Leo Torbin and Gale Preece were staffed at the Halley remote field camp for another three weeks. They had completed their studies and spent most of their remaining time compiling data while huddled together in the outpost’s small concrete framed structure, and habitually monitoring their diesel fuel level. At two o’clock in the morning, they lay in their cots long since accustomed to sleeping through noise that would have had most people wondering if they were going to live to see the next day. Specially designed blankets covered them to their necks. Leo’s wool-capped head stuck out from under his blankets while Gale’s remained completely concealed below the thick fabric. A slow rise and fall of the blanket was the only evidence that Gail was even there.
On the plain gray walls hung a variety of tools, clothing, pots and pans; necessities of a humble and tenuous residence. In the furthest corner from the door, next to the large propane heater, sat a metal desk covered with stacks of handwritten papers and two Toughbook laptops, specially designed to work in extreme conditions. A second door with a sign reading “Toilet” remained shut, providing a small amount of additional insulation from the howling winds outside and their constant onslaught against the concrete walls.
At first the sound of a strange rumble was drowned out by the winds outside, but as it grew, the rattling equipment throughout the room grew louder. The walls of the shelter began to shake violently, causing some of the pans to leap from their hooks and fall onto the floor. One of the laptops vibrated across the desk and fell off, crashing into a metal bucket and sending it sliding across the floor. The thunderous rumble became deafening.
Leo jumped from his cot half awake and tried to grasp something for support. He turned just in time to see the shape of Gale tumble from her bed and onto the floor. He reached and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her to him as she struggled to get the blanket off. It was an earthquake!
Holding onto each other they managed to pull themselves into the nearest corner and covered their heads. Everything seemed to be falling around them now as the small building swayed eerily from side to side. Leo grabbed the rest of Gale’s thick blanket and wrapped it around them. Under the blanket they quickly found themselves praying that the structure would hold. He dropped his head and squeezed Gale tight.
The earthquake lasted less than two minutes but the wind took five hours to die out. By seven a.m. conditions had receded to a gentle ten miles per hour when the thick metal door of the still-standing Halley outpost swung open. Leo and Gale both stepped out, clothed in full protective suits and never so happy to see the sun. In all of their time spent in Antarctica, it was the closest they had come to dying. All it would have taken was even a small hole in the wall and the wind would have done the rest.
They looked around at the icy desert, stretching out as far as they could see. Leo looked up at the transmission tower and frowned. The tower was in perfect shape but the shortwave transmitter inside was smashed. Thankfully their backup line of communication was unharmed. He pulled the brick sized satellite phone out of his large jacket pocket and flipped up the giant antennae.
As Leo removed his glove to dial, Gale walked over to the snowmobiles. One sat on its side yet both vehicles appeared undamaged. The small shack housing the giant diesel tank looked like it held up as well as the larger building. She turned and did a full scan. Aside from the mess inside the main station, everything looked oddly normal.
“McMurdo, this is Torbin at Halley camp. Can you hear me?” he yelled into the phone while looking at Gale. “Yes we’re alright. Looks like we had an earthquake last night.” He paused looking around. “Critical systems seem to be in working order but we’ve lost the shortwave. Repeat, we have lost shortwave communications. We’re going to finish a sweep of the base and have a wider look around on the bikes.” He listened again. “Yes right, will do.”
Leo hung up and stuffed the phone back into his pocket. “They want us to call back after we have a look around. If there are any immediate problems they will move the delivery up. If not, they’ll bring another shortwave unit with them next week.”
Gale nodded. “Well, the generator works so we have heat and electricity, and we’re certainly not short of food and water.”
Together they grabbed the overturned snowmobile and pushed it back up onto its treads. “Could have been a whole lot worse.” Leo checked the vehicle’s gas tank for any leaks.
Gale checked the ignition turning the key back and forth.
“Wow, look at that!” Gale turned and followed the direction of Leo’s arm and gasped. In the distance, the blue sky above suddenly ended on the horizon with a giant wall of white.
“What the hell is that?”
Leo shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not a storm.” He climbed onto one of the snowmobiles. “Let’s take a ride and have a look.”
The Halley camp was over a hundred miles from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station and over a thousand miles from the supply station at McMurdo. With help so far away they kept to a slow pace on the snowmobiles, taking almost an hour to get close enough. It looked like many of the “white outs” seen in the Antarctic but this one was not moving. Instead it seemed to linger in the air for as far as the eye could see.
Side by side, Leo and Gale entered what looked like a white fog and visibility quickly dropped down to a few dozen feet. They slowed the machines even further to a crawl, carefully scanning the ground for any sudden rifts exposed by the storm. They had been to this area many times as their camp was the primary station of study for the ice shelf, but they couldn’t tell exactly where they were.
Leo stopped, raised his darkened glasses and looked up. The sun was completely blocked out which made it harder to see any detail on the white ground. Gale put her snowmobile in neutral and pulled out a hand held GPS unit.
She raised her goggles up over her hood. “We’re still about 5 miles from the first ridge. How much further do you want to go?”
Leo watched the white fog carefully. “I think it’s starting to clear. Don’t know how far out it extends though. Let’s go up a little further and see if it thins out more.”
Gale nodded and put the device back in the pocket of her oversized parka. They continued creeping forward.
After several more minutes, the visibility slowly started to improve and the sun began to make some limited progress getting through. They both watched the ground carefully as they slowly sped up.
“Look out!” Suddenly, Leo stopped his snowmobile with a tight clench of the brakes. His bike quickly started to tilt forward as he stood and pushed himself backward up and over the back of the seat. He landed head first on the snow and barely crawled out of the way before his snowmobile lifted its end into the air and disappeared.
Gale twisted her handlebars tight to avoid hitting him and nearly pitched into a sideways roll. With gritted teeth, she was just able to stay on and avoid following his tracks which abruptly disappeared less than a foot away. “Jesus!”