How the storm from hell ruined love in Antarctica

By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter

It was a romantic weekend gone badly wrong.

Just hours after arriving at an A-frame hut about 3km from New Zealand's Scott Base, the base's first-aid officer, Barbara Rennie from Christchurch, and an American companion were caught in one of the worst storms to hit Antarctica in living memory.

The 15-hour gale blew off a hangar door, blew in the windows on two vehicles and overturned two shipping containers at Scott Base on Sunday.

About 2am, Ms Rennie and Erik Richards, a satellite-tracking technician at the nearby US McMurdo Station, woke up to hear their hut "shuddering and rattling" in icy southerlies which reached a frightening 140 knots.

Their bedding had been soaked by snow that had got in around the windows and down the chimney.

By 6am the chimney was so blocked with snow that the diesel heater, normally kept running to stop things freezing even when the hut is empty, was producing sparks and setting off the fire alarm.

In temperatures of minus 20C, the couple made the hard decision to shut down the heater.

They had no communications with Scott Base because there was too much snow in the air.

"Icicles were hanging off the couch, I couldn't believe it," Ms Rennie said by phone from Scott Base yesterday. "Within 20 minutes of turning the heater off, all our drinking water was frozen.

"So we gathered all the dry bedding we could find, which was not much. We used our jackets and a couple of sleeping bags and one duvet and got into the little area upstairs that was not covered in snow. We had to huddle together to keep warm."

They wore all their cold-weather gear, including balaclavas and gloves, and stayed under the blankets.

"As soon as you propped yourself up on an elbow, it let freezing air in," Ms Rennie said.

"I was a little bit worried. I didn't think we'd die unless the A-frame gave up and started collapsing - which was a possibility.

"But the A-frame managed really well. It was an old chalet of the American programme. They dumped it and it was going to be thrown out, but the Kiwis got it and dragged it out to the sea ice and redid it."

In the 24-hour darkness of the Antarctic winter, the couple had no light at first.

"The A-frame does have a couple of large batteries for a fluorescent light, but because of the cold the power drained right out of them. All our torches got drained of power," Ms Rennie said.

But eventually Mr Richards, an Alaskan, got a paraffin lamp and a gas stove going.

"It doesn't put out much heat, but we got some water heated and filled up the water bottles and took those to bed with us to keep them warm," Ms Rennie said.

At one stage they got out of bed and played cards for something to do, but they got too cold after 45 minutes and had to get back under the duvet.

They also re-established radio contact with Scott Base. Finally, at 10 that night, the base sent snowmobiles out to rescue them, using satellite navigation despite the short distance because the weather was still too bad to see anything.

The couple had been cold for so long that their skin peeled off their hands and heads when they got back inside Scott Base.

"I was very glad," Ms Rennie said. "I've never been more thankful for heat in my life."