The specially prepared Sno-Cats that crossed Antarctica with Vivian Fuchs between 1955 and 1958: 3,473 km in 99 days, the first land vehicles to reach the South Pole.
BASE VEHICLESno-Cat (1946– )BUILT BYTucker Sno-Cat Corporation, MedfordIN SERVICE1955–58OPERATED INUnited States, New ZealandPRODUCTIONThree or four, specially preparedLAYOUT4 wheels
The record
Fuchs's party left Shackleton Base with Sno-Cats, two Weasels and an adapted Muskeg tractor, and a third Weasel was abandoned on the way; Edmund Hillary's New Zealand team laid the depots from Scott Base with three Ferguson TE20 tractors. Hillary reached the Pole on 3 January 1958, Fuchs on 19 January, and the crossing finished at Scott Base on 2 March 1958. The Tucker article says four Sno-Cats with door codes A to D; the expedition article says three. Three survive: A at the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand, B at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in California, C at the Science Museum at Wroughton. What became of D is not recorded. A photograph of B is image 108 on the Voyager Golden Record.
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Cabin
