Interview with Eirik Sønneland
After you left Pole, people around McMurdo would ask, "What's the story with those crazy Norwegians?" and the reply would be something like, "No one knows. They're probably dead." The lack of communication and the uncertainty of your situation drove NSF to indignant rage, so you had many fans in McMurdo. I read somewhere that your lack of communication after you left Pole was a technical problem. Is this true?
 Eirik and Rolf
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I broke the satellite (VHF) antenna coming down the Axel Heiberg Glacier. I thought I fixed it, but it didn't work. Imagine our parents looking at their plots on the map, and the last plot before we lost communication was when we were on the glacier: one of the most dangerous parts of the trek. They were terrified. Nobody heard from us for about three weeks. To be without communication was not a major point for us. You feel alone anyway, and isolated, unless you can use Iridium to call home. We had three phones, but the company went bankrupt while we were wintering.
Most of the modern expeditions advertise their logistics, broadcast their exact location at all times with GPS, and communicate each move to their sponsors and to the press, and when they're finished, they know exactly how they're going to get home. In contrast, you were out of contact much of the time after you left Pole, few people knew where you were or what your plans were, and you showed up at the coast essentially trying to hitchhike out of Antarctica. Was your expedition intentionally opaque?
Few but essential people knew about our plans. We had equipment that gave GPS positions every day, which people could follow, sent via satellite. What we didn't have was money to pay people to get this out to the press. Newspapers in Norway, sponsors, and parents knew where we were. Of course we had a plan to get off the continent! We had two seats on the Klebnikov icebreaker (We are still waiting to get back our bags!) They said that they couldn't wait if we ran late, and because of record-breaking little wind we had to walk more than expected; therefore we were five days late for the boat. When NSF & Co. started arguing against us, I guess those on the Klebnikov found it easiest to say that they had no deal with us. Then people started claiming that we had no plan to get off the continent, making us look like idiots. The only reason we kept calm is that we believe in the power of truth.
Rumor around McMurdo was that after you missed the boat you were doing dishes at Scott Base in exchange for use of some of their facilities, but then Scott Base kicked you out. Is this true? Were you made welcome at Scott Base?
Yes, we were made welcome at Scott Base. Very much so. We helped out doing different work at Scott Base in exchange for staying there, even though there was some kind of pressure from NSF to stop this service. Rumors started to get to Scott Base, and I'm not sure they knew whom to believe, so we needed to leave the base to stay in our tent for one or two days. The worst part of that was that we felt like criminals and that people didn't believe us. At this point, U.S. pilots and Kiwis were putting food and chocolate outside our tents, and you can believe how good and important that felt for us. Bottom line, Scott Base did us a tremendous favor by letting us stay. In contrast, NSF told us not to enter the McMurdo Station area or any of the buildings, and not to use the shuttle buses. American employees told us later that they had been told to stay away from us and not to talk to us.
Welcome to McMurdo. I was working at McMurdo when you arrived in 2001. I remember it well because we were commanded by NSF not to accommodate you in any way, and were forbidden to invite you to our rooms or into any buildings. We were told not to send mail for you, nor to send email messages for you. While you were in the area, NSF was keeping a close eye on you. What did the managers say to you when you arrived?
They asked us what plans we had for getting home. The manager at Scott Base was calm and listened to what we had to say. I must be honest and say that this was not the way we were treated by the U.S. manager. It was like an interrogation. Very unpleasant. He acted arrogant. However, it seemed like he started to realize after a couple of days that we didn't try to fool anybody. He probably got his orders from people that were not in Antarctica at the time. And, to be honest, today I don't have bad feelings toward anyone in McMurdo. Bottom line, what did hurt us was that people could not think without using bureaucracy. If people could only try to listen to what we said and stop looking up paragraphs in some kind of "standard operating procedures" for a short while, a lot could have been solved in a shorter time.
One example: our home office, together with Steven McLachlan and Klaus Pettersen in New Zealand, got a green light from the captain of the cargo ship that would deliver cargo (beer, etc.) to McMurdo, who said he would let us travel for free back to New Zealand if it was okay with his company. At first the company was agreeable, but then NSF told them that the ship would be under their rent until it left McMurdo and was 27 km away. Reason for the 27 km? The cargo ship needed support from the Coast Guard icebreaker to get through the ice. Since, technically, the contract with NSF did not cease until the ship left the ice, NSF could stop us from going on the ship. At which point NSF offered to fly us from McMurdo for US$50,000 each.
How did you finally arrange to leave the ice?
We left because of another wonderful New Zealand personality called Rodney Russ from Heritage Expeditions. He let us aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy to help us out after Scott base helped us contact ships in the area. I can tell you there were two big smiles when McMurdo called the ship the next day to confirm that we were on board.
What was your visual impression of McMurdo Station?
McMurdo looks like an oil refinery. And it is too big, with too much destroyed equipment. There were about seventy destroyed cars down by the harbor! But I guess it does its job.
Did you talk to any workers? Did you get invited to any parties?
We got a lot of invitations to parties and we visited the base and spoke to people. We also were invited to speak about our trip to the people at McMurdo. But it was stopped because, as you know, we weren't supposed to talk to you guys, nor enter any of your buildings.
During 2000-01, McMurdo was crawling with gorgeous women. Did you get any action in McMurdo?
I met a lot of nice women, especially one whom I afterwards lost the e-mail address of. I think she was from Seattle...maybe I can find that name...I need to find that name! Some guy said I got "the snow wing". I thanked him without knowing what it meant.
Outside of Antarctica, has your status as an Antarctic explorer ever been the obvious factor in tilting female attentions toward the horizontal?
We could probably use our story when we meet girls, but that is not in my nor Rolf's nature.
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Eirik and Rolf are looking for a publisher for the English-language version of their Trans-Antarctic account.
The Norwegian-language version of the book can be ordered from Eirik for US$38 (plus shipping costs)
Contact: esonne(AT)student(DOT)umb(DOT)no