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| American road-building crew heading towards the South Pole
AUCKLAND, Nov 25 (AFP) - An American tractor convoy was heading into the interior of Antarctica in a bid to continue basting the first ever permanent land route to the South Pole, the Antarctica Star reported in its latest issue Tuesday. The road -- a track blasted through ice and rock -- will run 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) from the US base at McMurdo Sound on the coast of the Ross Sea, to the US base at the South Pole. BizVantage – Beyond the news: when knowing counts. It is proposed that all the equipment currently flown to the South Pole by C130 Hercules will be hauled in via the road. The Star said a line of tractors and towed supplies left McMurdo station on Tuesday pulling enough gear to get seven men two-thirds of the way to the South Pole. They are to head through the highly crevassed area called the shear zone, across the Ross Ice Shelf and to the Leverett Glacier, the chosen route through the Transantarctic Mountains. Last summer they went through the shear zone, filling in crevasses as they went. The challenge this year is to reach the Leverett Glacier and progress as far as possible up the glacier towards the polar plateau. "Gaining access to the polar plateau will exceed expectations," said Rick Campbell, the project's spokesman at McMurdo. In 2004-2005, the convoy will go the full distance to the South Pole and back. Amidst some debate, the Americans say it is not quite a road. "The idea is to forge this trail, not a road, but a trail, that may become a snow road in future years," project manager John Wright said. mjf/mmc Antarctica-road
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