Johann Jamneck, 25, whose love of "things wild and wonderful" took him to the Antarctic as part of this year's South African National Antarctic Expedition (Sanae), was killed on Sunday while climbing near Sanae IV base in Antarctica.
Jamneck, of Johannesburg, the team's senior meteorologist, was practising crevasse rescue techniques with other team members when the accident happened.
Henri Valentine, director of the Department of Environment's Antarctica and Islands division, said yesterday the team had been practising descending and ascending on a rope and setting up a pulley system to hoist people up from crevasses.
"They were practising these exercises on the cliff below the base. As Johann was jumaring up the rope, a piece of ice from the top of the cliff fell on him. It's one of those tragic accidents that one never expects to happen. He was alive for about half an hour after he had been hit, but tragically he died," Valentine said.
The South African research base is built at Vesleskarvet, a nunatak, or rocky outcrop, that protrudes through the snow and ice. It is about 220km from the coast.
Jamneck, who left Cape Town with the rest of the team on the SA Agulhas on December 23 last year, was part of the overwintering team and was due to return to South Africa in February next year.
The overwintering team, made up of a doctor, two diesel mechanics, an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, meteorologist and two physicists, spends about 15 months at the Sanae base in the Antarctic. Ten months are in total isolation until the next team arrives, bringing researchers and other personnel who stay for the summer only.
Valentine said because the icy continent was not easily accessible at this time of year, the earliest opportunity to bring Jamneck's body back was in November, using a charter flight.
"By that time the runways will be ready and a small aircraft can go down there. Morale at the base is of course at rock bottom after Johann's death. At least they have only two months to go before the ship (the SA Agulhas) will be there again," Valentine said.
Jamneck, who studied at the University of the North West before becoming involved in the South African National Antarctic programme, was fascinated by Antarctica, which he referred to by the old name explorers used, Terra Incognita.
Two years ago, he was part of the team that went to Marion Island in the South Atlantic, which he described on the team's website as "the most profound and life-altering experience so far for me as a young man, and as the old saying goes: 'one good turn deserves another', so the logical thing was to sign up for another expedition".
After returning from Marion Island, Jamneck applied to the Department of Environment Affairs to go to the Antarctic as the senior meteorologist, and was accepted.
"I have always had a fascination for the old 'Terra Incognito', so was overwhelmed when the news arrived that I had been give the rare opportunity to lay eyes on the white continent. I have a healthy interest in all things wild and wonderful in this world of ours," he wrote on the website.
Jamneck was the co-editor of Sanae 48, the electronic newsletter of the 48th Sanae team.
He wrote poetry in the newsletter. One poem, The Force of Infinity, starts: "It lies deep inside all of us, stirring our inner being, always there but very seldom seen; filling the soul with hope from youth till days of old; light as the wind, free as the air, impossible to fathom, yet always there."