January 26, 2004

Trek to Antarctica: Leadership and Cold Feet

By Andras Forgacs, WG'05

What happens when you take a group of ordinarily self-assured Wharton students and put then in an environment in which they have little experience or control? While DIP week may come to mind, I am referring instead to the theme of the first-ever Wharton Leadership Venture to Antarctica. The venture took 18 Wharton students to King George Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, for a week of trekking and camping out on the ice. Located just above the Antarctic Circle, King George Island is home to a handful of scientific bases and a dirt airstrip which, at a few flights per week, qualifies as Antarctica's busiest airport. Students were accompanied by the organizers of the Leadership Program, including Prof. Mike Useem, Evan Wittenberg, and Mark Davidson, as well as the Chairman of the New York Times Company, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and an expert crew of very accomplished Chilean mountaineers. As with all Leadership Ventures, the purpose of this trip was to learn about leadership in a new context, in this case under duress. Lessons were borrowed from the experiences of early polar explorers Ernest Shackelton, Robert Scott, and Roald Amundsen, whose expeditions over 100 years ago in much harsher conditions, for much longer periods, and with more primitive equipment, made our daily 4k walks pale in comparison. Nonetheless, during our week in the Antarctic, we were able to gain a small insight into the challenges these men had to endure, and in so doing we had an amazing yet challenging experience of our own.

Our week began with everyone gathering on January 3rd in the town of Punta Arenas, a charming city in southern Chile that prospered as a major port for ships sailing around Cape Horn prior to the Panama Canal. While a small group had arrived a week early to explore parts of Patagonia, most came just in time for the afternoon orientation during which we made a final check of our equipment, met all the participants and reviewed the planned circuit for our trek. We also divided the larger group into smaller teams of three, called triads. Each triad was given a tent, food for the week, and the responsibility to lead the larger group for one day during our venture. The triad was a self-sustaining team that ate, slept, and managed all activities together, effectively becoming closest companions and the fundamental unit of organization in the leadership experiment.

We soon learned a central theme of the trip when we arrived at the Punta Arenas airport the following morning. Our charter flight, originally scheduled to depart early in the morning, was delayed until late afternoon on account of the unpredictable weather in Antarctica. "In this part of the world, you can never count on the weather...everything is maybe," cautioned one of our Chilean organizers. When we finally did arrive on King George Island later in the day, we immediately found ourselves in a different world. As soon as you leave the plane, a cold wind hits you, the crispness of the air strikes you, and you find yourself gaping at a landscape of snow and ice that resembles more the surface of the moon than any place on Earth. Our first day, we walked for four kilometers along the island's southern coast to a hill overlooking the Uruguayan research station. We soon built a wall of ice to block the wind and set up our tents for our first night.

For the next few days, life in Antarctica acquired a strange rhythm. We would wake at about 7am each day, immediately melt some snow on our camping stoves to make water for drinking and cooking, and begin preparations for the day. Typically by 10am, we would start upon the day's trek, with everyone marching in line towards the intended destination denoted on our GPS units. Although, we had initially set out to camp on the adjacent Collins Glacier, a stretch of ice spanning the western end of the island, strong winds and low visibility forced us to beat a retreat two days in a row and re-establish camp near the Uruguayan base. Unpredictable weather became a governing theme for the week. Although January is the beginning of summer in Antarctica, temperatures hovered only slightly above freezing and winds could pick up to 40 miles/hour, which translated into us being consistently wet and often cold.

Highlights of the week included many close encounters with Antarctica's most famous fauna: penguins and seals. The absence of human interference makes these amazing creatures remarkably unafraid of people. In fact, on the last day of our stay, we awoke to find a ten foot baby elephant seal seemingly trying to climb inside one of our tents. Were it not for us gently disassembling camp - being careful not to further encourage our new friend - a lucky triad might have found itself a fourth tent-mate and Wharton may have found a new mascot. Antarctica is a heavily protected natural ecosystem, meaning that in addition to respecting the wildlife, no trash, debris or excrement could be left behind. Students had to pick up and haul everything, an experience that left many of us with a newfound appreciation for the hands-free bathroom facilities of Huntsman Hall.

The trip was the experience of a lifetime. By the end of the week, most of us were eager to return to civilization, to eat something other than powdered soup, pasta or crackers, and, of course, to take a long-overdue shower. However, there is no doubt that we all took away something special from the experience. Whether it was a better understanding of the mysteries of Antarctica, a deeper respect for the polar explorers we studied, or a newfound appreciation for the creature comforts of home, we came back from King George Island much richer for the experience. Of course, in addition to seeing Antarctica the way only a few had the chance to do, we also explored a few lessons about leadership which may yet prove valuable the next time we find ourselves under less than ideal conditions.