ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 21, 1994                   TAG: 9401210100
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


PEOPLE

Explorer Norman Vaughan is ending his problem-plagued Antarctica expedition without climbing the mountain that bears his name or becoming the last person to tour the continent by sled dog.

Vaughan, 88, and his support team decided Wednesday to abort the $1 million trip they began in November and return to Anchorage, Alaska, probably in the next week or two.

Jennifer Johnston, an organizer in Anchorage, said she spoke with Vaughan from a camp where the group had been holed up for 15 days because of heavy snow and strong wind.

Time was running out before the Antarctic winter set in, she said Thursday.

Sixty-six years ago, Vaughan was the first American to drive a dog team in Antarctica. He wanted to be the last person on the continent to tour with sled dogs before the April 1 start of an international treaty banning dogs to protect indigenous wildlife from canine distemper.

But soon after a plane ferrying gear from Chile to Antarctica crashed on the continent Nov. 26, costing the team four dogs and injuring a veterinarian, Vaughan scaled back the trip to an ascent of Mount Vaughan in time for his 88th birthday on Dec. 19. His birthday came and went.

The 10,302-peak was named in Vaughan's honor by Adm. Richard E. Byrd, with whom Vaughan traveled to Antarctica in 1928-1930.

Vaughan, who completed the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race six times, including the 1990 race when he was 84, will return to Alaska with his team by way of Chile, Johnston said.

But Vaughan isn't giving up. He has a benefactor offering to help pay for another Antarctica expedition this December - without dogs.

Listen up, Reba McEntire fans. She has her sights set on gun control. So in every town she plays this year, anyone who turns in a gun will a get free ticket to her show.

"I'm not anti-guns. I'm anti-killing," the country singer said. "I'm trying to eliminate the handguns at home, the antique guns under the bed and the deer rifles propped up by the wall that kids can mess with."



 by CNB