Member's Expeditions

2009 Expeditions

In June 2009, John Pollack FI'06 and Jim Delgado FI'97 led a team from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) to document and map the recently discovered wreck of the A. J. Goddard. This vessel has the distinction of being the only known example of the small ships carried in pieces over the passes near Skagway, and assembled on the shore of Lake Bennett in the headwaters of the Yukon River. The Goddard is a tiny stern wheeler was lost in a fall storm in 1901. It remained undetected for 107 years before it was relocated by the INA. There is no gold on board but the ship contains valuable information as to how the crew lived and survived on a small, working-class steamboat in the wilderness. This project and related work was supported by both NGS/Waitt and PROMARE grants as well as the Yukon Government and the INA.

Upcoming projects include a fall 2009 trip to Borneo to map one of the largest cave passages in the world at Deer Cave, and in 2010, the annual INA expedition to the Yukon to do further work at the Goddard site, and continue to document the construction methods used to build the late 19th century stern wheelers of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Kevin Hall FI'04 - I was fortunate enough to be able to return, 35 years later, to where my Southern hemisphere research began - sub-Antarctic Marion Island - as a guest of the South African Antarctic Programme and the University of Pretoria. This was a valuable undertaking as the ice cap that covered the top of the island, when I spent nearly three years there, had now completely disappeared. This, coupled with helicopter support and field huts (neither of which existed 35 years ago) facilitated getting my geriatric body to a host of exciting new sites! The ironic outcome was that we were able to prove an hypothesis I generated 'back then' (regarding glacial isostatic rebound initiating volcanism)to be wrong (at least for Marion Island) at a time when a new paper suggested the value of that idea for Iceland! We were able to re-think the glacial reconstruction of the island (now submitted to Antarctic Science) and this, in turn, fitted well with some recent botanical/entomological genetic studies that identified some possible refugia during the glacial maximum. Studies of  (my passion) rock weathering were also initiated and it is anticipated studies will continue in 2011. It was great to be able to work with a former doctoral student of mine (now a Professor at the University of Pretoria)  and a number of his graduate students - who were all fitter in both mind and body. Tough at times in the upper areas where winds are very strong and there is extensive rime ice - so everything (including us) is soon coated in a thick rime layer. But, it was all great fun and we managed to do a lot of new research - what exploring is all about for me.

Robert Tymstra FI'94 - Film maker and Ornithologist Robert Tymstra FI'94, along with Guy Bennet and Mikhail Belikov, did a scouting trip by sail in September in James Bay in prep for a longer exploration next summer to trace Henry Hudson's disappearance after his crew mutinied.  Spurring their exploration is bush and Arctic pilot Ron Craven's ME'91 research in the sixties.  Ron discovered a significant oral tradition around the Bay speaking of  Hudson  and some of the castaways surviving for a year, perhaps two, with native assistance before being massacred at a portage while trying to make their way to Quebec.

Geoff Green, FI'03 - The SOI-IPY Antarctic University Expedition for 2009 is off! This project is scheduled from February 12-28, 2009 and is outlined as follows:

"Welcome and thank you for your interest in the International Polar Year (IPY) Antarctic University Expedition 2009 ship-based field course.

This expedition provides a wonderful opportunity to experience one of the most exceptional places on Earth. We will use an interdisciplinary approach to examine the uniqueness of the Antarctic continent, its political, scientific and exploration history.

Once in Antarctic waters, all students will make frequent field trips to the Antarctic mainland via Zodiac inflatables from the main ship. These landings will be supplemented by lectures and lab exercises in dedicated space aboard our expedition vessel, the M/V Ushuaia.

The IPY Antarctic University Expedition 2009 has been endorsed by the IPY Joint Committee as a prominent and valued component of the IPY program. A key component of the Students on Ice – International Polar Year Youth Expeditions series, it represents one of the largest Education and Outreach initiatives in the World for the International Polar Year 2007-2009. The expedition will have approximately 70 participating University students, and 19 University faculty, scientists, experts, and educators. Undergraduate and graduate students from around the world and from any University can apply to participate."

To follow the logbooks, please go to www.studentsonice.com or www.uantarctic.org.

2008 Expeditions

Samuel Stime - Amazon Watershed Contamination Study (pdf)

Joseph Frey, Stefan Harzen, Barbara Brunnick - 2008 International Coral Reef Initiative: First Ever Precise Digital Corral Reef Mapping In The Bahamas And Wider Caribbean, August 2008

Purpose/Objectives and plan of expedition (Particularly, what new information or data do you plan to acquire which will increase mankind’s knowledge in this area).
The proposed Flag Expedition to Grand Bahama and Little Bahama Bank in the Bahamas is part of a world-wide effort to focus attention on coral reefs and supporting ecosystems. The objectives of the expedition are to create a highly accurate map of the coral reef located within Petersen’s Caye National Park, which is situated about 2.2 miles north of Grand Lucayan Waterway and a little bit more than ½ mile off the southern shore of Grand Bahama (26° 33’ 7.61”N; 78° 31’ 22.42”W). The core area of the reef comprises about ¼ square mile, while the entire reef complex south-west of the Cay is approximately 1 square mile in size. This is going to be the first time that a highly precise digital map (with an accuracy of 1m or less) of a reef is produced in the Bahamas and wider Caribbean.
Maps have played an important part in human history. Two of the expedition members (Brunnick and Harzen) have developed a method to delineate specific habitats and even individual organisms (as long as they are stationary) by integrating aerial photography, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Global Information Systems (GIS) with scientific field surveys. While the technology itself is not new and has been used by civil engineers and land surveyors, its use in gathering baseline data and conservation biology is very recent.
The habitat maps will surely change the world as we see it. Instead of showing a coral reef, a sea grass bed or a wetland, we can graphically document the diversity of the coral reef, the varying densities of the sea grass beds and can discern mangrove swamps from herbatious marshes and areas of variable saturation. Additionally, we are finally able to determine the spatial expansion of the individual components of an ecosystem with an accuracy never before possible.
The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) has designated 2008 as the International Year of the Reef. Focusing the spot light on coral reefs and their associated ecosystems, like mangroves and sea grasses, is expected to further a greater appreciation of their ecological, economic, social and cultural value, a better understanding of the critical threats as well as help generate both practical and innovative solutions to ensure their preservation, restoration and long-time conservation.
Many organizations in numerous countries around the world are holding events, publishing articles and conducting scientific surveys throughout 2008. Currently our planned expedition is the only major scheduled effort to explore the diversity and health of coral reefs in the northern part of the Bahamian Archipelago.

John Pollack

John Pollack (FI'06) is leading two expeditions in 2008 at opposite ends of the globe. In February, a National Geographic sponsored expedition will map and photograph the great cave on the Xe Bang Fai river in Laos. Eight expert North American cave cartographers and photographers will team up with six Lao nationals. They will map and photograph this large river cave in the relatively safe dry season, and record its history of use by the local villagers. The cave is immense, with passages exceeding 300' in width in many areas. A 2005 visit was reported in the summer 2007 issue of The Explorers Journal.

In June, he returns to the Yukon River, to lead the annual Yukon River Survey for the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The 2008 program will conduct a magnetometer search for 35 ± vessels lost in the Thirty Mile section and scan 160 miles of river between Lower Laberge and Carcross. Additionally the small team of archaeologists and volunteers, will map the mid-channel wreck of the 210' sternwheeler Klondike, and search for the wreck of the infamous sternwheeler Columbian, which exploded and burned in 1906. The 2007 field work was reported in the Nov/Dec issue of ARCHAEOLOGY magazine.

Jason Schoonover - In Search of the Vanishing Sri Lankan Devil Dance II, Flag Expedition 33, January 4-16, 2008

Purpose: To determine how the 2,500-year-old exorcist Devil Dance healing belief system, in serious decline in recent decades due to globalization, fared following the devastating tsunami of Boxing Day, 2007, which threatened to obliterate it.

Background:

On eight previous expeditions beginning in 1978 I studied this dramatic exorcist healing belief system, and as an ethnologist, collected, catalogued and placed major documented collections with the Smithsonian Institution, Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology (five assignments), Canada’s Museum of Civilization, The Sankokan in Tenri Nara Japan and lesser collections in the Museum fur Volkenkunde, Hamburg. A related Buddhist collection was also placed with the National Museum of Finland.

My article “In Search of the Vanishing Sri Lankan Devil Dance” appeared in the fall 2004 issue of The Explorers Journal and in the May-June issue of Canada’s national Outpost magazine. Briefly: it outlined the steady—and in very recent years, the rapidly accelerating—decline of devil dancing from the time it encompassed the entire island over 2,000 years ago, to the situation in 2001 and 2002 (this investigation after a break of approximately fifteen years actually took two expeditions, which I folded together into the article) where it was largely reduced to a narrow band along the very southern coastline between Galle (the major city in the south) and Yala National Park. The numbers involved in the cult were a fraction of what they were twenty-five years earlier when I first came to Sri Lanka. I concluded the article by writing: “However, six Devil Dances found in eight days of active searching indicates the devils are still alive and well in their traditional, Deep South haunt. They haven’t been completely steam-rolled—just bulldozed into a corner where, in the coming decades, they will make their last stand.”

Then the tsunami of December 26, 2004, struck—and slammed into this very coastline where this very fragile cult was hanging on by a thread. Many of its adherents were living directly along the coast—often within a half mile—and surely would have been hit.

It took over two anxious months to learn of the condition of my friends and contacts due to the breakdown in communications. Finally, it took Arthur Clarke, a friend from Colombo, who asked his people at Seafari Diving Shop in Hikkaduwa to determine the well being of my mentor Ari (R. Ariyasiri) in that seaside town, my traditional HQ. I was then able to learn that all my other friends and contacts had miraculously survived, though all had suffered damage. Susan Hattori, my companion, and I raised the modest sum of $2610.00, partially though the Canadian Chapter, to help in their plight.

With impatience, I remained away three full years, believing this would be sufficient time for the belief system to stabilize—if there was a belief system left to do so. Thus the aptly named title of this expedition: “In Search of the Vanishing Sri Lankan Devil Dance II”

Summary field report:

My worst fears—that the belief system was finished—were exaggerated. . . but not by much.

All five yakkaduras, four drummers and nine dancers I interviewed reported that none had a single dance for the first year after the tsunami. Four of the yakkaduras reported the loss and/or destruction of their masks, costumes and ceremonial paraphernalia; the fifth was inland. This combination caused many to abandon the practice and to seek employment elsewhere; indeed, one famous yakkadura from Hikkaduwa, Peadasa, opened a tiny produce shop. Often our searches came up dry; several others had passed on due to age and natural causes; longevity isn’t enjoyed to the same length there as in the West. They weren’t being replaced.

Since that initial bleak year, Devil Dancing recovered somewhat for those who hung on and appears to have reached a plateau, albeit a very low one. Today yakkaduras, drummers and dancers unanimously and independently report 1-2 a month compared to 5-6 immediately previous to the tsunami. The number of yakkaduras around Matara especially have been drastically reduced (to no surprise: previously 5-6 were sharing only 12-15 dances monthly). One of the major problems in field research is gathering credible, accurate information: why these same yakkaduras report have had 5-6 dances per month previous to the disaster when it was closer to 2-3 is perhaps a reflection of recalling “the good old days” which weren’t really all that good.) That I learned of only two dances while in the field this season confirms that they, indeed, are way down, although I did find discarded ritual material at two sites, one fresh.

The minimum age of all the yakkaduras is in the mid-forties (most are into their fifties), and while two had (highly talented!) sons eager to carry on the “family business” it’s not going to prove economically viable. Most had grown sons who had already moved on to other fields, often to Colombo seeking employment. These existing yakkaduras have perhaps twenty years left of active service and few are being replaced.

Speeding the bulldozer that is obliterating Devil Dancing is, paradoxically, a mini-boom caused by international largesse due to the tsunami. Millions in infrastructure dollars have flooded into the coastal area from generous nations: for a brand new, state-of-the-art Galle Road running from Colombo all the way around to Yala National Park in the southeast (Japanese) and other transportation—bridges and particularly to repair the terribly damaged railway tracks and to replace engines and cars with modern rolling stock. Modern communications have been established. A huge modern sports facility including a cricket field has been erected on the central Galle plaza—the site of buses rolling in flooding water with men atop played over and over on international television at the time. Even playgrounds have been erected along Galle Road in towns along the coast. Towns all along the coast have a fresh, modern, upmarket look to them—as do the people.

International generosity reached down to the individual level: everyone who lost a home to the tsunami has been given a brand new house in track communities built well back of the coast (which still displays devastation, particularly in the ten kilometers between Hikkaduwa and Ambalangoda where the train was hit and over a thousand perished; that train, looking like a tin can kicked and stomped on by a giant, sits at a siding in Hikkaduwa). One track community of 160 homes put up by the mainland Chinese was furnished down to television sets! Here we visited yakkadura and dancer Somasiri, whose original simple home on the coast was damaged, and who was one of the beneficiaries of our modest aid, as well as that of the Chinese. He’s living in unimagined, to him, luxury, although his means of support are extremely thin due dances being way down.

This flood of money for housing came with an equally large flood of international AID workers, NGOs and international government representatives—all bringing their attractive foreign lifestyles with them. Whereas ten years ago, a sarong and sandals on men was standard issue, today it is rarely seen in Galle. In their place are blue jeans or slacks, shoes and baseball caps turned backwards (causing the newly fashion conscious to squint even more here in the tropics than their equally shortsighted mentors do in the West). The latest craze and status symbol in Asia—cell phones—are ubiquitous.

Such is the inflow of money that the tsunami has become known as the “Golden Water” and a saying I heard repeatedly (in hushed, embarrassed tones) was: “It made the rich, poor, and the poor, rich." And that was my observation. It was immensely heartening, of course, from a personal point of view—seeing our former destitute friends recovered so well and being so prosperous for the first time—but those televisions, cell phones and Western values are rapidly accelerating the demise of the cult.

The bulldozer is clanking dangerously close.

2005 -2007 (A partial list of Canadian Chapter and International members expeditions)

Dr. Otto Christian

On October 2nd, 2007 at 0800 local Tibet time, Eric, my 19 year old brother, and I submitted Cho Oyu 8201m, and watched the sun rise over Everest. We climbed with oxygen from camp 3 at 7400m to the summit.
Our team spent 5 weeks on the mountain. Unfortunately, this year saw unseasonably poor weather and many of the large guided expeditions were forced to leave. We had the luxury of time and our patience was rewarded. We are investigating the summit data, but we suspect Eric may be one of the youngest persons to have summitted Cho Oyu. I treated several cases of severe high altitude pulmonary edema that required maximum medical therapy and Gamov bag treatment. Both were evacuated from the mountain. Unfortunately, one of our team members also suffered 4th degree frostbite i.e. all fingers black.

Prof. Hans Larsson - 2006 Canadian High Arctic

We'll be flying out of Resolute. PCSP uses Ken Borek Air for their twin otter flights and another company (I think the name is HTL) for helicopter moves. We'll be using twin otters to fly to our base camps and then helicopters to fly camp in the region for prospecting. On Ellesmere we'll beworking at Strathcona Fiord helping a mammal palaeontologist pick axe a lot of overburden to continue her sight. We'll be on the Sabine Peninsula on Melville Island. Cameron Island will start at Success Point but I've applied  for 2 full days of chopter time to bring me and one of my students on a 48 hour continuous prospecting tour over as much of the northern half of the island as we can. Twin otters can't land on the island because it's too soft now so I'm forced to limit prospecting there by chopper hops.

• 2005 - Cretaceous rocks in southern Alberta (August)
• 2006 - Cretaceous rocks in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan (June), Triassic and Jurassic rocks on Melville and Cameron Islands (July), Pleistocene rocks on Ellesmere Island (July)
• 2007 - someplace in the Canadian High Arctic (July), Cretacous rocks in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan (August)

Prof. Michael Brookfield - 2006

I will be joining a trek around Mt Kailas in Tibet from western Nepal
this summer to collect samples for analysis of the early sandstone/gravel
debris from the rising Himalaya - but this is a commercail trek (its the
chepaest way of doing it), as well as possibly visiting Ladakh, India, which
you can do by youself with local buses. I will also, less probably be
studying the Permain/Triassic boundary section in Kashmir with students from
Chandigarh University, Punjab on the way to Ladakh(I was visiting Professor
in 1984 and have kept in contact). Lastly I intend doing a trek, probably by
myself, to Lake Sarez in the central Pamir (Tajikistan) to study the general
geology as well as investigating the possible failure of the landslide dam
which holds it back. All these trips are done at minimal cost using local
buses, etc. staying with locals in their huts, yurts, etc. I have found out
over many years that, except in highly controlled despotisms, and often not
even in them (I collected in Tajikistan during the Soviet era, and in
Xinjiang in the mid 1990's) you can do what you like without permission as
long as no official has to actually to make a decision (or get any payment).
And so everything is very cheap (without a long and expensive logistical
trail). Of course you take the chance of being arrested!

Kate Harris - 2006

To first provide you with some background, this summer I'm launching on a long-distance cycling expedition to retrace the travels of Marco Polo along ancient Silk Road trading routes in northwestern China and Central Asia. For over four months (May-August 2006), I and three other young explorers (two other Canadians and an american) will be cycling nomads traveling in Marco Polo's shadow. Although we are trading camels for bikes on this Cycling Silk expedition, the objectives of our journey – to explore unfamiliar landscapes, encounter new cultures, and experience different modes of life – and the challenges faced along route will be similar to those of Polo's journey. We believe the truth and reality of a place is revealed on dusty, winding trails, in remote communities, inside yurts shadowed by unnamed mountains. Those are worlds worth exploring, and worlds best explored from the vantage of a bicycle.

As we explore a region whose landscapes and inhabitants were first described by Polo in the thirteenth century, we will study his travel narrative and compare his experience to ours. How has this region of the globe changed in the centuries spanning our journeys? How closely do Polo's accounts of Xinjiang's religions, customs, ceremonies, and ways of life reflect the modern reality? From the Taklamakan desert to Kashgar and Mount Muztaghata to Hotan, we will be following a similar route in space but a vastly different route in time. In essence, the Cycling Silk expedition will be a study in comparative exploration where we hope to gain perspective on the present by pedaling into the past.

Although Cycling Silk promises to be a grand adventure in research and exploration, we are transforming the expedition into an even more meaningful endeavor by fundraising for the Kham Aid Foundation (www.khamaid.org), a non-profit organization with a focus on educating children in rural areas of China. As students ourselves, we fully appreciate the empowering force of education, and we are committed to doing all we can to provide the same basic schooling opportunities we have been so fortunate to receive to other young people. We are also sharing this experience with a much broader audience through our website, www.cyclingsilk.com, and through the production of a video documentary.

Rob Tymstra - 2006

2006: Winter. Exploring the bayous of Arkansas and Louisiana in search of the near-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

Summer: Planning an expedition to the Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay, departing by freighter canoe from Chisasibi, James Bay, to conduct an ornithological survey.

Warren Macdonald - 2006

Warren is headed to Mount Kenya in August, he'll be climbing to the summit and taking movie footage.

Ben Kozel - 2006

I have recently returned from a two-month reconnaissance of West Africa. My interest lies with the various Berber peoples of the Sahara region, and their changing relationship with the landscape, especially in light of the fact that 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was a fertile savannah home to a large sedentary population. The chief aims of my visit were to investigate the camel trekking potential of the Aïr Mountains of Northern Niger, to assess the security situation in southern Algeria, and to generally gain a firsthand appreciation of the logistical challenges associated with launching any such undertakings in this part of the world. I am therefore hopeful of spending a very productive 6 six-month period trekking by foot, camel and donkey through several predominantly Berber regions of Algeria, beginning in 2007.

Tim Jarvis - 2006
Tim is negotiating with the Australian Antarctic Division to secure a berth aboard the French government ice breaker L'Astrolabe for the 'Mawson Beyond Human Limits' expedition team scheduled for summer 2006/07. It will retrace Mawson's Far Eastern sledging party journey using the same clothing and equipment, pulling the same weight of sled and eating the same calories as he and Mertz had available to them. It is being filmed for ABC and UK Channel 4.

Lynn Danaher - 2006

Lynn Danaher spoke at the 2005 British Columbia Explorers Club Symposium about archaeological research on Raivavae in the South Pacific.

This expedition is now underway and there are opportunities for volunteers. Lynn sends the information below and should you be interested in participating contact Lynn directly at: islandlynx@aol.com

UPDATE: The Raivavae Project, Austral Islands, French Polynesia, Volunteer Opportunity

Raivavae is a beautiful high island surrounded by coral reefs. The environment is as pristine as any in Polynesia. There are less than 1,000 inhabitants and virtually no development. Explorers Club member
Edmundo Edwards spent 3 years in the late 80's surveying the island and found over 600 archaeological sites. However, the area has not had any excavations since Thor Heyerdahl's research in 1956. The 2006
expedition promises to be rich in significant finds and provide an important window into the unknown past of this remote island.

Lynn Danaher of the Explorers Club reports that her application to The Explorers Club for a "Flag Expedition" has been granted. Also Lynn applied to The National Geographic Society on behalf of Edmundo Edwards for a Expedition Council Grant for which preliminary approval has been received.

The expedition team will be occupying the only guest houses on the island. The field season is May-July. A limited number of volunteers are being accepted for 2 week intervals: May 31-June 14, June 14-June 28, June 28-July 12. Because of the high costs associated with doing any field work in French Polynesia each person is asked to contribute $3,920US for 14 days, plus airfare, to cover meals, housing and on island transportation. It is possible that the amount in part is tax deductible. This contribution also helps to cover the high costs of the
field work, continuing research and analysis of the findings. Each group is limited to 10 persons. If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering please email Lynn at islandlynx@aol.com .
Further information at: www.rapa-nui.org

Lynn Danaher
Director, Research Funding
Eastern Pacific Research Foundation
Friday Harbor, WA
360-378-6692
email: islandlynx@aol.com

Greg Deyermenijan  2006 - 2008

As far as field sciences to be employed on the 2006 Paititi Expedition: Beyond the Último Punto and the farthest reach of the Incas, it's "exploration archaeology." It's finding previously unknown/undocumented sites, and documenting their existence and location and appearance. The 2007/2008 project that i hope to be doing will entail not only a further exploration of the unexplored reaches of the Meseta de pantiacolla and beyond, to follow the unmapped Incan road of stone we've been following, finally to its terminus, but, as well, over the course of a number of expeditions, to thoroughly document, film, and survey ALL the sites we've found over the jungle covered mountains of Mameria, Callanga, Toporake, and Pantiacolla over the past 21 years.

Lawrence Millman does a combination of things, primarily traveling with native Cree or Inuit, to document ancient culture there in the Canadian far north, as well as to answer the question posed by the disappearance of Henry Hudson. Rex Passion/Richard Gantt does naturalist work with elephant seals, and/or with great white sharks; petroglyph documentation on Mona Island in Puerto Rico or off the Pacific coast of Mexico; or investigation into the stone ruins and petroglyphs of the USA southwest.

http://explorers.org/expeditions/152deyermenjian2004/152deyermenjian2004.pdf

Nat Rutter  2006 - 2007

Hope to return to Mongolia for past climate change research in Sept.-Oct. 2006 and 2007.

Thomas Reimchen 2006 - 2007

• April 2006: Great Barrier Reef- reef inventories
• August 2006: Haida Gwaii/mid BC coast - stickleback collections in islated lakes; tree coring for nitrogen isotope signatures
• April 2007: near Fiji -reef inventories
• August 2007: Haida Gwaii/mid-BC coast - stickleback colelctions in isolated lakes; tree coring for nitrogen isotope signatures

Hendrik Poinar  2006 - 2007

• 2007 - Mylodon cave is a massive cave with extinct sloth, horse and ancient native americans in Southern Chile, first discoved by Darwin, has had intermittent excavations since then but poor and nothing properly catalogued except once in late 1800s. Needs works badly.
• 2006 - Siberia, same old, digging up mammoths and coring sediments for analysis.
• 2006 - Wrangel island or Vrangelis if you look far north eastern in the arctic ocean, you should see a small island at the end of Siberia and not to far from Alaska. This is the last place mammoths lived untill all went extinct, they survived up to 2000 years ago so when the Romans were in Rome, Mammoths were still grazing in Wrangel.

Kevin Hall  2005 - 2007

• Nov - Dec 2005 the Antarctic (Terra Nova Bay with the Italian National Program)
• 2006: anticipating being in the high Andes of Argentina/Chile working on permafrost and periglacial landforms
• 2007: NE Svalbard as part of the IPY (I am leader of a Swedish IPY project on permafrost/periglacial process and landforms in that area (Kinnvika)), andback in South Africa for more work on San rock art in theDrakensberg mountains.

Samantha Smith  2006 - 2007

I plan to be conducting field research at two sites during 2006-2007:

• 1. in the Cariboo Plateau, British Columbia (studying saline lakes)
• 2. in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (using cave diving to access submerged cave sites and to study water chemistry and microbiology - this is a continuation of my PhD research)
  

Tim Leslie  2006

From Jan uary to March 2006 I'll be involved with a "satellite information" proving exercise we will be flying utilizing the Convair 580. Right now a W-band radar is being installed on the side of the aircraft (it is about the size and shape of a canoe with all the related aerodynamic and structural issues you would expect when mounting a canoe on the side of a fast flying aircraft). Basically what we will be doing is flying around at low level and confirming what the satellites are saying is happening from above (especially as it applies to cloud structure and the like).

Beyond this project we continue to do microgravity flying, runway friction testing, fly-by-wire testing, and test pilot school training.

Jim Palardy  2006

• 1) January 2006 - Galapagos Islands - Upwelling and substrate orientation
  allow coexistence of the nonsymbiotic coral Tubastraea coccinea in the
  Galapagos Islands
• 2) Ongoing - Flow as a predictor of species richness in subtidal
  communities. Research areas: Kodiak Island, Alaska, Gulf of Maine, Vancouver
  Island, South Australia?
• 3) July - The relationship between regional and local species diversity in
  marine benthic communitites - Kodiak Island, Alaska.
• 4) Ongoing - Effects of a warming world on the ecosystem function of coastal
  New England salt marshes. Location - Connecticut to Maine.

Ryan Kobrick 2006

I am helping lead a expedition of an all Canadian crew of a different nature. We are heading to Utah to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) where we will be involved in a two week mission, training our crew on space operations for living and working on Mars. This is one of the few locations in the world that is used as a simulation or analogue and is run by the Mars Society. This particular mission is being conducted by the Canadian Mars Society (MSC) and is named Expedition Beta (ExBeta). It's not as intense as Biosphere 2 but many research results have come in terms of mission operations and numerous NASA robotic testing has been conducted. We will be having media days on Feb 18-20, which will include a camera crew from Spain and one from Belguim. The Toronto Star might also be coming for a few days to report on the activities. Our rotation starts on Feb. 11 and can daily reports and photos can be monitored under MDRS Daily Dispatches at: http://www.marssociety.org/mdrs/

I do knot have a media guide but we do have a sponsorship package. Is there any way to send this out to the Canadian EC Members? We are seeking financial support and specific in-kind donations.

The sponsorship package can be found at:
http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/expedition-mars.org/ExpeditionBeta/ExBeta%20Sponsorship%20Kit.pdf

Main MSC and Expedition webpage: http://expedition-mars.org/

Any assistance would be appreciated and I just thought you should know about this anyway.

Greater Piedmont Chapter (South Carolina) 2005 - 2006

B1. Rosebank/Farenya Project.
Warner M. Montgomery is leading an expedition (hopefully, a flag expedition) to Guinea, West Africa, in January 2006 to conduct an archaeological survey in the village of Farenya. This is Phase II of the Rosebank/Farenya Project which is exploring the slave trade connection between Farenya and Rosebank Plantation in Charleston, SC, between 1790 and 1860. The Lightburn family operated a slave factory in Farenya, a rice plantation in Charleston, a shipping fleet in Savannah, and a slave trading business in Nassau, The Bahamas. Phase I was the archaelogical survey of Rosebank Plantation. Phase III will be the excavation at Rosebank Plantation. Phase IV will be the excavation at Farenya Village. Phase V will be the publication of the Slave Trade Connection between Farenya, Guinea, and Charleston, SC during the period between the American Revolution and the American Civil War.

B2. Palmetto Trail Expedition.
The Greater Piedmont Chapter has set an expeditionary goal of hiking the 425-mile Palmetto Trail in SC from the mountains to the sea. The first segment will be attempted October 15. It is anticipated the expedition will take 2-3 years with chapter individuals and teams completing all segments of the trail.

B3. The B-25 Rescue Project.
Sixty-two years after plunging into Lake Murray, one of the last remaining Army Air Corps war planes has been rescued from 100 feet beneath the lake’s surface starting on Saturday, September 10, 2005.

According to the expedition’s leader, Dr. Robert Seigler, the retrieval of the now rare B–25C bomber took several days as the divers were working on mixed gases, at depth, to attach special straps on the aircraft. The technical team is being led by internationally–known aviation salver, Gary Larkins, who expects the entire operation (which includes the spray–down and disassembly of the aircraft) to take about two weeks. Larkins disassembled, rigged, and raised a P–38 Lightning from beneath 270 feet of a Greenland ice cap several years ago. He is regarded as the premier salver of historic airplanes, with some 60 to his credit worldwide.

Seigler, who has written a history of the Lake Murray B–25s for Warbirds International, has spent two decades researching, locating, videotaping, and securing sidescan radar images of the aircraft. Divers have been quietly examining and documenting the airplane for the past several years in preparation for the retrieval.
The final day of the airplane is well–known. After flying out of the Columbia Army Air Base on April 4, 1943, the now–rare B–25C Bomber crashed and sank in the man–made lake during a skip–bombing training mission. The military crew escaped the aircraft, which had lost power, and brought it to rest upright, with damage to only the right engine. The crew survived and were rescued.The U.S. Army Air Corps was unable to salvage the aircraft during WWII because of water depth. It was finally located in 1990, virtually intact, under silt.

During the past decade, Robert S. Seigler, M.D., head of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Greenville Hospital System, and John Adams Hodge, an aviation and environmental attorney at Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. in Columbia, have dedicated time, energy, and resources to the effort. William “Bill” Vartorella, Ph.D. of Camden has helped guide the project. His firm, Craig and Vartorella, Inc. has been involved in exotic projects worldwide in the fields of archaeology, motor sports, and history.

The Seigler–Hodge–Vartorella team has continuously sought support in SC and the region from philanthropic foundations, state legislators, museum and airport officials, and corporations as they searched for a permanent site to house the vintage plane. However, no SC venues were prepared to preserve such an aircraft in an indoor setting that met the need for painstaking restoration and ongoing public interpretation.The project has received recognition by The Explorers Club and is designated as an Explorers Flag Expedition. The Explorers Club flag will be flown at the site. Seigler, Hodge, and Vartorella are members of the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club. Vartorella is a past chair of the club.

With a commitment to keeping the airplane in the South, Seigler’s nonprofit Lake Murray B–25 Rescue Project (501–c–3) has found an appropriate home for the airplane at the the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama. There, the plane will be restored, conserved, and displayed in its public museum. Hodge, an attorney, registered geologist, and airline pilot, and Seigler and Bill Vartorella have collaborated with SCE&G, the SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, the US military, historians, and numerous others to prepare for the final stages of this quest. The upcoming retrieval has not been announced previously due to curiosity–seekers who might disturb the plane?s safe resting area. The heroism of the pilot, who is deceased, prevented the aircraft’s loss of life. One of the crewmen who escaped is still alive and lives on the West Coast. Due to his health, he may not be able to attend; however, his family may send a representative.

Hodge said, “This is about preserving our history and heritage. The aircraft is WWII authentic as it has only been seen by a handful of people since it sank more than 60 years ago. It is in incredibly good shape. Dr. Seigler has expended countless hours and dollars to preserve our history and I hope South Carolinians will assist him in this noble project.”

According to Vartorella, donations and in–kind contributions to help defray the estimated retrieval costs of $150,000 are appreciated. “We’ve had some excellent past support from the Arcadia Foundation and companies such as Boozer Lumber have stepped up recently, as well as anonymous individual donors,” he said. “This project is likely to get global coverage and this is an excellent opportunity for companies and individuals to let the world know that SC is committed to its heritage and, frankly, is a great place to live and do business.”

For additional information, contact the nonprofit Lake Murray B–25 Rescue Project, 106 Highland Drive, Greenville, SC 29605 or Bill Vartorella at (803) 432–4353.

B4. The raising of the Hunley.
Bruce Rippeteau, former chapter chair and former SC State Archaeologist, was directly involved in the exploration and raising of the Civil War Confederate Submarine Hunley. The sub is now in Charleston being restored.

James Delgado  2005 - 2006

December 2005: Archaeological field expedition to Panama with NOAA, US National Park Service and US Navy to assess corrosion and determine preservation plan for 1865 submarine Explorer.

2006, various dates: Filming season six of the Sea Hunters for National Geographic International and History Television. Episode locations and topics TBD.

Chris Bray - 2005

I'm 22, and part of the Australian chapter of the explorers club. A mate and I embarked on a flag expedition into the Canadian Arctic. It was a world-first, 2-man, unsupported, 58-day expedition across largely unexplored Victoria Island - the 9th largest island on the planet, above Canada, part of your NWT & Nunavut.

Details of the expedition are at www.1000HourDay.com

Michael Brookfield  2005

I will be joining a German expedition to the Libyan desert, Gebel Uweinat, Gilf Kebir, etc. (where the cave of the swimmers is) in December to study the relationship of increasing aridity (sand dunes are my speciality) to the changes shown by engravings and paintings.

Robert Bateman  2005

• India: West Rajhastan, Rann of Kutch (Demoiselle Cranes and Wild Ass), along the Pakistan border to Jaiselmer, Keechan (6-8000 Demoiselle Cranes and Blue bull, Bar-headed Geese), to visit the Bishnoi (Vishnoi) in Khejerli (east of Jodpur).
• Bhutan: mainly the Phobjika Valley for the Black-necked Cranes in their wintering grounds.

Geoff Green  2005

Hello from Santiago, Chile. I am on my way to the Falklands to meet up with the SEDNA. Then I am leading her to South Georgia for a 6 week film expedition for the Nature of Things. You can follow the journey at www.sedna.tv.

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2004 Expeditions

Gordon Nelson  2004

Presentation of my Assessment of  Planning for the Carpathian Ecoregion in Slovakia, November 2004, followed by a 10-day trip to the eastern Carpathians and the Slovakia/Ukraine border region and to the Karst terrain along the Slovakia-Hungary borders to experience these areas and study protected area planning arrangements.

Emily Schindler and Laurie Dexter

• February & March: Neutralist/Zodiac Driver in Antarctica on the M/V Polar Star
• Mid-April to mid-May: Climb Mt. Blanc and Mt. Kilimanjaro with Laurie Dexter
• Mid-May to mid-June: Neutralist/Zodiac Driver around the coasts of England, Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Svalbard on the M/V Polar Star
• Mid-August to early Oct: Neutralist/Zodiac Driver for Svalbard circumnavigation, North-East Greenland, South Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland on the M/V Polar Star
• Dec: Mountain climbing in Argentina

James Delgado

Jim continues to host the National Geographic International Television series "The Sea Hunters," now in its fourth season and showing in 172 international jurisdictions to an audience of 40 million people. Based on the premise of "true adventures with famous shipwrecks," the show features dives around the world to locate or study shipwrecks. Past episodes have included the team's work to find the wreck of Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic's survivors, Mary Celeste, the infamous "ghost ship" found sailing alone, without a soul aboard, in the Atlantic in 1872, and dives with Japanese archaeologists on the lost fleet from Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan in 1281. This season's shows include a search for Andrea Gail, the fishing boat made famous in "The Perfect Storm," the German WWI raider Dresden, sunk in combat at Chile's isla Robinson Crusoe in 1914, the US Navy fleet oiler USS Mississinewa, the first ship sunk by a Japanese one-man suicide submarine in WWII, the US Navy dirigibles USS Akron and USS Macon, and Fox, the Arctic exploration ship sent by Lady Jane Franklin into the Northwest Passage in 1857-1859 to discover any traces or survivors from her husband's doomed expedition of 1845. Upcoming episodes (and expeditions) include an 1865 submarine wreck in Panama, a circa 1500 wreck in Vietnam, Esmerelda, flagship of Chile's navy, sunk in combat in 1879 by an ironclad monitor, a site suggested by some to be the wreck of the fur trading ship Tonquin, sunk in a violent altercation natives on BC's coast in 1811, and Bonhomme Richard, the ship of American Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones.

Eric S. Margolis

Major Explorations:

• Siachen and Baltoro Glaciers - Karakorams
• Northern Gilgit and Baltistan - Karakorams
• Waziristan - Kafir Kalash tribes - Hindu Kush
• Wakhan Corridor - Afghanistan
• Abkhazia - Caucasus
• Korean Peninsula - width of DMZ and under
• Uzbekistan- Khiva oasis region
• Burma - southern Shan state
• Yemen- Ma'arib to Zahran desert route
• Angola - eastern Cuando Cubango
• Namibia - Skeleton Coast, Luderlitz, Caprivi Strip

With sixty great scars on my body that bear witness to these epic treks

Jason Schoonover

Jason Schoonover, since 1978,  has been an ethnographic field collector for museums internationally,  his major area of interest being the Himalaya, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and an author of adventure fiction since 1988; he'll be exploring Peru and Bolivia for six weeks in April and May 2004 .

Vivian Reiss

Expeditions 2003 -Tokamachi, Japan- to evolve an artistic interchange between the snowiest per rural population [Tokamachi] and urban Toronto.

Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand- to study the links between traditional contemporary dance and archaeological artefacts and architecture Myanmar, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, collect textiles and study production and styles of silk,augmenting previous expeditions to Uzbekistan and China.

Kevin Hall

In 2004 I will be working on weathering of San (Bushman) cave art in the Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa. The work will be in various high altitude caves (11,000-12,000') in the South Africa-Lesotho escarpment. This will be the beginning of a long-term undertaking with the aim of preserving these international heritage paintings in situ. This will begin in September, during which time application for major support grants will also be prepared for making this an international undertaking for a period of five years. For this, I have an international team of specialists ready but we have to put in the grant proposals.

In July of 2004, if finances come though, I will also be in Tibet.

After a conference in Lhasa, I will journey through Xigaze and Lhaze westwards to Gar and then north and east through Gertse and back to Lhasa. Here the aim will be to look at the geomorphic impact of animals within permafrost/alpine environments (a follow up to work done, and published, on this from an earlier transect across Tibet from Golmud to Lhasa). Animals play an important role in the landscape and increased husbandry can be detrimental, especially under a warming climate.

During 2005 I'm going to be doing on-going work in Africa plus work in the Antarctic as a guest of the Italian expedition.

FYI: Yesterday I received the OK from the Italian Antarctic Program for me to work South with them Oct to Dec 2005. This is quite exciting for me as I will be able to test out some new ideas on weathering. This will be my 14th Antarctic expedition and will add Italy to my work with the British, France, South Africa and New Zealand.

It is also very possible that I will be going back to sub-Antarctic Marion Island, with South Africa, a place where I did my Ph.D in geology some 30 years ago. It should be an interesting 'reunion' as the ice cap that was on the island when I was there has now completely melted away!

Last, and for the future, I have been invited by Sweden to be part of their IGY project in Svalbard in 2008. If the legs and back (lungs, etc.) hold out, I will certainly go as that would be a 40 year reunion.

Jeff Willner

The third Junglerunner expedition during November 2003 was a speed transit of the Panamerican highway from Ecuador to Ushuaia.
Having done several Land Rover overland expeditions already, the shipping and logistics were pretty straightforward. However, this trip was a bit different because I was joined by my wife who is four months pregnant.

Leaving Guayaquil, we headed south down the long desert stretches of northern Peru. Bouts of food poisoning slowed us, but Starbucks and steak in Miraflores (Lima) was a perfect antidote. Continuing south, a brief pregnancy scare sent us into the hospital in Arequipa - and despite getting a clean bill of health, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and foreswore the high altitudes of Machu Pichu and Bolivia.

Limited to lower altitudes, we stuck with the coastal route and continual desert, broken finally just north of Santiago. The Lakes district of Chile was a welcome shift into verdent green, and we poked down through Pucon, and then over to Bariloche and the Moreno Glacier. As Stacey flew the final leg, I drove the last 500km of bumpy gravel into Ushuaia, and we finished the expedition at the end sign of the Panamerican in Lapatia.

For more details visit; www.junglerunner.com

Robert Tymstra

During January 2004 off to the Philippines exploring the avian life in the wilder parts of Palawan and Mindanao.

Dave Reid
Arctic Hiking Trip 2004

Sirmilik (The place of Glaciers) National Park in Northern Baffin Island offers hikers some of the most spectacular and scenic hiking anywhere in the Arctic. Located at just over 72 degrees North, Pond Inlet- Nunavut based Polar Sea Adventures runs scheduled hiking trips to various parts of the park. From sandy beaches to massive glaciers, from rolling tundra to snow capped high mountain ranges, hikes will take place under constant daylight. In July, August and early September, join us on the only trips to be offered to this incredible park, as we explore remote Bylot Island and its mysterious hoodoos! Group sizes will be around 6 clients and trips lasts 10 days from Ottawa/Montreal.

James Kuiack

During the winter of 2003 - 2004 I am working in the south of France until the End of March (near Marseilles in a town called La Ciotat). Yes, I do design boats and I am the Chief Engineer for the restoration of a classic (1910) Schooner Yacht in La Ciotat.

I am very active in the design and engineering of Mini Submarines and Deep Diving systems also and I do much cross over reseach in Life Support Technology as it applies to living/working in space, hence my association with several Space Exploration concerns. I should be back in Huntsville, Ontario in May/04.

Eduard Reinhardt

During July 2004 Prof. Eduard Reinhardt of McMaster University will be working with an archaeological project (Cambridge) that has been working on Neolithic archaeology in the Bova Marina area near Reggio Calabria. I will be specifically looking at coastal evolution and the availability of ancient harbors/anchorages with sea level and climate change. There is an infilled river valley that may have been an estuary and thus a navigable waterway. So I will take sediment cores and reconstruct the coastal environment through time. I will also be conducting an underwater survey looking for archaeological as well as geological evidence of sea level change. I only have a general idea of the terrain and this 1st year will be used to work out the feasibility and the logistics of a project.

During August 2004 a team that he will be with are hoping to their magnetometer survey will be able to find Second World War Royal Canadian Air Force Harvards in Lake Ontario near Kingston. The guys that we are working with have been doing some amazing archive work, they found so many interesting details on the planes and I believe even located one of the pilots. They were using sidescan sonor which is effective but requires very slow boat speeds.

The magnetometer can move faster and therefore cover more of the lakebed quicker and so we hope to be able to find one of the ditched airplanes this summer. We will keep our fingers crossed.

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2003 Expeditions

Joseph Frey

Traveled to Iqaluit and Pangnirtung on Baffin Island, as well as to Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island and from there with the Meteorological Service of Canada he journeyed to Eureka and Alert on Ellesmere Island, Canada’s most northerly point at 82 degrees north, 62 degrees west. This was a sanctioned Explorers Club Flag Expedition.

Eva Koppelhus and Phil Currie

Argentina, Mongolia and Antarctica in 2003. View PDF