Scientist who just returned from Antarctic SANAE IV base where assault occurred reveals harrowing details of living in extreme isolation: ‘Lot of unknowns’

A scientist who just returned from the remote Antarctica base where a crew member reportedly snapped and threatened to kill the team leader has opened up about the extreme, “unpredictable” environment on the frozen continent that can push many to their mental limits.

Dr Herman Van Niekerk, a geologist at the University of Johannesburg, has just come back from a two-month expedition to SANAE IV, the Antarctic base where a South African team of scientists have pleaded for help following the “deeply disturbing” behavior of a crew member.

“The Antarctic is often romanticized, but when people realize what’s waiting for them, well, there’s not a lot of people who feel they’re up to it,” Van Niekerk told The Telegraph.

“I’ve taken students out there and some of them just can’t handle the isolation, the extreme and frightening weather conditions, the perspective you lose when you can’t judge distances in the whiteness.”

In a situation described as a “real-life horror movie,” one of the nine trapped crew members sent a desperate email about a coworker they said violently beat, threatened and sexually harassed at least two others on the base, as first reported by South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper.

They described their colleague’s descent into “deeply disturbing” behavior, saying it had created “an environment of fear and intimidation. I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.”

All crew members undergo “psychometric tests” before heading to the base, Van Niekerk explained, “but you just can’t predict how that will affect people in reality when there’s no life for miles.”

Despite close vetting, Van Niekerk described the moment when one student freaked out.

“People only reveal who they are when they’re exposed to the extreme conditions,” he said, describing how the student refused to leave their tent on the expedition while they were stranded some 124 miles from SANAE IV.

The worst is yet to come

The crew — stranded until at least December on the 1997-built base 2,500 miles from South Africa — includes engineers, scientists, and a doctor, but no one to manage security, Van Niekerk explained.

“There’s a doctor, mechanics and members of the South African National Space Agency. But there is nobody in charge of security, no firearms or anything like that,” Van Niekerk said.

On top of the deathly cold, with temperatures plummeting to lows of -9F, and winds reaching up to 135 mph, the upcoming Antarctic winter presents a fresh disorientating challenge.

From March, the base will be in almost complete darkness for the next 10 months.

“When there’s no daylight, you worry about people getting onto a different time cycle, with some people awake while everybody else is sleeping. It’s an extremely difficult environment,” he said.

There’s a rules list — but it’s not always followed

Van Niekerk has been taking teams of students out to the base for the past three years and described the conditions inside SANAE IV, made up of three two-story blocks.

Block A houses the laboratories, accommodation and a hospital wing, Block B features “a bar, a games room,” and a movie room, while Block C includes vital machinery such as “generators, water storage and purification,” he said.

A general rules list for crew members is up in the dining room, including guidelines on alcohol.

“You take what you need and have to make it last the whole season,” he said.

Romance between crew members is “spoken about and it’s frowned upon,” Van Niekerk said.

“But these are people and you can’t predict what’s going to happen. Relationships do start down there,” he said. “I know of people who were down there in 2016-17. They met there and got married and they’ve got two kids now.”

‘There are a lot of unknowns‘

Van Niekerk has described the “unknowns” and the loneliness that can make life on the edge of civilization particularly difficult, especially on the rare occasions they have to leave the base.

“Mostly when I’m out on snowmobiles. That’s unsettling because you can’t see the crevasses. The storms also come in very fast, even in the winter. There are a lot of unknowns,” he said.

The assault of a team member on SANAE IV’s team leader has been confirmed, and the individual who carried out the assault has reportedly since apologized by letter, South Africa’s Environment Minister Dion George said this week.

Despite that, there are no plans for the crew to have any direct contact with the outside world until December at the earliest, when a supply vessel is set to dock at Queen Maud Land after a 10-day voyage from Cape Town.

Even if authorities wanted to, it would be all but impossible for a rescue mission to the base now that Antarctic winter has started.

“That would be very difficult,” Van Kierken said. “It takes 10-14 days by boat and then a helicopter ride — weather permitting — for us in the summer. [Winter] would be difficult. I don’t think we’ll see those people again until December.”