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GUESTWRITER
FROZEN DAGGER
Sam Cox
Blog #2
To help with understanding the
recommended that any polar journey with
considered an extension of the Antarctic different classifications of polar
a public following should use its definitions
land mass, of which, the two largest ice travel, I thought that I should
and standards. This observance of
shelves in Antarctica are the Ronne-Filch- dedicate an early blog to delve into the
the PECS guidelines allows a level of
ner Ice Shelf, bordering the Weddell Sea, detail. This will hopefully allow you to
symmetry across polar travel given the
and the Ross Ice Shelf, which covers a understand what I mean when I say
specific nuances involved. Whilst it is
large section of the Ross Sea.
that I’m attempting an ‘unsupported solo Antarctic crossing’.
There has been a bit of controversy over the previous few years regarding various claims of expeditions. This is due to the nuances of some definitions as well as the unique geography of Antarctica, which I’ll go into in this article. Given that this is quite a large and broad subject, with many permutations, I’ll bound what I discuss to purely the Antarctic-centric and will only examine one-way expeditions in depth.
POLAR EXPEDITIONS CLASSIFICATION SCHEME
To discuss the different classification, I’ll initially speak about the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme (PECS) and its
purpose. PECS was designed to grade and label polar journeys in areas such as Greenland and the North and South Poles. It includes extended journeys in these regions, not exclusively on specific objectives such as crossings and reaching the Poles, but also on other journeys on land ice and adjoining ice-free areas like oceans and freshwater bodies.
Whilst it is not compulsory to adhere to the guidelines set in PECS, it is
not a governing body, PECS is generally recognised as the main authority by the polar adventuring community and enables the labelling of polar journeys to become codified through these sets of standards.
PECS is administered by a committee, which consists of polar adventure specialists with significant practical and theoretical knowledge of these regions. This committee manages the guidelines and assesses polar journey claims. PECS also assess and adjudicate polar journeys on behalf of Guinness World Records.
ANTARCTIC GEOGRAPHY Antarctica has some of the most unique geography found on the planet, which can complicate definitions further. To help,
this section will differentiate some distinc- tions of this geography that define polar expeditions using the PECS guidelines.
Unlike the North Pole, which sits in the Arctic Ocean on water covered in ice, the South Pole sits on top of a landmass covered in freshwater ice. The Antarctic Treaty (a blog for another time!) recognises Antarctica as ‘the area below 60 degrees south latitude, including all ice shelves’. This means that the ice shelves are
INNER AND OUTER COASTLINES Given that, according to the Antarctic Treaty, the ice shelves are considered a continuation of the landmass Antarctica
is considered to have both an inner and an outer coastline. The inner coastline is defined as the landward edge of an ice shelf and the outer coastline is fronted by sea or annual sea ice. These two definitions will become more apparent later on.
SOUTH POLE
The Geographic South Pole is located at exactly -90o South, where the Earth rotates on its axis. Nice and simple! The
South Pole is considered a corner point of the ACSA.
ACSA
This one might take a bit of explaining... the ACSA is an area in central Antarctica made up of three points. The first point
is the South Pole (Axis), the second is the Pole of Inaccessibility (Centre), and finally, the Dome Argus (Summit), which together form an Area (ACSA). Simple, no? Crudely put, the Pole of Inacces- sibility is the furthest point in Antarctica without encountering a coast and the Dome Argus is the summit of the Antarctic plateau at 4093m elevation.
EXPEDITION DEFINITIONS
To begin this section, we’re going to have to get a bit pedantic. Whilst the term ‘expedition’ is recognised as a general
term for a journey, there is technically a difference between this term and an Antarctic Expedition, and an Antarctic Crossing.
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS
An ‘Antarctic Expedition’ is defined, by PECS, as a path that is not a crossing, circumnavigation or loop and starts at an
inner coastal area and reaches a recog- nisable point. For example, an expedition
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Northern Lights over Norway