excess fluids.”
“Well, John, did the medics keep you there at the base for a long time?”
“Not at all. They deemed me fit to fly, so I joined the Canadians as well as some Irish on a flight bound for Punta Arenas that very night. They put us all in the same hotel in this southernmost of Chile’s cities, so it is quite lively. The Canadians are still telling stories, as are we Irish, too, of course.”
Postcards and pubs
“Since my return here I’ve been going daily to a medical clinic. There they soak my hands again, changing the special jelly and gauze. My hands are coming along just fine.”
For the time being, however, he is writing postcards with his left hand.
“I am fortunate to have a wife back in Dublin who is amazingly calm, so she took it all very well. And my sons were early on assured by the blog that things would be all right, so they weren’t worried either.
“Originally I thought I would wait for the rest of my expedition to come to Punta, but it depends how long that might be. I’ve been to all the bars and pubs in Punta Arenas and am not quite sure what I’d do with myself,” he says with a laugh.
“John, did you ever think you would beat everyone else to the South Pole?”
“No, I most certainly did not.”
