Posted by Gordon (the other one) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 at 9:53AM :
In Reply to: Gordon, Any Idea how they posted by Paul(in NY) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 at 7:45AM :
I'll try to keep it to the two minute version...
First, the 'cat was towing a big train of trailers at the back, several tons, so that probably saved it going down in that situation.
They had three other big Sno-Cats and several M29 Weasels available, so they drove two 'Cats round in front of it, anchored the back with two Weasels, dug alminium bridging sections in underneath, and just hauled it out. I have some terrible photocopied images somewhere but nothing worth distrubuting. They didn't discover it was still in gear till they got it back to solid ground, which makes the extra-low 'Granny' gear in the five speed transmissions I mentioned earlier a good investment.
Antarctica is basically a big island, with mountains and glaciers running off all round. To get 'up' onto the central plateau and 'down' the other side they had to use glaciers extensively on the climb and descent, and it was on those glaciers (mostly) that the crevasses caused so much trouble.
... and to round up for this year, the link shows US use of Tuckers down there too, and I need to get at least one Burma-Shave mention in as well. Now if only I can find a decent link between Thompson sub-machine guns and Dodges life would be complete.
Happy New year from Scotland where we are counting down....