The full extent of the height and scale of the Sentinel Range, Antarctica, was not known until reconnaissance flights and scientific traverses in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), 1957–1958. These explorations revealed the range to be twenty miles in length, with a large number of high peaks culminating in Mt. Vinson, the highest on the Antarctic continent at nearly 4900 meters. The discoveries captured the interest of the U.S. and world mountaineering communities setting off a competition to achieve the first climb of Vinson. The challenge was tempered only by the range's remoteness from the coast of Antarctica and the formidable logistics of mounting a mountaineering expedition. The US which had the most advanced ski-equipped cargo aircraft, had an established post-IGY policy that prohibited adventure expeditions that could divert logistic resources from the scientific programme. This paper discusses Mt. Vinson competition within the US and international climbing communities, mounting national pressures to achieve the first climb, and a reversal in policy by the US Antarctic Policy Group that resulted in the 1966–1967 American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition's first ascents of Vinson and five other high peaks. Today, between 100 and 200 persons climb Mt. Vinson each austral summer.

In 1819, the Russian government launched two expeditions: the first squadron of two ships departed to explore the southern polar areas, and the second set out for the northern polar areas. The expedition to the southern polar areas took place under the command of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Up to the present day, very little information is available, from the Russian literature, about the initiator and main goals of the expedition. At the same time, the travels and main results of the expedition have been widely popularised, but not necessarily accurately, in Russian as well as in English. On the basis of recently discovered documents, this article attempts to establish who the initiator of these Russian expeditions was, how the expeditions were prepared, and whether the main tasks of the expeditions were realised. The conclusion is that Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac, Marquis de Traversay was the initiator of the Russian Antarctic expedition, not the Russian navigators Adam Johan von Krusenstern, Otto von Kotzebue, Gavrila A. Sarychev or Vasilii M. Golovnin as stated in Soviet publications. The real aim of the expedition was to discover the Antarctic continent which would have added glory to de Traversay as well as to Emperor Alexander I and, in a wider sense, also to the Russian empire. All dates are given according to the old style calendar. The difference with the new style calendar is 12 days.

The need to record and report the distribution of floating ice has arisen where-ever ships have been required to sail regularly in ice-filled waters. Various systems have been developed to meet the needs of particular areas, but these have grown up largely independently of each other. Such systems are generally designed to fulfil either, or both, of two purposes. One is the immediate end of providing material for a synoptic ice map, which is the basis of help to ships in the form of statements of the present whereabouts of the ice or predictions of its movements for a short period ahead. The other is a longer-term end, such as ice probability study, which seeks to utilize past records over as many years as possible in order to ascertain, in general terms, the probability of access to a given place at a given time; a result of such a study may be, for example, an ice atlas, of which two, covering wide areas, have appeared since the Second World War. Another long-term end is use of the ice pattern as an index of climatic change. Both lines of ice study require detailed information on the state of the ice, but each puts it to a different use. The problem, then, consists of devising a means of recording on paper, either photographically, cartographically, by means of explanatory text, or in some form of code convenient for radio transmission, the relevant facts about the distribution and behaviour of an area of floating ice, and also of reporting these in comprehensible terms, first to a collecting centre, and then to the users.

William Barr's article on John Rae presents quite the spectacle (Barr 2014). Barr paints a picture of eminent British historians, staunch defenders of Arctic orthodoxy, scurrying around to deny Rae his rightful recognition and stumbling into an abyss of self-contradiction. In their anxiety to keep Rae in his ‘proper place’ at Westminster Abbey, Barr and his friends have repudiated Sir John Franklin's claim to being the discoverer of the northwest passage – the claim they sallied forth to defend.

A British Polar Exhibition, under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society, was held at the Central Hall, Westminster, from July 2 to July 19.

Clean-up sites in cold climates present unique challenges for the analytical chemist, primarily because of transportation constraints and limited infrastructure. Excavation of chemically contaminated soils and dumps requires a quick turnaround for analytical results. This is mainly due to the cost factors involved in having expensive heavy equipment idle and the short working seasons, but also because of melting of exposed permafrost during excavation. Three options are available for conducting analyses at remote polar sites. These are off-site determinations, the use of on-site test kits (or simple procedures), and the deployment of a mobile laboratory. This paper discusses these options and provides details of available on-site techniques as well as specific examples of their application in remote northern sites. The design and operation of a mobile laboratory at Resolution Island, Nunavut, is described, and available test kits are compiled and reviewed.