Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.2006, Blaðsíða 85

Jökull - 01.12.2006, Blaðsíða 85
Equipment lost on Öræfajökull in 1953, recovered in July 2006 Of equal importance was the absence of items that one might have expected to have been found: human remains; items of food, even empty food cans; note books or diaries; cameras; ski poles; ice axes; climb- ing rope. The main retrieval site covered a small area, about 100 metres in diameter. Wind-blown items were found as far as 700 m away from the centre of the retrieval side. Moreover, Eyjólfur and Alex, quite incidental to their discovery, had been able to make a rough approximation of the rate of movement of Skaftafellsjökull over the previous year from their GPS measurements on a large surface boulder in the vicinity of the recovery site. By applying two approx- imations (0.4 and 0.5 m/day), Matthew constructed a map (Figure 1) to give a rough indication of the whereabouts of the original camp site which had been buried and from which the remains had begun their glacier journey to emerge on the surface of Skafta- fellsjökull, 53 years later. It is remarkable that the es- timation of glacier movement closely coincides with our actual survey of Skaftafellsjökull in 1954 (King and Ives, 1955). Matthew also concluded that the tent had been left pitched in 1953, the camp basically abandoned. This was based on the fact that several of the aluminium poles (A-frame) were still connected and several tie strings with torn pieces of canvas re- mained attached to the poles. Any further interpreta- tion remains as a hypothetical reconstruction. Until this recent discovery, surviving members of the expedition had always accepted a simple explana- tion for the events surrounding the disappearance of Ian and Tony. We had assumed that they had reached the main dome of Öræfajökull on 6 August, 1953 be- fore the weather broke and forced them to pitch their tent and take shelter. The atrocious weather, with heavy snow and high winds, would have kept them tent-bound for several days, probably a week. By this time they would have consumed all or most of their food and fuel. By the seventh or eighth day they would have begun to experience brief lulls in the storm, with short clearings (throughout this period the weather station at the Ice Camp had been maintained by Jim and Chris so that a complete picture of the day-to-day weather pattern was available, at least at the 1,200-metre level). During such clearings Ian and Tony may have been able to see almost their entire route back to the Ice Camp. Hunger, and probably their concern that Jim and Chris would be tempted to set out in search for them, prompted them to strike camp during one of the brief clearings and set off to return. With the weather closing in again they lost their sense of direction, diverged from the safety of the broad ridge crest, and entered badly crevassed ter- rain. At the time, the crevasses would have been hid- den and bridged by a deep snow cover; eventually, they caused a snow bridge to collapse under them and fell a considerable depth to their death. The July 2006 discoveries require that this origi- nal, somewhat simple, explanation be modified. We still believe that Ian and Tony did indeed set off on their return journey, tempted by one of the brief clear- ings, but the weather closed in again forcing them to pitch their tent and camp (from Matthew’s map, they may have been more than half-way back). By this time they would have been without food as not even an empty pemmican can has been recovered amongst the 150-odd pieces. Subsequently, more heavy snowfall buried the tent; they were forced to evacuate the tent and attempted to walk back to the Ice Camp with no more than climbing rope, ice axes, note books, cam- eras, and what they were dressed in. From this point: disorientation in yet another snow storm and eventual collapse of a snow bridge into a crevasse at some un- known distance from their abandoned tent. Even after all these years we still feel the agony of this tragedy. Given good weather, they would likely have been only a few hours away from safety. At some future date their remains could emerge from the northwestern arm of Skaftafellsjökull having been carried through the icefalls north of Súlukambur, or even from Morsárjökull. In either case, discovery of their remains would be a distinct possibility. How- ever, if they had inadvertently crossed the broad snow ridge into the accumulation area of Breiðamerkur- jökull, recovery will be much less likely. Ragnar’s prediction that the glacier always gives up what it takes is, so far, only partially enacted. We still mourn our comrades. They, in their turn, remain forever in the fullness of youth, vigorous, beautiful, JÖKULL No. 56, 2006 83
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Jökull

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