Antarctic Diary

Rehab, Postscript and Close

2008-05-09T19:34:00.008Z

This is the final post. And honestly, I mean it this time.

I didn't feel like writing much when I left Halley and deliberately didn't post from South Africa as that was "Me Time", a wind-down and much needed breathing space after the intense summer season. Having heard so much about the high crime rate I first feared Cape Town, but in only a few days South Africa was pretty clear in my head: two cultures, Bob Marley and Fleetwood Mac, co-existing in a still new but un-easy closeness that everyone I met really wanted to work.

South Africa: A Country of Hopes and Fears

South Africans love their sport, so it was a great country to catch some waves, ride a bike and watch the rugby. With friends from Halley, I explored the Cape then headed East along the wonderful open roads of the Garden Route. From Port Elizabeth onwards, I traveled alone calling at surf mecca of Jefferies and lesser known spots on the stunning Wilderness Coast, finally reaching Botswana for a few days mountain biking in the a game park.

White Lines. Running through my mind

Packin' heat in the bush

Returning to the UK was as depressing as I expected. Mechanised voices seemed to drone out safety notices at every opportunity, but I supprised myself by getting from London to Llandefalle (the top of a hill, in Wales) using public transport!

Since being home I've caught up with most old friends and other than a few marriages and children, it's like I never left. My fitness is slowly returning, helped by a big new mountainbike that needs big legs to power it!

Workwise, the interviews I lined up before leaving Halley proved worthwhile as the UK is not a place to try and live off savings. I'll be returning to a water industry consultancy in June.

Back in the Shire

So, on reflection, Antarctica was great, but it's good to be back. Will I go return to the South? Not this year, and probably not next. But, like Bond, I'll never say never....

Thanks for reading, for all the comments and email and in particular the random cards and other stuff through the post. If you've got something like this in mind - go do it - you'll be fine.

Dave.

Radio 4 - Team Spirit

2008-04-03T07:27:00.003Z

The Radio 4 programme we contributed to some months ago has been broadcast. I've not heard it yet, but others say it's good so here's the link. Click me.

Cape Town

2008-03-02T08:30:00.005Z

As with any Antarctic journey, our final trip started early and immediately the waiting game began. With the sun well and truly hidden, the temperature at 4:00am had dropped to -25C and the plane was iced up. It didn't look much, but as the pilot neatly put it - "it's enough to kill us". Frantic scrubbing with meths got the wings clean and an hour later we look off.

The first hop took us to the South Africa station "Sanu" for fuel. Already 2 weeks into their winter, the whole base turned out the greet us and chat while the Basla guzzled Avtur .

The Balsa, ready to leave Halley

Taking off again, we flew for another 3 hours before landing smoothly on the Russian Blue Ice Runway at Novo. Novo is the centre of Antarctic air operations. Think Heathrow on ice, and you're not far wrong. We had no time to look as we rushed straight onto a waiting Soviet era cargo plane. With no window, screeching engines and the feral stench of Antarctica (boots, thermals and canvas, all heated to 25C) the 6 hour journey made easyjet seem like heaven.

Ilyushin IL-76 on the deck, Cape Town (Link)

But we made it. Back on tarmac, back to reality.

The 12 Apostles. Cape of Good Hope

Cape Town's a far better place for rehab than the Falklands. In one day I walked up Table Mountain, ate perfect steak and danced the night away to cheesey live bands. It's kindalike Dar Es Salam meets Cardiff St Mary's street. And I'm off to enjoy it all.

24 hours to go!

2008-02-26T10:58:00.007Z

It's my last day!

All my personal possessions are boxed up ready for the shipping back to the UK, leaving me with the welcome simplicity of one rucsac and a camera to enjoy South Africa. We'll be leaving at 5am tomorrow, flying to Cape Town via South African and Russian stations en-route. Apparantly the Russian base (where we'll spend a few hours) has plenty of relics from the Soviet era dotted about. The camera is fully charged...

Back here, work is pretty much finish. The final module is complete and we popped over for a nose about. Very impressive. More space station than ice base.

The completed module

The interior is a classic modern design, familiar to anyone who's used student accomodation. Considerably more spacious than the current base, the rooms are also sound insulated to "good hotel standards" so sleep maye an option in future summers.

Inside a new bedroom

Although the summer's been long, leaving so late means I've got one more glimpse of the fantastic colours of the Halley evening. Bright orange under the sun, soft pastels behind and deep deep blue above. For a place with no features, it really is beautiful. Nights are now totally dark and there's only 10 weeks till the sun sets entirely for another year.

Destination: North

Time to give this computer back. See you in Cape Town...

Still Blowing...

2008-02-23T18:21:00.005Z

Yesterday, the wind died down and we ventured out to assess the damage.

Massive deposition had left drifts up to the tops of the buildings, but the new Halley VI modules, and their tents, had survived. Out went our merry gang to dig everything out...

Can you tell what it is yet?

...and up came the wretched wind to fill everything back in again...

Clearing the drifts

It's meant to die off tomorrow, and remain calm for the week. Many fingers are crossed tightly in the hope this is true.

Still. What a great Wales score!

Futher Reading

2008-02-22T02:34:00.000Z

For those of you want more from the frozen south, here's a brief selection of the many Polar books I've read over the year. I've picked one from each era to try and give a broad view of Antartic history. They all cover not just the expidition's aims, but the everyday happenings that bring character to any story.

The Heroic Era
The Voyage of the Endurance
Sir Ernest Shackleton
1914
The ledgendary tale of the loss of his ship, and subsequent boat journey to South Georgia. A timeless classic

Back in the Day
A World of Men
Wally Herbert
ISBN 413 26280 4
1968
A personal account of surveying Antarctica in the post-war "Golden Era" of dog sledging. Excellent writing from one of Britains last great Polar explorers. Herbert became a world authority on polar travel and lead the British Trans Arctic Expedition on the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean. His observations and humor make all his works a pleasure to read.

Of Dogs and Men. 50 Years in the Antarctic.
Kevon Walton and Rick Atkinson
ISBN1 897817 55 X
1996
Awesome stories covering all 50 years of dogs sledging from 1954 to 1994. Stunning photographes and witty accounts lead the reader to discover the dogs' fate at the hands of the beaurocrats.

The Thatcher Era
On Antarctica
Len Airey
ISBN 0-9708699-0-8
2001
Not all years go as well as our did. Airey had to contend with difficult colleagues and even Argentine invasion! Nevertheless, the lure of the South kept him returning as this gritty account reveals.

Present Day
I dont know about any recent books, but the excellent Z Fids website keeps links to blogs current and past. There are also great anecdotes from those who've lived and worked at Halley.
Cool Antarctica provides a similar service to a wider audience.

Reflections

2008-02-22T00:29:00.002Z

Snowed in for three days with all work cancelled, I started packing my bags and digging out summer clothes ready for the oven-like heat of Cape Town.

Preparing to hand back the base laptop, I browsed my photos as they saved to disk. And I’m so glad I did - What a year! Bad feelings from the last few weeks were replaced with fantastic memories: the rush of changing work and living out of my van for the first few weeks; colleagues becoming friends as we dashed round the country learning new skills; the excitement and anticipation of joining ship and the tug of leaving people behind.

Come swim with me!

This was so much more than a job. It was an adventure taking in three continents! Sunset barbeques in the tropics with dolphin playing in our wake, blasting through South Atlantic swells in speedboats and smashing through solid ice with Orcas cruising the edges. That was just the commute! Cracking little aircraft, giant tracked vehicles, seriously fast skidoos (and the naughtiness of finding this out) added to the schoolboy’s dream-come-true. Mix in an eclectic range of characters and my life was only one murder short of a Tintin story.

Winter

As winter set in, out little group scurried out on our trips, making the most of the remaining light and warmth before following the entire continent into hibernation. Mid winter was stunning. The peacefulness of a star-cover sky and the surreal beauty of the Aurora Australis will stay in my mind forever. By now we knew each other well and had no difficulty passing the long night with games, music and the occasional knees up. Regardless of wine, jokes and laughter flowed freely

The little moments of insanity kept us from going mad - Spike Milligan

In August the sun returned, firing up our lives like a shot of adrenaline. We bounded across the ice shelf like animals released from their winter quarters to lush green grass. Buoyed by this enthusiasm, the science projects swung into motion, gaining more critical data to determine man’s impact on the earth. But it wasn’t without challenges. The sun’s energy had also excited the weather systems and they too were out to play. I’ll remember the bitter, ceaseless winds of September and October for almost as long as the Aurora.

Cold fingers. Hot data

Despite its efforts, the weather didn’t stop us getting out into the field. Waking up in a tent at –35C tested the fingers, and the mountain of clothing round my neck rubbed like a collar on an unbroken beast. But just being out there made it all worthwhile. Decades-old hot chocolate tasted like pure bliss after a cold but glorious day skidoo-ing swiftly over fresh snow.

Evans attempts Attenbourgh

With summer came wildlife. Birds appeared in the sky and we followed the growth of penguins from eggs to adults. So too came people. First as friends, greeted with enthusiasm as each plane brought a few more links to the “real” world. But as the numbers increased, they became invaders and my home a prison as the walls closed in. Everything that goes on in the real world also happens in Antarctica. Only here, there are fewer escapes. Those escapes became more valuable as summer passed. Each trip to the cliffs or time on the kite gained greater importance and I slowly realised this was, in-fact, an important part of me readjusting to normality. The greatest escape of all comes on Wednesday. A flight to Cape Town.

2007. Somewhere on the wall between 1957 and 2057

Back at Halley things will rumble on in a similar manner to the last 50 years. The methods change, but the tasks remain the same. Scientists study the environment, tradesmen keep the base running, and everyone shovels snow. Halley is a testing place that not all leave smiling. The Shackleton’s crew delighted in describing the hollow shells of characters they’d hauled home in the past. They wont get that pleasure this year – we’re all leaving as keen and enthusiastic for the future as we were when we arrived.

It’s been bloody great.

Ceaseless Wind...

2008-02-20T17:43:00.005Z

The annexes get buried

As far as blizzard's go, this is a good 'un! And it's got another day to run...

Toucan Rool

Here's one that should've been on below - the band's Toucan sign. Shamelessly pinched from Guiness, he was joined by a Tommy Cooper-esque penguin in a fez.

The Weather's Finalee

2008-02-19T22:06:00.003Z

Summer's officially over, at least from the weather's point of view.

Antarctic storm looming over Halley

Last night a spectacular low span off the penisular into the Weddell sea. They usually head north and loose power, but this one circled inwards getting more and more fierce. This morning the wind was steady at 48knts and gusting into the mid 50's. With visibility under 10m, all work was cancelled and people only left the buildings to make essential checks. I've had a great day, catching up with an important item that's been on my todo list for weeks - "Do Nothing". And top fun it was too!

Down at the coast, the Shackleton slipped her lines and headed west to shettler in Precious Bay. Dodging icebergs using only the RADAR can't have been much fun. Hopefully the sea-ice at the bay will remain intact for her return.

The forecast promisses another few days at 30knts, then easing. This is great news as calms tend to follow storms, meaning we should (fingers crossed) get nice weather for the flight out next week.

Folk Night and Charity Ski

2008-02-18T20:09:00.013Z

Star-Bug gets its nose

Last week went pretty well. The final module received its outer cladding, including the delicate nose-cone in excellent weather. Standing close up, it looks mighty impressive. Not so much a base, more an alien landing craft - a cross between something from Starwars and Red Dwarf's StarBug. Pretty futuristic, for sure.

I spent most of the week preparing for Saturday's entertainment - Folk Night. Not just music, but poems, acts and film, it was to be a night for everyone from everyone. A venue was booked, then changed as temperatures dropped and a small space would be easier to heat. Acts singed up and practiced in secret (an achievement in itself at Halley). Taking the description "Folk Night" literally, the band found a mandalin and started practicing some trad songs, when Kirk explain that "Folk Night" is infact a Rothera-ism for variety show, and any music was welcome. That clearer up, we put away the fiddle, shaved off our beards and went back to what we do best - soft rock.

Following the well-proven formula of big tent, big sound system and bigger pile of beer, a small gang of volunteers attacked the skidoo tent and produced the venue. The tent already had a stage, so we added some wings, lighting, a bar and tables in the form of empty fuel drums. Heading back in for a bite to eat, it looked good.

Folk Night

The acts were plentiful and hilarious. They included a team of construction workers singing "Welcome to Hotel Halley 6 Site"; a "Bloopers" film by Kirk; Various bawdy acts and songs; Poetry readings; a couple of accoustic songs by Mat; a play staring Dave S, twice, using the video screen; and finally, the girls with a superb spoof of Grease, with a wild dance routine and a pimped up quad-bike.

Grease is the Word! *

The evening concluded with our new band, Toucan Rool and the TickSheets coming back on with some boot shaking country numbers, complete with special guests on the mic and drums.

Special guests Manii (L) and Marlin (Drums) join us for Country Roads*

Vicky (the Boss!) joins us for a Waifs number *
(L to R) Andy, Mark, Vicky, Dean, Me!

After playing for about an hour, my fingers and throat were raw. Mark and Andy still had more to give and were joined by keen singers to blasted out a few last numbers while I sat back and soaked up the atmosphere. It was a top night, enjoyed by all, especially the contributors. Definately one of the highlights of the season.

Charity Ski

Sunday dawned cleared headed thanks to construction types hoarding all the beer and refusing to share, so I joined Jules and Simon with my kite to crank out some Charity laps. There wasn't quite enough wind for my snowboard, but on skis I was flying. Kite-powered and leg powered skiers raced like hare and tortoise - the kiter speeding away down-wind, but then having to make slow tacks to get back up for the return leg. On the slick groomed snow, 3.5 laps came up easily before my fingers froze and it was time to go in. In total, we managed 218 laps - a massive achievement with some incredable personal bests. Andy RAN 18laps. A mighty 90km. On snow. Wow!

The end is nigh

There's only a week to go, and I'm glad to be leaving. Winter was great, but I would be lying if I said the summer has been an entirely happy time. Psycologists will be dissapointed to learn that those of us who wintered together are not, in fact, at each other's throats. We've had a great time and still get on fine. However, the personality tests for contract workers don't seem so tight. There are some great individuals on the crew, but as a group they are spoiled by the selfish actions of some. Communal living requires consideration and empathy. Things like not one of them helping clear up after Saturday night; cigarette butts on the floor; using the new cordless phone at the urinal (yes, really), and generally being all take and no give; all add up and have made a number of us seeth. But that's just part of coming back to reality, I suppose.

Hopefully when the blizzard dies I'll get some more great kiting and skiing with my mates, so I can leave with fresh memories of why this has been, in the vast majority, an amazing year.

(Cheers to Pete for the stared photos)

Charity Sponcored Ski

2008-02-15T13:37:00.004Z

This Sunday at Halley we are attempting to walk, ski and possibly kite the distance to the south pole! The total journey is 1600km and we'll try and achieve it by completing laps around the perimeter. Assuming everyone takes part, we'll each need to cover around 16km. No skidoos are allowed! I've pledged different numbers of laps depending on whether I'm on foot, ski or kite (although I'm hoping the wind will help and and can zoom round clocking up the miles with ease)

Training for the event

The charity we're collecting for is the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. For overseas readers (and British Landlubbers): The RNLI is the charity that provides a 24-hour lifesaving service around the UK and Republic of Ireland. Covering beaches, inshore and coastal waters, the volunteer crews brave trecherous conditions to save lives at sea. Having travelled through some pretty rough seas to get here, I can apprechiate the dangerous conditions the lifeboat crews have to face. Hopefully our efforts will add to their funds and allow them to buy the best kit possible.

For more on the RNLI, click here:
http://www.rnli.org.uk/

To sponcor us, or send a message of support, click here:
http://www.justgiving.com/ski_to_pole

Ups and Downs

2008-02-14T22:20:00.004Z

It's been another week of contrast.

On the ups, we've had the last few tent going on, some cracking progress on the venue for Saturday night's party and a good end-of-contract appraisal. A small gang of us have been tunnelling like we mean it, building access tunnels to allow the modules to be inspected over winter. The best one even featured a trap-door entrance!

Module tent being craned into place

As some things go up, others go down. The 24 whiteness that defines the Halley summer is no more, replaced by a dipping sun and fantastic evening pastel shades that brings people outside to photograph, ski or simply just watch.

The first sunset in 3 months!

A pleasant evening for a ski

Skijuring at sunset!

2008-02-12T14:48:00.000Z

WooHoo!

The Shack's back, bringing with it my Christmas box full of essential goodies like new clothes, books and the local paper. But there's no gain without pain and a quick dental check-up soon had Penny waving her drill at my teeth and fixing up the result of a high-sugar and low-fluride year. One filling's not too bad for a year down South, so I'm told...

Sunsets are making a welcome return, bringing with them perfect light for playing with my new camera lens.

Heading out to play

Passing the Simpson in the mist

Me, upright for once! (Cheers Jules)

Jules working it

Inspired by skateboard and mountain bike photography, I've been wanting to try and emulate that style with the kiteboarding at Halley. I doubt two weeks will be enough, but I learned a lot in one night. One thing's for sure - it's going to be fun trying...

In other news, the giant tent to cover other Halley VI modules have arrived. Working over the weekend to make the most of good weather, we craned them into place and padded out the beams to stop the material getting damaged by chaffing in high winds.

Padding the beams inside a module

Eat cake and kite to coast

2008-02-08T11:03:00.001Z

Yesterday was an important first step towards a normal life. Planning, desire, pain and the warm glow of satisfaction - feelings encountered most weekends back home - came flooding back. I didn't take a camera, so I'll have to try and describe it all in good old fashioned words. Here we go...

We've had this little plan for a while: Kiting due north along fresh, groomed tracks to Creek 4, the pleasant bay where the Shack docked. Three attempts have been aborted due to poor wind, but at afternoon tea break it was blowing an enthusiastic 15knts and all looked good. So we booked a Snowcat back-up team and stocked up on cake...

So many cakes, such little time...

After dinner, the wind told a different story - now 9knts at most. Most Halley plans revolve around waiting the wind to stop. Actually wanting it to blow is rare situation to be in, but, guessing there would be more speed higher up, we headed out all the same.

Launching in the low wind was tricky. Maybe I'd overdone the cake, but the kite was struggling to pull me up. First impressions suggested another failure, but on edging out of the building's wind shaddow the breeze picked up enough to convince us to give it a shot.

Running along the smooth, groomed track to the skiway convinced us to give it a go. Jules' GPS hit 44km/h and there was plenty of go to be had, if you worked the kite enough to get it. Kites are different to all other sails as they can generate more pull as they move through the sky. A-level vector equations could put a number on it, but put simply, the more the kite moves, the faster you go.

Regrouping, we set off along the drumline flying in close formation: Yellow, blue, yellow, blue. Adjusting the trimmer, I sat back in the harness holding course with only a slightest touch on the bar. Kilometer markers flew by and we were gaining on the Snowcat. Splitting like the Red-Wing in attack formation, we passed the cat on both sides and powerd on towards the coast.

After a few stops to relax and regroup, we arrived at the caboose and parked up. Warm Ribena passed round and hero photos taken, Dean was keen to feel some gravity again so we launched down the ramp onto the sea ice. It was damn steep, but soft. Plenty of falls reminded me that it'll take some time to convert kite-boarding skills to "real" snow.

Heading home, this time riding switch (wrong foot forwards) and edging hard against the much stronger wind, my legs started to burn. Where the journey out was slow and steady, this was fast and furious - blasting only a 1km or so at a time, then stopping to wave my legs in the air and to try and recover. Contrast was now zero so my eyes couldn't tell my knees what to expect and they were taking the punishment blind. Eventually we rejoined the groomed track and could finally relax for the last few k's to base.

By the time we got in it was midnight and the bar was closed, but the ribena and laughs still flowed. We had flown just under 40km on (what we believe to be) the first official kite journey in Halley history. Legs barely moving, I limped off to bed very, very happy.

January revisitted!

2008-02-07T16:07:00.000Z

Dean's managed to recover the final few missing photos from my laptop, so here's a little round-up of some comings and goings from the last few weeks.

Taking down the mast

Simon and I pulled the loggers out the ground, then he and Dean headed up to retrive the instruments. The snake-like wiring loom was quite a battle!

Delivery driving

All the goodies pulled from the lab were transfered to containers or sledges ready to head back to the ship and on to new sites. Here's my current ride with some cargo on board.

Crane driving

After initial differences (like which way a lever should move for Up and Down), the crane and I have finally clicked. Together we've plucked cargo from rooves, pulled boxes from holes and lowered crates into containers. On a good day it's almost Jedi - I don't need look at the controls and the boxes move as if by mind power alone. Which is handy, as I noticed some of the CASLab stuff costs £60k per box!

Finding relics from the past

While sorting the emergency containers we found a gallon of "medicinal" brandy under a bunch of feral sleeping bags. Just what the doctor ordered!

Other than that, I'm still running the recycling, experimenting with the incinerator and planning the end of season party. The 68h week is taking it's toll and each day is ridden out on a wave of caffine. Compared with last year I'm finding it harder to socialise, as by 10pm I'm ready to collapse and try to grab 8 precisious hour before it all starts again.

That said, the ship's due tomorrow bringing my Christmas goodies, some petrol and a change of routine. All good stuff.

A day down the coast

2008-02-04T11:47:00.000Z

What a top weekend!

Saturday had Wales' glorious victory (and some well justified banter), followed by the tightest band practice to date. We've settled on a set-list, a name - "Toucan Rule" (from two-can rule, the summer beer restriction) and a date, although the venue is still under negotiation.

Plans to kite-board to the coast are still on hold as the ceaseless wind has, well, ceased. I think there have been two kiting days in the past three weeks, perhaps an all-time low. However, Sunday was still and sunny so we headed down to the creeks for a spot of iceclimbing.

Walking in past a frozen Cenotaph Corner

Although the termometer said -10C, the still air and reflected light from the icecliffs made us incredably hot.

Down by the sea

Last weekend there were orcas and penguins swimming along the edge, but nothing today.

Ice-foot underwater

The ice was solid enough to get right up to the edge. The lower section is frozen sea, the upper snow packed down on top of it.

"Greasey Sea

Being totally still, the sea had a strange, half frozen greasy appearance. Futher out, ice bergs appeared and disapeared looming above the horizon. Very bizarre light!

Playing on the icecliffs

This is what we'd come for. Good, solid ice, about 25m high and amazingly warm. Running up the easy lines and chatting at the bottom reminded me of easy days on the Peak Gritstone. Construction staff as well as the base crew came along, so we had plenty of tips for Cape Town from the locals.

Me on the crux

Later on we chucked a rope down the difficult corner Toddy and I had explored during relief. Better light made it a easier to see the good ice, but no-less steep! With a few falls and lots of grunting, I dragged myself to the top. Others followed with a variety of styles from delicate technique to pure arm power! It was a great laugh.

Today work trudges on, but morale is high thanks to aching arms reminding us of a top weekend.

What's tidier than tidy...?

2008-02-02T18:14:00.000Z

A 26-19 Wales win at Twickenham, that's what!!!

There just might be three Evans's singing in the bar later...

Looking at BBC with 1 minute to go

28 Days Left!

2008-01-31T22:17:00.000Z

I had never thought about leaving much until last week. Maybe it's the new month or reports of South African beaches that have turned my eye to the calander and my mind to moving on.

Simon decommisioning the CASLab Mast

Work's been trundling on with most of the build materials now un-packed, freeing me some time to find my scattered possesions and locate a guitar and snowboard sized box. My crane driving is improving with familiarity, as the Italian controls were baffling at first (moving a lever up would, I hoped, make the boom go the same way. But no!).

Days are long and the few leisure hours are restricted to foot or wind power as we're out of petrol till the ship arrives. Couple that with water restrictions and late post, and I really could be in a UK summer! Fellow winterers Ant, Dean and Richard were also feeling the need for space, so last Sunday we headed out to the closest thing Halley has to a landmark - the 4km marker. It was a gloriously warm day and fantastic to get away from the noise and clatter of the station for a few hours. Thinking back on it made us laugh: skiing 4km to see a pile of fuel drums must mean it's time to go!

A Halley Landmark

That's all for now. Off to feed and enjoy my precious two personal hours...

The tents are on

2008-01-27T16:59:00.001Z

I'm back! Everything from my last back-up has successfully transfered to a borrowed laptop, so the blog continues!

Lashing the tents up

This week was mostly spent inside the Halley Vi modules, lashing the giant tents to the frame work to try and withstand the infamous ceaseless winds of Halley winter. After the weather haven experience, I had little hope for the giant tents' chances, but have seens exactly how many lashing points are in there, I now recon they'll be ok!

Inside the plant module

The heavy plant is in, but mothballed for winter. It'll be commissioned next season once the outer panels are on.

Skis with keels

This one's for Ben - The units wont slide away as it's totally flat here, but the flexing of the legs in high wind could cause them to "walk" if unsupported. This problem is solved by large dighy-style dagger boards bashed into the snow!

Other news - the weather is getting colder. The days of working outside in jeans and thermal top are gone and we're back to a not-unpleasant -10C. The new (as yet nameless) band are storming ahead with a largely new set. All we need now is a venue to fit 100 revellers...

Total Isolation!

2008-01-25T10:33:00.000Z

My little window to the outside world has slammed shut.

Laptops don't like showers, so I was surpised that mine appeared to survive an encounter with a glass of water last month. It was all false hope though, as its condition has steadily deteriorated and now failed completely.

It'll try and keep this blog going, but service will be reduced. Lucky I keep everything backed up externally...

Halley VI - coming on nicely

2008-01-20T23:14:00.000Z

The long days starting to fly past. Working on site, shifting, digging and driving has been excellent physical training. I've lost all fat gained over winter and am feeling like I've finally recovered from hibernation. The job's not especially interesting - I move things to where they're needed: It's what they're needed for that's worth talking about.

This season (and the next few) are all about building a new station. The principal driver for this is not so much the age of the existing base, but of the ice itself. The whole Brunt Ice Shelf we're sitting on is flowing west at about a metre or so per day. Glaciologists have studied this across the ages and determined that the a large chunk of it, including the existing base, is due to calve off and head north within the next decade or so.

To avoid Halley V meeting the Shackleton half-way home, BAS have decided to build a new station. Mounted on skis, Halley VI will be built on site over the next few seasons, then towed into position and commissioned. Its final destination will be roughly the same as where this station started life in 1990 - some 18km "inland".

Today was bright and beautiful. The summer's furious heat is leaving as the sun sits lower in the sky "overnight". It wont cross the horizon until mid February, but the difference in elevation is enough to drop nighttime temperatures to about -15C. This is great for skiing as the snow conditions in -10C are pretty much perfect. Construction work stops on Sunday, so I went for a nose around the site. There was a module in just about every stage of construction, so I'll take you through the process.

How to build a research station

1. Jack up space frame and remove old legs

2. Attach hydraulic legs

3. Slot in Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) cassettes containing all plumbing and wiring

4. Lay the floor

5. Place module's pre-fabricated "rooms" on platform

6. Add wall and roof beams

7. Move plant (generators pictures) into position and secure

8. Find a big crane

9. Cover with a large tent to keep snow out of complex machinery

So there you go. More to come as the sides go on, and hopefully we'll then get a look inside.

I love it when a plan comes together....

2008-01-16T17:31:00.001Z

Here's a little video from my flight earlier in the week.

Gotta go - am building a new engine management system for a generator.

Flying!

2008-01-15T19:05:00.000Z

Yesterday was great. Just as I was settling into the mundane but somehow satisfying process of compacting waste plastic into bales, Ags came rushing in exclaiming "ah, there you are. We need a co-pilot".

The weather had cleared and a fuel depot needed restocking, so half an hour later I was at the skiway ready to go.

Chad fueling the aircraft

We heaved and lashed four drums of fuel in the back, then strapped in as Mark corrected his altimeter for air pressure and banged our destination into the GPS. Within a few minutes the engines were warm and we were ready to go.

Ready for take off!

Taking off on the groomed skiway was very smooth - The Twin Otter is a Short-Take-Off-&-Landing (STOL) aircraft so gets airborne only motorway speeds, even less is there's a headwind.

Once climbed and on course, Mark asked if I'd like to fly. Trying not to grin like a maniac, I said yes. Being a highly qualified instructor, he gave some brief instructions and then handed over the controls. To get the feel, I turned left, leveled then came back right again, all the time watching the horizon ahead. Next was up and down, watching the Rate of Climb and Air Speed instruments to be sure I wasn't pulling too hard.

Another school-boy dream comes true!

Although the yoke is connected to the control edges by nothing more than cables, the feel was positive and responsive, requiring little movement to affect our direction. If you can remember a car without power-steering - it felt like that, but in 3D! I was a bit surprised when after 10 minutes, Mark started filling in his paper work. A little while later he looked up, gave a new compass bearing to follow, and tucked into a sandwich!

The best job on earth

After a little over an hour we had covered 125 mile onto the continent itself. As the GPS showed our destination approaching, I handed the controls back and strained my eyes to spot the marker, a single oil drum, against the enormous white backdrop. Suddenly we spotted it and dived into a bumpy but precise landing, coming to rest right on target.

Waiting for the propeller to stop completely - they're right next to the front doors - I stepped down onto "Proper Antarctica". Not just a floating ice shelf, this was the actual continent - although it looked no different at all!

Mark unloading his aircraft

Petrol-Station Diner

If we couldn't see any difference, we soon felt it. The aircraft's altimeter showed we'd landed at 5,500ft - enough to feel short of breath when lugging 180kg drums about.

With the drums in place, we opened our flasks for a civilised lunch and chatted about the planes. The Twotter design dates from 1964 with the last being made in 1988. Age is irrelevant as maintenance standards are so high, but even if BAS were to go shopping for a new aircraft there's nothing on the market that can do the job. High capacity, simple and tough, they really are the Transit of the sky. Proven in harsh environments across the world, pilots have a well-founded trust in the aircraft. This trust was tested and proven during a Medevac from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in 2001 when a Canadian team flew in temperatures in the -60C - so cold that blow-torches had to be used to light drums of aviation fuel to illuminate the runway in the winter night!

I've always admired them form afar, but having been up-front I can now really appreciate why the little red planes are so special.

20-something years old and still lookin' good

On the way home I swapped seats to let Les, the incoming plumber, have a play. Although he'd had a full RAF trade career, he was still as delighted as me to have a fly.

Mark (L) shows Les (R) the controls

Sitting in the back, I got to admire the spectacular crevassed Hinge Zone (which we visited back in March) from above. It was humbling to think how 40 years ago lives were lost trying to force a route through the crevassed maze, and we had just leap-frogged many years' work in a relatively safe hour and a bit.

The crevassed maze of the Hinge Zone

Passing over the spectacular area, Mark took the controls once more to give us a closer view. Although the cowboy days of leaving ski-marks on mountaintops are long gone, these guys can really fly.

Turning for a better view

Sight-seeing done, we headed back in via the Halley VI site, where the remote construction camp is now up and running.

Halley VI site

From the air you can see how much the old base has changed. Three 1km long cargo lines stretch northwards with the main construction taking pace in the prop-blur, just to the right of the building cluster.

We landed smoothly, taxied in and climbed down with massive thanks and big grins. These little toppings make staying on well worth it.

Videos coming soon. More on the cracking little Twin Otters here.

Penguin behaviours

2008-01-15T18:38:00.000Z

Vicky, our new boss deserves a lot of credit. Despite the busy construction programme, fun trips are still running on the weekend to take in the sights of the area. On Sunday morning, after some pleasant kiting, I got asked if I fancied another trip down to the coast. I honesty didn't expect to get another so checked if anyone might have missed out. They hadn't, and the place was definately mine, so off we went.

The ice was a lot more broken with much fewer birds than a month ago. Those that remained were mostly chicks in the last stages of malting into their adult plumage, ready to take to sea. Due to the stunning heat (-1C!), the place really stank!

The full photo set is at the bottom ofhere
, but this time I tried to take pictures of penguins doing something other than looking cute.

Some Penguin Behaviors

1. Chasing off predators
I was wrong about there being no land-base predators, as the skuar will eat eggs and weak chicks. These lot seemed ok, but we found a less fortunate carcass picked clean to the bone.

2. Malting
This is an action shot, honest! You can see the adult feathers coming through as the fluffy infant coat falls off.

3. Flapping
I got too close and he didn't like it!

4. Drinking
They eat snow to drink.

5. Feeding
A few adults were still feeding chicks, but not many. If was funny to see over sized chicks pressuring parents for one last meal. Not as funny as fully grown lambs tipping over their mothers when they try to suckle, but it made me laugh all the same.

6. Looking embarrassed
Penguins love to keep themselves clean and are forever preening their coats. This one looks ashamed to be half dressed.

7. Posing
They were as curious as ever, but a bit cautious as the skuars were about.

8. Being cute
It's in their job description, and I'd get complaints if I left this off!

Fid FM

2008-01-12T11:52:00.000Z

As part of BAS's media work, we've been asked to contribute to a BBC Radio 4 programme called "Team Spirit". The programme follows the lives of team living and working in closed or semi-closed environments, recording their experiences, interactions and highs and lows. It's likely to be series featuring us, a Formula 1 team, a Morris dancing troupe (?) and some Majorettes. The show should air sometime in April. I'll post the exact date as soon as I know.

Tamsin handed the recorder over as she left, so over the last few days I've been recording my diary plus some of the sounds of base. Last night it was Ant in the kitchen; this morning the weather balloon being launched into a raging blizzard.

A face for radio!

Later I popped into Brian's workshop to try and capture the sounds of plumbing. The quality of the mic and Marantz recorder is unreal - every little sound, even pencils on pipes, came out crystal clear.

Hisssss, crackle, clunk

As a big fan of Today and Home Truths, it's great to be doing some work for a station I've admired for ages. It's also quite scary, as 4's standards are so high. I just hope they like the Taffy accent!

For a few dollars more...

2008-01-11T21:13:00.001Z

So the ship's left and I'm still here, working in my new, extended contract as "Base General Assistant". It's a general Gofer job which depending on who I'm talking to, can either be described as "waste export manager", or bin-man. I took this offer as it means I leave in March, which is more convenient for meeting my family and lining up my next job.

Dave S is now capably handling the Met role single-handedly, although I popped back in the other morning to help troubleshoot the Automated Weather Station, which was having issues. Luckily Ryan speaks Perl and re-jigged the code, so all's well. There's talk of some more field work in a few weeks, but for the time being I just take on whatever odd jobs need doing. Working with Andy and James, I've compressed waste, tidied the garage, re-marked the route to Halley VI, unblocked the melt-tank shaft and recorded a radio-diary for Radio 4. It's been physical and varied, to say the least!

Nicolla unblocks the melt-tank shaft

The new buildings are slowly taking shape, but the weather's Halleyed-out again, so there's no photos to see. To the south, the skyline has changed dramatically, with the tall masts and wide radar antenna gone allowing an open view of the polar plateau. More accommodation buildings have sprung up to house the South African contractors who are causing the waste team enormous grief as they slowly learn the concept of material separation. Did Spitting Image get it right, we ask at times.

But smiles were back on faces for Dean's 30th. After a good evening's boarding, we sat in the bar as he opened his present - 2008's latest ride:

Dean's new ride - 30 today!

Can't wait to see how that goes behind a skidoo.

Thanks for the post!

2008-01-08T23:39:00.000Z

The second Twin Otter arrived today, bringing with it a massive sackful of mail. After the gutting news that my Christmas box was still en-route from the UK, this was a welcome surprise.

A massive thanks to all who posted cards, letters, CDs and other essentials to make the last few weeks fly by. This really does mean a lot to me, but blease, please, don't send anything else, as it definitely wont make it before I leave.

Thanks again.

A proper send off

2008-01-06T17:08:00.000Z

Trying to say good-byes after being awake for almost a whole day didn't really work. On Saturday afternoon I was well pleased to get a lift down to Shackleton to see off Tamsin and Kirsty, and to say a better fairwell to the others.

Since I left, the Shackleton had snapped one of her mooring line and been blown out to sea where she rode out the storm. Now she was standing alongside using thrusters, the gangway couldn't be lowered so people were hoisted aboard using the Wor Geordie.

The last of Team Met join ship

As the crew secured the cranes we had some good banter and fantastic snowball fight - a classic case of height advantage vs supplies. Those on board soon found better entertainment from Dave the purser's complimentary champagne and retired safely out of range on the helideck to toast Halley and their voyage.

Tom, Tamsin, Alex, Kirsty and Chris say cheers

As glasses were raised, Captain Marshal appeared at the bridge-wing controls to edge his ship sideways away from the ice and turn her bow to the north. With a puff of smoke from the funnel, the main propeller started churning the water and the Shackleton slipped quietly away.

Heading for CapeTown

Joined by three emperors, we waved till the ship became a speck on the horizon. It was great to give the first winter departures a proper send off.

Next stop, Cape Town

Heading back to base, the chef's had been busy laying on a bbq and bar. There was definite relief the all cargo had landed safely and on Monday, the building work can launch ahead at full speed.

BBQ, with all the cargo in the background

Black and White Penguins

2008-01-06T16:27:00.000Z

I've had an enjoyable three days off to recover from nightshift, and have finally got round to developing some black and white films I shot on my last visit to the colony.

Why bother with film? you might ask. Well, it was a challenge to myself to see what I'd learned over the year. By taking away all the extras of a DSLR and using a fully manual camera, I could be sure it was me, not the electronics, doing it right.

I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Emperor being empiric

Colony against the icecliffs

Colony again

Young 'un

Gaggle of chicks

(For photographers: All were taken on a Nikon FE3 with a 50mm Nikor lens, using Ilford 50 film and scanned on a Nikon negative scanner. No computer editing was done).

Departures

2008-01-04T03:38:00.000Z

It's Friday. Or so I'm informed.

The last cargo left Amderma with day-shift so we spent our time putting the last of the out-going waste on Shackleton. Work done, it was time to kick the bodyclock round the dial once more. Going onto nights is easy, but coming off is like coming off smack (I would imagine - think of the Crawling Baby scene in Trainspotting...).

After peaceful sleep and queue-less meals, part of me was dreading returning to the hustle and bustle of Halley. Fears were relieved as I climbed down from the Snowcat and caught up with Dean, Tamsin and others based on site over the last few weeks. But lunchtime, with 100 people in a canteen designed for 40 was too much for my overtired mind to take, so I went to bed.

A few hours later I emerged to bid fair-well to part of the gang I've worked and played with for the last year. Searching hard for familiar faces in a sea of strangers, Alex, Chris, Tom walked down a corridor of handshakes, pulled on their coats and were gone.

Happy New Year! (Updated)

2008-01-02T08:15:00.000Z

We're nearly done. After two weeks of unloading and lugging, all bar one load is off and safely up at base. The last few parts are large and fragile, so we'll move them once the wind dies down. After working flat-out for 20 days, it's great to spend the afternoon off watching films, lounging in the sauna and just kicking back.

Hurry up and wait

On the whole, I can't believe how lucky we've been with the weather - A blizzard-free fortnight is a rare thing.

Shadow on Amderma's hull

New Year matched Christmas in its splendor. While others gathered and counted the pips, we exchanged gloved handshakes and hitched up the next load. Celebrations came later, and in style, with the crew inviting us to their cabins for beers and Champagne! In the spirit of international cooperation, Toddy and Chris look some of the Russian crew for a tour. Although few spoke English, they returned half an hour later with big smiles, penguin photos and many gestures of thanks.

Dayshift have had some fun too - this igloo appeared at shipside one morning.

Back home, New Year was always a big deal for meeting up with old mates from Bangor and heading somewhere hilly to play. This tradition is too good to die, so Toddy and I set off to explore one of the creeks and abseil back down to the ship.

Updated - All photos now working!

Toddy heading into Creek 6

Walking the ridge to the right

Setting up the anchor

And abseiling back down

To meet Chris, 2nd Mate from the Shackleton

Safety First - Clear labeling saves backs!

Brian makes the tea

So there we are. 2008 has started well and with any luck will carry on the same.

Meet the Mothership!

2007-12-30T11:24:00.000Z

We're onto the second ship!

The Amderma approaches

Registered in Vladivostok, The Amdera is a former Soviet tank transporter now making her living as an ice-strengthened cargo vessel of considerable capacity - She's got five hold, will house 500 containers and has a drive-on ramp which is so large the Captain dare not lower it onto the ice in case is crashes through!

Drilling moorings into the ice

Mooring her up took the best part of a morning as six anchors needed drilling into solid ice, beneath the 2m of snow!

Tying up

Once dug in, the lines had to be dragged by SnowCat as they were far too heavy to pull!

Once settled in, cargo came off thick and fast. Containers and big, easy boxes, plus the Shackleton's expert crew handling and directing operations have made things so a lot more smoothly.

Truckin' Toddy in K16

Pulling up the ramp

Oh, Christmas finally happened last night when I found some pressies I'd hidden away in the bottom of my bag. Cheers Lucy!

Christmas Pressies!

A few more relief photos

2007-12-27T07:33:00.000Z

The ice didn't hit us! It came close, but turned away at the last minute and was completely out of sight when I got up this morning. We spent the morning tying up the Anderma and are now relaxing while her crew start unlashing cargo. Thing will start to move when the next shift comes on at 07:30 and should be going well by the time we're back at 19:30.

In the mean time, here's some more photos:

STOP!

Break, Break. 10-4! Any foxy ladies want to meet for a brown bottle?...
...No amount of 70's CB talk will make that happen down here!

It's all gone...

...Halley!

For some reason the summer crew don't believe me when I say this is nice weather.

Hiding from the wind when re-fueling

Snow and Ice - Cat

View from the belay

Bit of fun

2007-12-27T07:20:00.000Z

DIRT Mag is one of the best magazines on the planet. Sure, there's a few miss-spellings and apostrophe fascists will quake in horror, but the writing is inspiring and the photography mind-blowing. If you ride mountain bikes, subscribe now. If you don't, buy a copy anyway and look at the photos.

Anyway, here's a little piece of Cardiff I sent in to a competition a while back.

Can't wait to get my hands on the fresh copies sitting somewhere in the post back on base. And on a bike again...

Easy part complete!

2007-12-26T10:16:00.000Z

Relief is done. At least the easy part of it.

Over the past six days (I had to check my calender to find out the number!), we have emptied the ship of incoming cargo, pumped out fresh fuel, man handled the blasted drums and backloaded with waste for recycling.

Christmas didn't affect our schedule, but Jules cooked some fantastic fresh fish as all the turkeys had gone up to base. Where they ate well.

Progress has generally been good, but all driving teams have had late finishes when trying to get that "one last" sledge emptied prior to clocking off. The Cats are surviving well, thanks to Scott and Bryan's constant care.

Snowcat getting serviced

But, as ever, for each low there's a high. And my high was about 25metres of solid icecliff that Toddy and I got out to play on after Christmas Day's work was done. Take one bombproof belay, add an easy ramp to start, heat up with a slightly over-vertical crux and garnish with penguins and a view. Christmas was good.

Christmas Treat!

There were fun and games tonight. Just as work was over and I finished relaxing in the sauna, Toddy banged on my door: The ship was threatened by closing ice and needed to move, and the skidoos needed running back to the shelf. Pulling work kit back on, we ran down the gang plank, gunned the engines and made the caboose in record time. On returning on one Skidoo, the crane was ready to winch it aboard as Captain Marshall, woken from his bed, paced the bridge ordering fenders raising and the ship ready for sea.

Floes closing in like a jigsaw

As it happened, the main floe has passed us by. But as I sign off and head for dinner there were another few, so the view from my porthole could be very different in the morning.

Merry Christmas and Merrier New Year to everyone back home, and all random readers!

Time dilation and penguins in the workplace

2007-12-22T11:09:00.000Z

My clock says 8am, but I've just finished work. Somewhere, 12 hours went missing. Probably during Friday, in which I managed about 2 asleep!

In the last few days I've been helping Chris pack up his Aurora Radar, carefully stripping, labeling and padding the electronics which are off to new homes across the globe.

We've been having fun guess-timating the value of the kit (a requirement for shipping), as most of it's custom made. Prices start with an engineer's salary, then we add the hardware. And were very, very careful not to drop it!

Things really started to fly on Friday. Just after breakfast we were informed the Shackleton would arrive at 16:00, so to get back to bed! After packing frantically, I grabbed a few hours sleep, then jumped on the Sledge heading to the coast.

Once on the ship, Christmas came early. Long showers, fresh fruit and veg and delicious food more than made up for working straight through the night. And best of all, the main gift under the fireplace, was a quiet cabin and 10 hours glorious, sacred, snore-free sleep. Never before has nightshift made me such a happy man!

This is now I'll be spending Christmas. Driving cargo from shipside, over frozen sea-ice to the top of the cliffs behind. Sounds a little dangerous, you might think. But, the ice is 3m thick, plus I'm wearing a life jacket and am always followed by outrider on skidoo, armed with a throw-line to fish me out.

After the crap weather and bad mood, I'm so glad the WOW factor is back.

But, like most jobs, not everything goes exactly to plan...

Here's a new melt tank coming off the ship...

This is as far as I my SnowCat could move it...

But the Big-Boys-Toys finished the job!

There's a good bunch of us on the shift. Tom is the only other winterer from last season, the others are: 2x new winter mechanics; 2x RAF mast fitters; 2xSummer staff.

Although the day lasts 12 hours, there are dedicated tea breaks, known even by non-smokers as "Smoko". As a former German tram driver, Tom is taking a while to adapt to this most British "schedule"!

So, after we've dragged three sledges up the bank, we link them up at a depot on top of the shelf where a Challenger tractor can speed them away on a groomed road, getting back to base on only 30 minutes. The ice has been kind this year and the journey is loads easier the 5 hour round trips that last year required.

As I've said before, Antarctica is like anywhere else in the world...

...Even my neighbours stick their noses in!

So it's going well. I'm off to try and work out how to get a real-ale from the bar, then another 10 hours sleep is on the cards.

5 hours to go!

2007-12-20T14:02:00.000Z

She's broken through, Cap'n!

At about coffee time, the Shack smashed through the last piece of solid ice. She's now steaming easily through open water and will tie up at 16:00 (local). I'll be going straight onto night shift, starting work at 20:00.

Time for some sleep.

Packing and Penguins

2007-12-19T15:48:00.000Z

The Shack's less than a day away. She's having to ram some of the thicker sections of ice, but progressing well. We're very, very nearly ready. The last few boxes are leaving the Simpsons this afternoon, but I wont be putting the packing tape down just yet as my whole room needs boxing up too

But, you know what they say about all work and no play...

Yesterday morning me managed a quick trip to see how the chicks are doing.

Bright and glorious!

It was well warm. So warm we recorded a new high of the season, a mighty +0.4C!

Look at that open water!

Don't worry, we're not bringing the ships in here, they'll be docking at a penguin-free creek further east.

Ceaselss, erm, Sunshine!

Almost fully grown

Adult feathers coming through

The chicks were starting to loose their fluffy, infant coats, gaining new waterproof adult feathers underneath. It's vitally important they get their tux's on before all the ice breaks up, as their fluffy coats aren't waterproof.

Super bright - even with a filter on the lens!

Penguins and ice cave

Ice Cave Again

The ice cave looked appealing, but we didn't dare go near as the intense sunshine was melting cornices, causing them to collapse. This snow's hard as ice.

Moody skies

As we turned to leave the sky clouded over, looking very atmospheric. Not a bad way to spend a morning.

If you're killing time in the office, click here to see penguins from egg onwards.

Thanks for the post

2007-12-15T13:52:00.000Z

Not sure I've thanked everyone for the post and bit and pieces they've sent down. So, Helena, Lucie, the Cardiff Crew, BlogLand Lurkers and all at home, cheers.

Thanks to Sarah for the paper-plane calender. Here's some of the best ones:

Simpson Shutdown

2007-12-15T13:32:00.001Z

We're done. The boxes are packed. Remaining instruments have moved. Dave's new office is ready. The Simpson's got an almost eerie emptiness to it, but it's ready to house paints, glues and other essential supplies that mustn't be allowed to freeze.

Empty Office

Waiting stockroom

Me and Dean in storage

We've managed to hang onto the back room and have fitted it out as an acceptable office for Dave next year. It's cramped with four of us in there, but I expect to be out on site next week shutting down remote containers and getting them ready for shipping.

The new office

Last night was fun. Chad, our Canadian Air Mech has bought a new 16sqM kite and was keen to try it out, so Chris and I went out after dinner to give it a whirl. 16sqM is a LOT of area, more than 50% more than what I'm used to, but the light wind made it easy to control and soon Chad was dragging himself about and getting a good feel for it. Hopefully there'll be enough wind for him to get skis on later today...

Nice weather for ships

2007-12-14T14:32:00.000Z

Last week's gales seem to have smashed up the sea ice, making life loads easier for our ships. Every noon the captains send their positions. Here's where they were today.

The Ships: Red=Sea Ice. Blue = Antarctica

Polarstern plowed through easily and looks to have arrived at Neumayer. The Shackleton was briefly held up by heavy seas, but entered the ice in calmer conditions yesterday and is making good speed. Halley is further west than Neumayer, roughly where the E of Amderma is on the map.

The tractor boys are down at the edge of the iceshelf, smoothing the ramp ready to unload cargo. Back on base, we've emptied rooms, tidied offices and are back to the familiar Antarctic routine of waiting...

Smiling

2007-12-11T20:00:00.000Z

I smiled again today.

The combination of terrible weather and sleepless night has been getting me down recently. But I've just come back onto the Simpson to find Nick Kershaw booming on the stereo and the girls playing hopskotch in the newly emptied office. It was impossible not to grin.

It's the people that make the place.

ZorDead - Live at the Garage

2007-12-09T21:22:00.000Z

We thought it would never happen. It was said it couldn't be done.

Last Saturday we played probably our last gig as Z or Dead in Halley's equivalent to a stadium, The Garage.

Loading the tourbus with essential supplies

Transporting all the gear took two sledges and a gang of roadies...

Mark sound checks

The garage is a great venue with much better acoustics and loads more space than the Laws. Having set up and checked levels, we sat round hoping the familiar (crap) Halley weather wouldn't put off the crowds.

Build it, and they will come

But they did come! As people drifted in the gig opened with a fresh mix from DJ Tom, complete with glowstick and dancers getting everyone in the mood.

DJ Tom warms up the crowd

Jim raving into his 22nd birthday

Come Zed time, we opened with some Bryan Adams and soon had some spectacular dancing from Dave. I was laughing so hard it was all I could do to keep playing!

The Zed

Over the last few month we've worked hard on increasing our setlist, adding some U2, Oasis and Who. With tounges firmly in cheeks, we also played The Wind Of Change - our new Power Ballard!

Mirrorball spectacular

At the end of the second set, Mark came back on with his homemade slide guitar for a fantastic poultry-themed set including Little Red Rooster and Free Bird. He's been playing pubs for years and is damn good.

Mark wow's the crowd with his solo set

Some of the crowd, being wowed

We finished at midnight with what else but Slade's Merry Christmas and headed back, happy that although we may never play together again (as Alex leaves on the first ship), all the winter's practice and persistence was a success.

(Thanks to Joe for the colour photos)

Insomnia in the midnight sun

2007-12-09T14:07:00.000Z

I'm broken. I've been on early shift this week, working 7:00-18:30, but for the first time on my life, I can't sleep. The new arrivals have brought a whole host of knocks, bangs and snores that travel through the building seemingly straight into my ears. Earplugs make little difference, but ironically, I've been sleeping much much better now the the wind's picked up to gale force, drowning out all the other noizes.

The office is now pretty much packed up and last night our band played a very successful gig in the garage. I've got some photos, but my camera battery's flat, so you'll have to wait to see them.

In the meantime, we got the good news that the Shackleton has loaded and left Cape Town and is steaming south a few days behind the German research ship Polarstern and not far off the South African Aghulas. We've been eagerly watching satellite images of the sea ice and making wagers on when the Shack' will arrive. The presence of the Polarstern has hotted up the betting. She's a much larger, heavier ship of Ice Breaker class, where as the Shack is a lighter Ice Strengthened vessel. Tom has worked on board carrying out aviation meteorology in the Arctic and is enthusiastic about the ease with which she can break through ice. If the Shack can follow her path, the odds may change significantly....

Click here to see where the ships are.
Or here to read more about Polarstern.

Summer Starts Here

2007-12-03T15:06:00.000Z

Last week was busy for the aircraft crew, with three planes on the deck within a few hours all needing fueling and unloading. The novelty of planes arriving has just about worn off now, but there was a good crowd at the airstrip to see off Sune, who left for a fantastic three months in the field.

Sune leaving on Bravo Lima

The weather's remained on our side, staying still and fine for long enough to get back to the Halley VI site and fix the weather logger. Carl (Project Manager) and Steve (Civil Engineer) came along for the ride to check out the site. Their complex plans amount to little more than a few flags in the snow at the moment, but soon masts, access shafts, fibre-optic lines and all the
essentials on which the site will run will be dug in.

Steve and Carl examine the Halley VI site

The Hard Ice Cafe Cocktail Bar opened for the last time on Saturday night, running down the surplus stocks of spirits and letting everyone unwind for one last time before beer rationing starts. Known as "Aussie Rules", the summer regime is "two cans, per man, per day.... Perhaps". There are two good reasons for this system: 1. Halley is now a building site with lots of heavy plant movement throughout the 12h shift. A clear head is essential for everyone's safety. 2. There's simply not enough storage space for unlimited beverages for 120 people! I'm quite happy with the situation as this is the season for kiting or skiing every evening, and my glass of red with Saturday's meal is unaffected.

Welcome cocktails in the bar

One thing that has changed for the worse are meals. Not in quality, as Ant and the two new chefs are rustling up fine dishes, but in ambiance. We no longer dine, but feed. In, get, find place, eat, leave table so next person can get a seat. it's the only way as there's twice as many people on station as the dining room can hold!

But every down has an up, and that is Gash Days are no more! For the first time, Halley has a team of domestic staff taking care of all things household. And they're excellent. I thought we'd kept standards high over the winter, but the place is now really gleaming.

Finally I bear the sad news that my Mullet has gone. In keeping with Lonely Planet's psycho-analysis of winterers, Dean and I let Kirsty and Jules loose with the clippers and briefly sported two of the worst hairstyles known to man: The Rat-Tail and the Raver-Undercut.

Wrong beyond words

After a few hours scaring the newcomers, the clippers came out again and I'm back where I started with a tidy #4. I needed it. It's getting warm outside.

More Planes. More People.

2007-11-29T00:08:00.000Z

Over the last week the new crew are settling in well and the base has taken on much greater air of purpose with skidoos and bulldozers buzzing around getting everything ready for the ship's seemingly imminent arrival.

The weather is playing along too and has laid off the ceaseless-wind/drifting-snow combination we know so well. For now, at least. On the work side of life, all our instruments are now on the main Laws building and after a few days calibrating and checking, they're working well. If all goes well tomorrow I should be popping upto the Halley VI site to sort the troublesome weather station, then all will be done!

Hand-overs are starting in earnest, forcing me to think back to last year and try to pitch my explanations at the right level: There's a lot to take in and Halley is full of local names and TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations). I remember wondering why I would need to enter a Horsebox to get to an Onion? And what was the difference between a PWD and AWS? And why oh-why is the Creek2 caboose actually at Precious Bay? It seems that times may change, but names stick. In spite of it all, Dave (who's taking over the science for next season) is picking it up well.

There's is, of course, far more than just work to learn at Halley.

Joe (New Sparky) stylin the board

Neil reflects on the evening

Dave picks it up fast

Tom carving under the midnight sun

Doo View

Ever suffering for my art, I thought sitting backwards on the doo would make for great photos. More like a dead arm from hanging on, and a full memory card with about three decent pictures. He who dares, my son...

Doo's parked up

When all the fun was over, we briefly retired to the bar only to find the first BAS aircraft of the season was heading in. Pulling boots back on, we headed down the skiway just in time to see Brave Lima arrive.

Permission to buzz the field? Granted

Although the other planes received a good greeting, out own aircraft somehow felt a bit more special. Running a little late from having to dig up barrels of fuel from a glacier somewhere between Rothera and here, the little red plane appeared on the horizon at about 23:00. To waves and cheers from the snow, the pilot passed low with landing lights blazing before circling and touching down.

Twin Otter approaching the crowd.

Welcomes and unloading

Forming a chaingang, we piled bags onto a sledge while the pilots and air-mechs lashed the plane down. This is vitally important at Halley, as a good wind can easily exceed the aircraft's take off speed!

Pilot Mark making final shutdown checks.

The last load has brought number up to about 30. This weekend winter will officially end, bringing the summer madness of 12h days and limited beers. I cant wait.

Nearly a full house...

2007-11-24T19:16:00.000Z

Another plane arrived yesterday, this time at a far more sociable hour as our clocks have gone back to GMT-3 to synchronise with our sister station, Rothera, on the peninsular.

Halley International reopens Novelty penguin giftshop just out of shot.

The plane was another Basla. Like the Twin Otter, it's an old design based on the 1940-something DC3, but with modern engines and navigation aids. Like everything in Antarctica, there are no frills - just proven reliability.

The Basla

Once the engines were shut down eight BAS staff, the crew and two German scientist heading for the next stop at Neuamayer station jumped off. As the crew refueled, we started unloading straight away.

Off comes the cargo

While the newcomers headed for a meal, we started figuring out exactly how Sune's field equipment would fit! Sune has spent the winter taking us on field trips. Now he's familiar with the terrain he'll be spending three months in the field undertaking a massive geological survey
on the main continent. And down here there's no such thing as packing light!

In goes the skidoo

And the sledge

Sune ready to rock and roll!

Packing all the kit took a fair bit of pushing and swearing, but it all went in eventually and after lunch the plane headed on, hoping to get another two stops in that day,

Ready to go

It's good to see familiar faces from the Cambridge office, plus new staff who will be taking over for next year. Last night most were tired from the long flight, but hopefully tonight we'll crack open the wine and get to know people over Ant's usual Saturday night excellence. Although we're only at about 50% capacity, the place is feeling very full. Lucky then that Met shifts start early so there's no queue for the tea, and that my room-mate doesn't snore!

Ceaseless wind....

2007-11-21T22:02:00.000Z

The blizzard's stopped now, but I'm still struggling to describe just how white this place can get when the snow starts flying around. This was the Quad at midnight last night. Kinda gets the idea across.

Skijuring movie clip (Now fixed)

2007-11-19T21:27:00.000Z

While the blizzard rages outside I've been busy on the video editor and have got the sizing right.

So here we go. Skijuring video take two...

Penguins, spindrift and tractors

2007-11-18T13:54:00.000Z

We got lucky on Saturday. The weather was meant to crap out, but we decided to chance a run to the coast to see the neighbours. This time transport was a sledge towed by the big fast Challenger tractor. Pulling on thick down jackets, we sat on kit boxes with a ghetto blaster booming as Lance pointed the Challenger west and powered up.

Getting covered in spindrift on the sledge

Within seconds snow was flying everywhere forcing me to hide under the massive hood for the rest of the short trip.

Flying snow gets everywhere!

On arrival the light was very flat, but Toddy (our new field guide for the summer season) declare contrast was sufficient to head onto the ice.

Crap light. Great wildlife

The first thing that hit me at the bottom of the rope was the smell. On previous visits the cold had kept this down, but the recent warm temperatures had melted the penguin muck. It reeked! The poor contrast played hell with the camera, so I put it away for a while, sat on my bag and just watched, realising how lucky I am to see such amazing sights.

Penguins as far as you can see

The second thing we noticed was the spread of birds. As the colony no-longer needed to huddle for warmth, they had spread round the headland as far as the eye could see. Within an hour the clouds lifted and the light changed, giving the cliffs a fantastic glow.

Although there were a number of casualties, the surviving chicks had grown loads, now standing at about 3/4 of their parents' height.

Big!

They were also adapting more adult behaviour, flapping their wings and trying to slide on their bellies. This made to laugh, as no matter now hard they paddled with their legs, their fluffy coats were too sticky to allow much movement, causing the bored chick to give up, exhausted!

There was much less activity compared with last time. Creches had opened up as the chicks became strong enough to survive by themselves and no-longer needed to huddle for warmth. They were still inquisitive enough to come and see us though.

Penguin with Jules for scale

The sun finally came out and the hours flew by in the summer warmth. All too soon it was time for home.

Ant and Toddy on the way home

Even the journey home was an event! Vehicle driving is now very much encouraged, so Lance gave five keen faces a chance to indulge in their school-boy heavy plant daydreams.

Ant playing with the Big Toy

The last tractor I drove didn't have a roof, so the £150k Challenger was quite different! It's got more of a bridge than a dashboard, with computer readouts for everything from engine stats to track tensions. Driving it was surprisingly simple. Revs up on the hand throttle. Select third to move off, then push the gear selector forwards to engage drive. Clutching is automatic, gear selection on push-buttons and steering on a standard wheel. Hanging on tight as we bounced over the sastrugi, Lance kept saying "next gear" so I rattled up the box to a mighty 14mph! The speed of these machines on rough ground is incredible and will be crucial for moving the masses of supplies for the Halley VI build. It's also great fun!

The day rounded off with a fantastic curry, a few drinks in the Weather Haven bar and then an acoustic set from Mark in the bar. What a top weekend!

For more penguin photos, click here.

More movement

2007-11-18T13:20:00.000Z

It's been another flat-out week. The vehicle team have dug up and moved the Drewery building, which was getting do buried snow was almost up the windows. Team Met have been on the move too - all the remaining instruments are now bolted securely to the Laws roof, so we headed up the the Halley VI building site to relocate the weather station.

Jules starts digging out the weather station

Only 15km away, the Halley VI site looks a lot like Halley V. It's flat, white and snowy. Very snowy. The weather station had about 1.5m built up around it!

Jules and Simon recovering the solar panel

In the hole!

The weather station was a survey reference point for the build project so we had to find a suitable replacement. Could this be Antarctica's first pole-dancing venue?

Penguin Party memories...

After an hour or so sweating it our with shovels, the weather station popped out and was loaded onto the sledge. Like the reference point, the station's new location had to be precise as vehicles are banned from the upwind section of the site to keep that area ultra-clean for future snow-chemistry experiments.

Weather station on the move

Driving on a compass bearing and GPS track, we found the new site just under a kilometre away.

The final setup

This was the last big "science" job. Next week we'll start pulling the office apart and packing up ready for summer.

Moving more instruments

2007-11-13T11:02:00.000Z

The Big Simpson Move is nearly complete. Last week the temperamental balloon system survived the relocation and yesterday it was followed by the Cloudbase monitor and new weather logger.

The new science room takes shape

Cloudbase is an upward pointing laser that determines cloud height by measuring back-scatter, giving us a graphical display of the sky above the station. This tool is essential for aircraft weather reports, as pilots need detailed observations every hour while in flight. Moving it was a complex job involving cranes, cherry-pickers and a gang of people to run the complex cable routing. I was a little concerned the extra cable length would be too long for the transmitter, but it fired up straight away.

Flooding!? In the Antarctic?

2007-11-08T21:55:00.000Z

The problem with a heat-wave is that snow melts really fast! The last few days have had an ambient temperature of a stifling -2C, which with the sun beating down warms all dark surfaces to well over freezing.

Mind the puddles!

By this morning most of the snow that was going to melt has done so, but not before making the Laws roof more slippery than ice and dripping through the Simpson ceiling like my old flat in Cardiff. But Dean and I measured up the cable-runs unscathed and a squeeze of silicone will sort the hole out, so all's good.

Work has picked up loads. With Kirsty away and Neil on nights, Tamsin and I are battling to keep the met programme and CasLAB running, as well as relocating experiments to stay and packing the ones to go. This week we have dug out the remaining weather station, relocated the balloon system and planned the more complex instrument move for next week. Tom's been flying the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle at every opportunity and Ryan, our new glaciologist has filled every spare space with loggers ready for the field. But that's ok as he's also brought some damn good Canadian music which is pumping on the Simpson Stereo.

It's a busy time, but a good run-up to the 24h madness of Relief and the subsequent 12h days of summer. "Relief" is another old BASism that will crop up lots in the next few months. It describes the process of the wintering personnel being replaced by the summer crew and those due to stay the following season. Some years it takes on a literal meaning as aircraft have had to pluck people from the station when the ice held fast and refused the Shackleton passage. This season we'll unload not just the Shackleton, but also the massive Russia "Mothership" bringing cargo for the Halley VI build. She's a big girl measuring 177 metres and grossing 34,000 tonne, and I wouldn't like to be an iceberg in her way.

MV Amderma with RRS Shackleton to show size
(Image pinched from BAS)

The best thing about this work is, after the winter's lethargy, it's getting me fit again!

To those about to rock...

2007-11-05T15:06:00.000Z

Last week we started planning how we'd entertain the new comers in typically Halley style: Z or Dead live in the Laws Lounge. Many hours slipped by at the bar discussing what we needed to "make it as a band", but we eventually decided microphone stands that didn't fall over and a drum kit that wasn't propped up on chairs would be a good start.

At the last minute (as the aircraft was still in flight!), Mark and I knocked together a drum pedal, drum stand and Mark's best effort - two mic stands with music holders. Most of this was made from 20mm galv conduit, making us the only band to offer a 10 year rust-warranty.

As Saturday night came, we set up to a packed house of over 20 people!

Z or Dead go Gothic

Sticking with the tried and trust formula of Jeremy Clarkson-esque pub rock, we opened with a surprisingly tight Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, picked up the pace with some Dire Straights and wrapped up the first half with a bit of ever popular Elvis.

After a quick re-tune, the second half romped away with Sweet Home Alabama, got all moody with Floyd's Wish You Were Here and finished loud and heavy with some Slade and Black Sabbath!

Galvanised mic stands, an upside-down cross and inflatable globe.
What every good rock band needs.

Mark came back on later and did a fantastic solo set, complete with Brian and Tom making guest appearances on the drums. As the refreshment flowed, we all got back up for a few extra numbers, and even coaxed Tamsin into singing Echo Beach!

Marks Wales. Pub Rock veteran

It was a great night. We played for over three hours, had people singing along and my fingers still haven't recovered. Roll on the summer festival season!

All Change!

2007-11-03T09:21:00.000Z

So the plane's arrived, bringing with it the excitement of letters, fruit and new faces. I've gone through my post, the earliest of which was posted in January, but the latest left the UK in the middle of October! Big thanks to all who mailed me stuff, as good as email is, you can't beat a tangible card or letter. The oddest thing in the bag was a copy of Aberystwyth's local rag the Cambrian News - Helena in Austria wins a pack of limited edition Halley "Diana Princes of Wales" stamps for that one!

More local news!

After eight months with just 18 people on base, the extra ten have filled up the place significantly. Luckily my fear of queuing for the morning cuppa has so far proved unfounded, but what it'll be like when the full 100 strong crew arrive I dread to think.

So Ant, do you remember what do do with this?

Like sunlight, I didn't really notice the disappearance of fruit from the table, but boy am I glad it's back, although we're all taking a few days to re-adjust to the new diet...

Things have changed at work too. The Blimp season is officially over, so I spent most of yesterday on the roof removing antenna and measuring the remaining met instruments which will be relocated to the Laws. We've gained a new colleague in the office - Ryan, a glaciologist who's running a project studying the movement of the Brunt ice-shelf.

The final thing the summer crew seem to have brought is the weather. In spite of terrible forecasts, it's been warm, still and sunny. After a winter with my face behind goggles and balaclava, it feels (and smells) a whole lot better to be out in just a hat and sunglasses.

Summer's here. And it's good.

Winter's Over

2007-11-01T12:42:00.000Z

Yesterday buzzed with excitement and uncertainty. There was a plane coming, but we didn't know that it would make Halley till about 9pm.

Leaving Rothera at 23:30, the pilot estimated six hours flying time. I went to bed and grabbed some sleep, then joined the queue for a lift to the skiway. Foolishly I thought such a major event could pass without digging a load of snow, but I was wrong and soon sweating my guts out clearing a sledge to transfer luggage.

Landing an aircraft on snow takes a lot of preparation. Mark and Jim manned the fire-sledge, Mat had spent most of the night leveling the snow with a piste-groomer and Richard had a massive paramedic kit in case it all went wrong.

A week late, but spot-on time

But all went to plan and the Basla touched down at exactly 05:30.

Taxiing back to meet us

Shutting down

New faces, fruit and letter beckon...

Busy now. More later when I open my post!

My commute

2007-10-30T09:30:00.000Z

Driving the quad back from the Simpson in a bit of a blizzard.

Sorry about the poor quality. I kept dropping the camera when I had to change gear and haven't edited it out.

Last Supper

2007-10-28T17:54:00.000Z

Winter's nearly over. The plane gets in later this week bringing new faces, letters and fresh fruit. Last night we had what's probably going to be our final meal as the winter team.

Final Saturday meal of winter

There was a massive dump of snow over night. Knee deep powder is a pain to walk in, but excellent fun on the board.

Me having fun

Winter practice shows!

Cheers to Tom for the photos.

What's with the weather?

2007-10-25T10:34:00.000Z

Yesterday started at -20C with 30 knts. It finished with light wind and a -4C heatwave. It felt really odd outside, with big snowflakes falling from grey cloud and melting against the windows.

We popped out after dinner to take Team Life Support's year photo. The name was thought up to group everyone not involved in science or trade work. It came from a pub quiz early in the year, and stuck.

Team Life Support

From the left, these Antarctic Heros are:
Richard (Doctor, Binman, Seamstress); Dean (Coms manager); Sune (Field Assistant and Antarctic Tour Guide); Ant (Chef and Chief Digger).

Normal service resumes

2007-10-24T10:01:00.000Z

The famous Halley weather is back! Ceaseless winds. Driving snow. Fogged goggles.

I thought I was getting a bit melodramatic about the weather, so checked the statistics: So far this month we've had 14 days of drifting snow and visibility under 1km.

Penguin Movies

2007-10-22T12:14:00.000Z

Taken on a little pocket camera in crap light, but hopefully they'll give you an idea of how noisy and funny they are!

#1 - Penguins wandering about

#2 - Creche of chicks

The Penguin Curse is broken!

2007-10-22T10:55:00.000Z

The week's glorious weather was forecast to stay for the weekend, so Ant, Dean, Richard and I eagerly booked a Snocat and packed our bags, hoping to get away early on Sunday morning.

Traveling in Antarctica requires three elements of weather to play nicely: Temperature, wind speed and visibility. Sunday morning was warm, windless...
...but cloudy with zero contrast. Was my curse going to strike again?

Thankfully we could see enough to drive, so loaded the Cat and headed to Windy bay. As we arrived the weather cleared and after a quick weather check with base, we abseiled down to the colony.

The first thing I noticed with the numbers. About three times more than before, with a new colony right at the foot of the abseil.

The colony gets bigger

The chicks were a lot bigger and more confident, running free of their parents.

Chicks and father

But still coming back for a good feed...

Mmmm. Partially digested krill

A few were still thinking they could fit in their parent's pouch. It wasn't going to happen, but made us laugh.

Too big!

Towards the back of the second colony, a number of large creches had formed. Adults group their young so they can get out to sea for a much needed feed. The chicks huddle together for warmth, protected by a number of adults who occasionally wade in and reorganise the huddle so all chicks get time in the centre as well as the edge.

Adults organising the creche

Cheeky!

Of course, not all survive. But after the storm force winds we've had since my last visit, there were far fewer casualties than I had expected.

Survival of the fattest

Very very fluffy

Both the adults and chicks were far more confident with our presence. Some wandered up to within a metre of where I was sitting and looked at me inquisitively, then waddled off with the look of having far more important things to do!

Creche with larger chicks behind

We spent about three hours on the ice, then headed home.

Richard coming back up the rope

After so many failed attempts it was great to get to see them again, and to see how fast they grow.

More larger photos, click here.

Official (and un-official!) Photos

2007-10-20T12:23:00.000Z

Being keen with the camera got me the dubious perk of organising this year's official team photo. To be framed on the dining room wall (and pass before many critical eyes over the years) this image had to capture not only the people, but a little piece of the year too. After thinking for a few months, I settled on an informal gathering on the Melt Tank snow mound. This feature has dominated life since the very start of Halley over 50 years ago. Every day, a gang of three or four shovel snow down the chute to be melted into water for our every need. However, this "bonding" experience wont be a feature of Z6 as a larger, bull-dozer filled tank will replace it.

Looking at the number of days will everyone on base started to get me concerned. There were less than ten suitable slots on the calender. Determined to beat the notorious weather, I took the first opportunity the get people together. Thankfully, it worked.

(Click photos for larger)

Halley Winterers, 2007

A number of years also did a silly picture to stick on the back of the frame. And why not?

I get snowballed!

As the weather held, we also did Team Met's picture.

The Met Team: Tom, Kirsty, Tamsin, Me

Met Team's fun photo

It was good fun, but I'm never going to do weddings!

A quick weekly round-up

2007-10-20T10:29:00.000Z

And another week has gone! Looking at the wall chart I see only one week of "winter" remains before aircraft arrive and the summer season starts in full swing. A little more concerning is the ship will arrive in only eight weeks and there's still a massive list of jobs to be done. But we're working well and if the weather holds, it'll be fine.

This week's been good. As part of decommissioning the science programmes, we headed out to recover a remote barometer about 8km off site. Blinding sunlight made the horizon shimmer with mirages, causing the small weather station to occasionally vanish from view. Thankfully I had a GPS with the position memorised kept tucked down my boot to keep warm (LCD screens don't like the -20Cs). The coordinates were spot on and with a kilometer to go, the mast popped back into view dead ahead.

Ant and Dean preparing to recover the Radio Barograph

I had hoped to dismantle the mast at site, but the winter has given our clothes such a trashing my hand popped straight through my jacket pocket where the allen keys should have been! A bit of a problem, but nothing a bit of imaginative lashing and careful driving couldn't cope with.

The rest of the Simpson team have been flat out too. Tams and Kirsty have taken the quarterly snow samples from the Clean Air Sector (which we'll send to NOAA in America for chemical analysis) and Tom's been grabbing every opportunity to fly his UAV (more on this later).

We still found time to relax though. The Ice Cave was opened for the last time before the area is leveled - the perfect place to relax after a busy day.

Ant rediscovering the Ice Cave

As more snow has built up on top of the cave, the entrance has got more and more interesting with each visit. To get in, you step under a tarpaulin (to keep the snow out), squeeze through a hatch, climb down a ladder then slide on your bum down a ramp, bursting through a draft curtain into the cave itself!

Relaxing after a busy week

As I've said before "science never stops", but when Tamsin bounced into dinner and announced ozone levels were dropping, I wished it would take a break! Grumpy thoughts soon left my head as we pulled the blimp out into a perfect evening.

Sending up the instruments in fantastic evening light

I'm shall have to make the most of these sunsets, as from November we wont get them anymore. The sun will just dip, circle south and then rise to the north again. Good news for midnight kiting!

Tamsin checks the lines

After almost a month of appalling weather, I'm really enjoying the spring.

Tamsin, Dean and a top sunset

YouTube test

2007-10-16T12:26:00.000Z

Ant's been making loads of videos and has pointed me towards You Tube.

Here's a little test.

The view on a white day

A Photo Tour of the Laws

2007-10-16T11:22:00.000Z

Gash Day. Now the delights of toilet cleaning and sink scrubbing are done, I've uploaded some "general photos of the place I live" that people have been requesting for ages. At first I thought "why would anyone be interested", but from chatting about the place on MSN I found my self looking at old photos of previous bases and found it was quite fascinating.

So, I'll take you on a Hello Magazine style photographic guided tour of the Laws.

Coming in through the front door, you are in the entrance hall. Work harnesses live in the cupboards and there's a massive stash of suncream to the right.

Doors, from the left going clockwise, are: Immediately left, fuel room; Straight ahead, the main corridor; Ahead and right, Mechanical workshop; Right, the boot room.

We turn right and enter the boot room. Outdoor clothes and boots are left here. It's hot, cramped and smells. With anymore than three people in the room, you've got to take care not to hit anyone when pulling on a wind-proof top. Gloves and hats are kept in the pigeon holes on the left. Getting fully kitted up and then not being able to find the last glove often leads to what's comically known as "Boot Room Heat Stress".

Changed and relaxed we now walk down the Main Corridor. Through the first door, turn around and drop skis in the rack. From the left are: Chippy's and Sparky's workshop; Entrance Hall; Plant room.

Now we turn around and gasp in awe at the length of the main corridor. More utility rooms are to the left and freezers to the right. Yes, we have food freezers in the Antarctic as food regulations require stable, regulated temperatures.

The first interesting room, on your right, is the kitchen.

The kitchen and dining room are linked. This is where we eat.

The photos on the wall show every wintering team right back to 1962. I took this year's photo last night and will hopefully get it printed and framed today! The computer screen shows current weather, forecasts and aurora predictions.

At the head of the table are portraits of The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, just to remind us who we work for. They're signed original prints from '62, handed down from base to base.

Across the corridor from the dining room is the bar and lounge. This is the social hub of the base, used for films, relaxing, after work drinks and parties.

Beer is almost exclusively in tins, drastically reducing the weight of waste materials compared with bottles. Posters from theme-nights and birthday cards adorn the walls, along with, bizarrely, a signed photograph of Kate Bush....

Further along, there's the Gym / Music room to the right....

...and the library to the left.

The library is well stocked, quiet and a nice place to relax with some personal time. There's also a phone to the UK if you're feeling flush.

We're nearly at the end of the main corridor. More to come soon.

Nice day, but no penguins...

2007-10-16T10:53:00.000Z

Yesterday was bright and sunny, so we headed down to Windy Bay to try and see how much the chicks had grown. Apparently they've now started leaving their parents and are gathered in big creches while the adults leave the colony to feed.

The Beast

The journey to Windy takes about half an hour by Skidoo, but about twice as long in a SnoCat. It's many many times warmer, but I'm not sure more comfortable as the body rolls erratically over the sastrugi making the sideways facing rear seats quite nauseating.

By the time we arrived the wind had increased to 20 knots, way over the safe limit for traveling on sea ice. As we discussed options and drank tea, a fantastic halo with sundogs (the mini-rainbows to the left and right of the sun) appeared.

Sno Cat and Sun Dogs with buried caboose to right

Rather than waste the journey, we set to digging out the caboose and pulling it free of the winter's snow. It was hard work as much of the snow had melted, then frozen as solid ice. We dug with shovels, hacked with ice axes then "encouraged" it with the Sno Cat. The Cats might be slow, but they've got loads of power - the caboose popped straight out of its hole!

Brian guides Tom to Windy Caboose's new position

So that's one successful penguin visit from four attempts. I hope no-one else has noticed my average as I'm starting to think I'm cursed by bad weather!

Go Go Go!!!

2007-10-13T18:50:00.000Z

When a blizzard stops, people shoot from the Laws like pop from a bottle. The couped up feeling is replaced by a massive list of jobs, both those delayed by the weather and plenty more created by it. Sixty knot winds move a lot of snow about, so Matt's been busy with the bulldozer, Neil's been poking all the CASLab vents and Kirsty and I have dug out the Blimp winches.

Today the wind dropped to nearly nothing, meaning Frisbee, running and, more importantly, two ozone-studying flights for Tom's unmanned aerial vehicle. The heat of the sun is now obvious, even through a balaclava which we now wear to protect from UV blasting through the open ozone hole. Although air temperature is still in the -20Cs, the buildings absorb enough heat to melt snow, giving the an end-of-season ski resort look.

Traces of winter slide away

Melt water on the Simpson stairs

Feel the heat!

More photos here.

Back on Days

2007-10-06T11:52:00.000Z

I'm back in the land of the living at last! Well, nearly. My body clock's still not quite fixed, but we're nearly there. Saturday was fairly pleasant. Got out kiting in the morning and running in the afternoon. Set a new personal best of a lap-and-a-half which my legs are still reminding me about.

After a few false starts with high wind, we eventually completed a blimp flight on Sunday afternoon bringing the season's total to eight. Hopefully we'll get a few more in before the sea-ice breaks up and the depletion events stop. (Tamsin's writing loads of science articles at the moment, so check out her blog for more details on ozone depletion).

In true Halley style, the weather soon returned to taunt us and from Sunday evening till about a hour ago, we were back in blizzard mode. This one set new records for the year, with the wind speed tracking steadily upwards and peaking at over 60knts before the anemometers begged for mercy and gave up. Thankfully the weather haven survived!

Must stop now as the wind's dropped enough to head to the lab and sort the wind instruments out.

What were the skies like when you were young?...

2007-10-03T19:30:00.000Z

...They were purple and red, and they went on forever...

Sunrise over the Simpson

All these blizzards make me forget how amazing this place can be, when it's not all white.

Things went well in the kitchen too.

Mmmmmm, fresh bread

The advantage of nights....

2007-10-01T08:53:00.000Z

...Is there's no-one around to see me indulging in some very pretentious photography!

Where next?

It all helps the hours tick by...

Send me a postcard, drop me a line!

2007-09-30T23:49:00.000Z

Calling family, friends and random readers!

It's less than a month till the first plane comes in, bearing new fruit, faces and messages from the outside world. Yeah, I know we've got 24/7 email, but the post is always better.

So, please surprise me! Ironic twee postcards and challenging compilations CDs are most welcome.

David Vaynor Evans
Halley Research Station
British Antarctic Survey
Stanley
Falkland Islands
South Atlantic
FIQQ 1ZZ

PS - Please keep it light (letter size) as every gram on the planes is precious. Ta!

Nights, take two

2007-09-30T04:12:00.000Z

Yippie! This week I'm on nights. Last time I hated it, slept badly and summed up the experience as "A whole week of cleaning, with no-one to talk to". But this time's better, possibly because I've slept well in the day, grabbed a blast on the kite before sunset and been kept busy making snacks for the revelers and fresh bread for tomorrow.

There's also a good view. Now we've passed the equinox, dark nights are a thing of the past. The sun still rises in the East and sets in the West. But after sunset, rather than the sky going black, a thin red glow travels from right to left across the southern horizon.

The CASLab at local midnight

There's more light at midnight now, than there was at midday in the winter!

Sledge Golf - Part 6 - the Penguin Pages

2007-09-28T01:23:00.000Z

I've written so much tonight that Blogger's broken and now only speaks German. Nevermind, this is the last one!

Saturday 22nd - Moving

Any hopes of a early night were shattered when I popped out to clean my teeth just after midnight to be greeted by an awesome aurora dancing over the tents! It started in a small letterbox poking through the clouds, but as I brushed it grew, eventually leaping over the whole sky. I pocketed my toothbrush and kicked the tents to wake the sleepers, then rummaged for the camera.

(Click the photos for a bigger version)

Aurora over the tent, with southern cross to top right

The most dramatic campsite on earth?*

*Not including Llangenith on a hot bank holiday!

We stood and watched, spell bound, for about an hour. There was enough moonlight to see clearly, but the aurora was strong enough to be distinct. With the equinox gone and 24h daylight fast returning, I think each aurora will be my last. Even if the light allows another display, I doubt there'll be one to stick in my mind more than this.

After a hour or so, we snatched some sleep ready for an early start, filling flasks and hydrating before packing up and heading out. Packing camp takes as much time as setting up - three hours without faffing, but clear and still weather helped no end. The skidoos had all survived and started on the key, but were still idled for half an hour and rocked vigorously to free their tracks before moving off. Once on the move, the fresh snow allowed excellent progress. We un-linked on leaving the crevassed area and bounced over the powder mounds with big grins inside our helmets.

The ride covered about 40km, bringing us to Windy Bay, home of the emperor penguins. As we were staying in the Antarctic equivalent of a mountain hut - a caboose, unpacking was a lot easier: I just grabbed my sleeping bag, covered the doos and went inside.

Covering the `doos

Windy Caboose

A caboose is exactly what it looks like - a shipping container with windows and a door. Thankfully it also has a stonking kerosene stove, cooker, 4 beds and a roof hatch incase snow builds up blocking the door. There was only enough room for two people to stand at once, but compared with camping it was the Ritz!

Excited about being so close to the penguins, we threw our bags in, grabbed a quick brew and headed to the cliffs, hoping for a visit before dinner. The light was excellent so I shoved an extra camera battery in my inside pocket to warm, but sadly high winds meant we could go no further than the clifftops that night.

Sune overlooking the penguin colony at Windy Bay

Snow drifted off the cliff tops making spectacular eddies of spindrift and though we couldn't go any further, the sunset made the walk worthwhile. When the sun and temperatures dropped, we headed back, agreeing to get up at dawn to catch the best light.

Brew's up!

Sunday 22nd - Penguin-ing!

After a cracking night's sleep (it's amazing how much better sleep is without the ground creaking and cracking below), I woke with my alarm at 6am, only to hear the wind howling round the chimney. A radio call to base confirmed what we already knew - it was over the limit and we were going nowhere. Feeling gutted at the prospect of a third failed penguin trip, I drifted back to sleep.

Three hours later, things had changed. The wind had dropped, the sun was out and we could go! Back at the edge of the icecliffs, we banged in an anchor, set the abseil, crossed a crevasse and dropped onto the sea ice.

A handful of penguins had seen us coming and waddled over importantly to give a noisy welcome. Looking and acting like doormen, they sqwarked and stared as we passed the roamers and headed to the main colony.

Is your name on the list?

It was fantastic! As they have no land-based predators, the Emperors had no fear of humans and wandered up to investigate the strange coloured incomers to their home.

This fellow came within a meter of me

The colony was split into two groups on either side of the headland, perhaps with a few hundred per group. Within the group, a few adults still sat on eggs, but the majority had fast growing fluffy chicks at their feet.

The Colony

Happy Families

Cute chicks

They were great fun to watch. Very human-like, not only in their stance, but also in interactions. Some neighbours were best of friends, others sworn enemies. And it seemed to all be down to petty boundary disputes!

Feeding time

Climbing back to the iceshelf

The ride home was a brief 18km, but long enough to reflect on an absolutely wicked trip.

Click here for more photos.

Sledge Golf - Part 5

2007-09-28T01:21:00.000Z

Friday 21st - Abseiling

Another windy night and slow start gave me enough time to finish Scott's "Voyage of The Discovery", his account of his first voyage south. Old Polar books make great reading as there are loads of similarities with current day operations. There's also a lot of differences - we don't routinely fall through crevasses and need reviving with tea too often these days. Well, perhaps I lie about the tea.

We got out after lunch and headed towards the ice cliffs we'd inspected earlier in the week. Our target was a spectacular castellated berg, wedged in the sea-ice about 2km offshore. Sadly light was fading fast, but there was still enough time to drop over the edge and take a look at the frozen valley below.

Sunset over a frozen valley

By now we'd been out for almost a week. We were out of frozen "real food" and onto army ration type "man food" - a name left over from the husky days, to distinguish the boxes from the very similar looking (and tasting, apparently!) dog food. Tonight it was chicken curry, or was it spag-bol? I wasn't really sure, but anything hot and filling that required nothing more than a cup of water in the bag was a Good Thing.

Radioing up base at nine, we finally got the news we'd be waiting for: A clear day tomorrow. It was time for an early night and to hit the road in the morning.

Sledge Golf - Part 4

2007-09-28T01:19:00.000Z

Thursday 20th - Ice Climbing

The day started windy with poor contrast, but relatively warm at a sultry -21C! We had intended to break camp and head west, towards a safe route down to the sea-ice and penguin colony, but conditions kept us bound to the camp area.

Not to worry, there was still plenty to do. The local crevasses were still accessible, and after our taster a few days before, we were keen to take another look. To make things a bit more interesting, we replaced the jumars with ice axes, allowing us to climb back out instead of haul up the rope.

These photos were taken with my remote flash wedged under the snow bridge.

Tom focuses on the next move

Popped tools!

The crux - soft snow offers little purchase

After a couple of runs down and up, Sune decided a great challenge was in order - no tools.

Sune "Who needs ice axes"?

The axe-less approach was a great laugh. We found a perfect grit-esque flake to layback, with plenty of cold slopers towards the top. Ok, it's not Stanage, but you've gotta take make the most of what's here.

Waiting for my go on the rope, I stopped to think about what I was wearing. In brief, everything! From the skin up, I had thermals (my own nice wooly ones); fleece salopettes and top; Skidoo Suit (V warm); Wind proof smock and Canada down filled coat. This was topped off with fleece gloves and Bear Paws, a Wind stopper balaclava, a massive neck warmer and goggles. All this clothing kept me toasty warm, but severely restricted every sense. Frozen goggle = blindness. Thick hats = deaf. Bear Paws = clumsy and all the layers restricts movement to next to nothing. To see, anything, the whole body has to move. To get better detail, you grasp the item (after a few attempts) and bring it close to the frost free area of goggles to get a good look. If the aliens were to land, they'd probably think we were giant red and orange chimps! It's seriously annoying, but very funny to watch someone else.

Restricted senses aside, it was a good day that deserved a toast of success.

Prost! to a top day

Sledge Golf - Part 3

2007-09-26T23:07:00.000Z

Movie night. Watched "Once Were Warriors", a bloody look at the dark side of Maori life in the mid 80's. Grim, but worth it.

Tonight I'm trying to edge my body-clock round 12 hours, in preparation for night shift, so I'll stay up and try and continue the Sledge Golf story. First, the name. We didn't pop down the range and hit a few buckets - it comes from the phonetic alphabet. Ironically, the next group, Sledge Hotel, are being treated to a hotel break at home. The blizzards are back, pinning them down to base on their holiday week. Because of limited time before all hands are needed for summer work, everyone has allocated dates for their holidays. There's a bit of flexibility in the system to account for crap weather, but not much. You've just gotta take the cards the Big White Hand plays you, and make the most of it. Hopefully they'll still get a long weekend...

Anyway, back to last week:

Tuesday 18th: Exploring

The wind died over night and the warming blanket of cloud dissolved, leaving us bitterly cold in the morning. Before retiring, we tried to be sure everything required to light the stove and tilley lamp was close at hand. Both units were refuelded, but de-pressurised to stop leakages. The meths (for priming) and matches were left in an obvious place, to try and reduce the time with arms out of the sleeping bag to an absolute minimum. Old style matches, the ones with a nice British battleship on the pack (despite being made in Sweden!), are getting harder to come by. The newer "safety" matches fall into two camps. One that fails to strike. The other the catches first time, but splits, throwing the burning phosphorus towards your tentmate. Even if Alex wanted an extra 10 minutes snooze, my burned fingers (and language) made sure he wasn't going to get it!

Once warmed, fed and watered, the weather continued to stay fine and Sune had learned from Dean over the radio that it would remain so all day. Hands now working properly, we donned harnesses and headed to take a closer look at the bergy region we'd briefly seen on arrival.

Toms picks his way through the frozen maze. Note crevasse in centre frame

Creaks and groans greeted us as we entered the crevasse field as the ice strained with the change of tide beneath it. Clutching my ice-axe and expecting the snow to give way at any moment, I felt like a character in Apocalypse Now, with enemy hidden everywhere. After a while I settled into my surroundings, spotting the hazards and avoiding them with careful steps left, right or just plain long.

As we moved higher, the route became more and more confused. Pushed up from beneath, the iceshelf had shattered into many jagged blocks, which had then become covered and bridged by falling and drifting snow. It was like nothing I'd seen on glaciers in Europe, but thankfully Sune's far greater mountain experience helped him pick a way through the 'safer' bridges.

Crevasse between two chunks of iceshelf, with cornices (*)

Twisting and turning from block to block, we dodged holes and eventually made it to the top and enjoyed the view.

Tom on top of the World, at the bottom of the World

The keen wind kept us from lingering, but the excellent vantage showed a better route down, so off we trudged, keeping the rope tight. A few bridges gave way beneath us, but with nothing worse than a vanishing leg and a scramble for solid ground. We wouldn't be needing the jumars today, I thought.

Sune with camp to top left (*)

Before long we left the ice field and headed to the coast to check out possible future abseils. The wind had now picked up, but my biggest cause of discomfort was the over indulgence on curry the night before. It's amazing how quickly a harness and three layers of clothing can move when they have to!

The Rumples by night

The end of the day was as good as the rest with a good sunset and a cracking moon later on. Alex and I joined Sune and Tom for a well earned glass of port, a game of cards and increasingly tall tales of narrow escapes from "slots of doom". It was a good day.

Right, I was going to do more, but now I'm tired and out of wine, so one more day then I'll close.

Wednesday 19th: Snoozing

This is Antarctica! You should all know what follows a good day. Yup, it snowed and blew all day. We snoozed, read and drank tea. I finished Scott's "Voyage of the Discovery" and was impressed with the quality of the writing and amount of science that voyage undertook. I was also surprised to learn they never intended to stay for two years!

More tomorrow. In the meantime, check out more photos here.

Photos marked (*) are courtesy of UAV met-guru, Tom. Click here for his blog (and to brush up your Deutsch)

Sledge Golf - Part 2

2007-09-25T14:20:00.000Z

Sunday 16th - Drinking Tea

As if by law, the fine weather of Saturday had to be followed by a good old storm. I stuck my head out at 9am to see a carpet of drifting snow and not a lot else, so went straight back to bed. The afternoon was spent melting snow and trying to re-hydrate after loosing a lot of water the day before. I'd read about this chore in many mountaineering books, but before camping down here, I though snow melted (and boiled) quite quickly. Despite pumping the Primus till it roared like a jet engine, it still took a surprisingly long time to fix a brew and fill the flasks.

The rest of the day passed with the simple pleasures of playing cards, chatting and feeding. And hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Sune passes the time

Monday 17th - Crevassing

Another whitish grey start, but what's a holiday with a lie-in, anyway?
We eventually dragged ourselves up in time for lunch and treated it as more of a late breakfast - (nice warm Alpen muesli, eaten from the packet) , instead of the usual field-feed of frozen Mars Bar.

Poor contrast stops exploring

Although the wind had died, poor contrast made seeing crevasses, hidden beneath a coating of fresh snow, especially difficult. With this in mind, we decided rather than to risk falling in un-expectedly, we would pick one and explore it further. We didn't have to venture far to find a suitable slot.

Bashing into a crevasse

I set an anchor using two 60cm snow stakes, equalised on a sling. Back in Snowdonia I used to find gloves got in the way when manipulating ropes and hardware, but my hands seem to be learning and I was surprised how much could be done without removing the massive Bear Paws.

Me abseiling in

Once set up, we clipped on our figure-8 (abseiling device) and jumars (metal toothed cams to some back up the rope), and dropped into the slot.

Being sheltered from the wind made the crevasse a lot warmer than the surface, so I could take time to nose around and look closely at the layers. The snow-bridge at the top starts with powder snow, gradually becoming more compressed at its base, but still loose enough not to take an axe placement. The walls themselves are much firmer compressed snow, becoming solid ice towards the bottom, some 50m below.

Me near the top with snow-bridge behind

Looking down towards Sune

This was more than just a photo opportunity. As crevasses are a hazard, knowing how to get out of them is actually part of our health and safety training! So, camera safely pocketed, I sat back in the harness and fumbled with the jumars, clipping each to the rope in turn and gently transferring my weight onto that system. Once happy they were gripping, I removed the abseil kit and headed upwards. Jumaring is warm work. To climb the rope, you stand up in a sling attached to the lower unit, then raise the one attached to your waist to a higher point before re-weighting the harness. Then the lower sling-carrier is brought up and the process repeated, gaining a couple of feet each time. I really wish I took a photo of this system now!

The afternoon flew by, getting us hungry enough to run the social risk of eating curry in a tent! Tucking in to tea, Dean called up on the HF radio for our daily safety schedule and to our surprise was joined by Tristan, coms manager at Rothera station some 1200 miles away. After talking shop, Tris agreed to cover for our frozen iPods and play us some music.

I should probably apologise to all within 1200 miles of Rothera for my part in Whitesnake booming out over the airwaves. Perhaps the whiteness is cooking my mind, but it made us laugh.

Sledge Golf - Part 1

2007-09-24T16:08:00.000Z

Friday 14th - Packing

Traveling round Antarctica needs a lot of kit, but the system used has evolved well over 50 years and is pretty much unbeatable in its environment. Each tent pair has a main sledge (known as the Full Unit) containing enough fuel, food and spare parts to last two men four weeks. It weighs about 500kgs fully loaded. If that wasn't enough, we also take two extra sledges (Half Units), as back up, and to give the freedom to travel away from camp on day-trips.

A Fully Loaded Field Unit

Field Assistant Sune (an overly modest job title, if ever there was one. Try "mountain guide and man of international environmental knowledge" and you're getting closer) had worked hard through the winter overhauling the sledges, replacing runners and re-lashing legs. Sledges get a rough life, but are as well looked after as any vehicle. Each has a service history and mileage log by which maintenance is carried out, so the chance of fatigue-failure in the field is low. Much lower than tipping them over at least!

As they had been unloaded for the winter, we spent most of Friday packing boxes, filling jerry cans and finding frozen portions of "Ant Food" to keep us off the dehydrated "Man Food" for as long as possible. By sunset, the units sat outside the Laws, ready to go.

Saturday 15th - Riding and digging

A clear and bright start gave us a good get away, leaving late in the morning after downing as much Ribena as possible to try and stay hydrated. Remembering a cold face on my last outing, I'd found a full-face skidoo helmet with visor and was soon speeding along enjoying a warm nose.

We headed for The Rumples, an area of hillocks and crevasses formed where the Brunt iceshelf strikes an underwater ridge, forcing it to rise. When I first flew to Halley back in January, we crossed the area and were amazed by the maze of jagged ice. Buzzing along for 18km on the skidoo, I hoped it was going to be as much fun on the ground.

The Rumples with sea-ice beyond.
(Take from the air, back in January)

The ride took less than an hour. For most of the way we traveled un-linked, but as the crevassed region got closer we hitched the skidoo and sledge units into pairs, so should one fall into a crevasse, the other would break its fall and rescue the rider!

Sune and Tom pitching their tent

Arriving at our camping spot, we circled twice to check for holes and once satisfied, parked up and unpacked. Like everything else in Antarctica, setting up camp takes a long time. About three hours, but there was a lot to do. Tents were dug in about a foot below the snow with a big valance buried to keep them planted in a storm. The pyramid design is pretty much bombproof and good ones are know to have survived 100knt gusts. Skidoos needed re-fueling and covering in tarpaulin, the toilet tent pitching and the radio antenna pointing the right way. Only then could we have a brew and think about heading out to explore.

An evening walk

It was a good wander, up through the crevasse fields to a point above the campsite. We traveled in a rope of four with Sune at the front, finding a route and prodding any suspicious snow. The large crevasses were fairly obvious to spot, running perpendicular to the slope with their snow-bridges sagging beneath the line of the land. The smaller ones, however, were much harder to see. A fine surface crack only a few centimeters wide could easily reveal a slot wide enough to swallow a person! Thankfully the snow-bridges were quite strong and although a few of us put legs through up to the knee, no-one vanished completely!

Me,getting iced up

Although it was sunny, the temperature hovered around -30C with a bitter wind. I was wearing five layers, plus the massive Canada Goose down jacket when stopped, but the cold would still creep in so we didn't hang about and quickly turned back to warmth of the tents.

Phews, this has taken most of the afternoon - more tomorrow!

The the meantime, there's some more photos here.

Sledge Golf - The full album

Isn't it great to be back home

2007-09-24T14:19:00.000Z

And we're back!

Despite it being damn cold (average -29C!), Alex, Sune, Tom and I have had a great nine days in the field. We climbed in crevasses, explored pressure ridges in the ice shelf, tiptoed over teetering snow-bridges and smiled at the penguins. Got back in time for dinner last night, quite tired, a bit feral and stinking of parafin, but with big grins.

There's quite a bit to say and I'm going onto nights from Thursday, so I'll break it into a few posts.

But first I've gotta work out how to batch-edit RAW photos....

Sledge Golf camped at the Rumples

Roll on the holiday!

2007-09-14T22:21:00.000Z

Gloriously sunny today. Got the sledges packed, the skidoos loaded (with plenty of cake stashed under the seat) and a good selection of books in my bag (in case the weather craps out again).

Leaving tomorrow morning, we'll head into a steep, crevassed region known as The Rumples for some exploring and climbing, and with a bit of luck we'll also get down the coast and call in on our feathery neighbors. I can't wait!

See you in ten days!

The Big White Fist

2007-09-12T23:15:00.000Z

Yippee! I'm on holiday next week!

After being couped up for six months, we're all looking forwards to getting out to do some exploring, see the penguins and generally stretch our legs. If we can. August brought the end of darkness, warmer temperatures and the return of normal days, leading me to lower my guard thinking the worst was over. I'd survived an Antarctic winter! An easy few months and I'd be riding Table Mountain in the morning and surfing all afternoon. How hard can it be?

How wrong could I be.

As viewers of The March of The Penguins will known, if the Antarctic winter has its cold, the spring has its gales. If I has forgotten this statistical detail, over the last three days I've been brutally reminded that despite the internet and big-screen DVDs, this is a mean, harsh place where humans aren't really meant to live at all.

Snow creeps past the door seals

It wasn't so much the magnitude (sure, we've had 60+ knt gusts before), but the duration of the last blow that brought on this opinion. Almost 4 days at over 40 knots. On Monday and Tuesday it the tech-service guys battled the elements, tweaking and bashing to defeat the snow and wind. The buildings rocked and commuting sucked, but at least I wasn't on digging duty.

On Wednesday morning, team Met entered the ring. At about 11.00, Tamsin battled to the BART to try and get a balloon away (very difficult as the downdraft tends to smash the sonde into the ground before the helium gets a chance to lift it clear), and found the blimp-haven making a bid for freedom!

Despite being sheltered by a sledge full of helium cylinders, the front door of the haven had blown in, opening it up like a giant windsock. The left hand side was pulled clear of the ground and flapping dangerously.

A radio call brought out a large gang, armed with ropes and snow stakes. Lines to the wayward corners brought the shelter back under control, allowing us to safely enter and rig a pulley system to bring the front back together and get the door closed. The blimp lay wrecked in a corner, donating its moorings which we used to secure the frame internally. Simultaneously, the outside team attached new guylines and piled snow over the remains of the valance.

The Blimp Haven back under control

The front door, secured by ropes and snow

It took an hour to secure the shelter and a further trip after lunch to add extra guylines. The storm's now (midnight, Wednesday) starting to subside and I'm hoping we'll get the repairs done in time to start my trip roughly on time. I'm also hoping never to see such a storm from inside a pyramid tent...

Night Blimp

2007-09-10T10:35:00.000Z

Science never sleeps, as we say to explain the varying shifts on the Simpson building.

It was certainly wide awake last Saturday night. While eating dinner (this time at Ant's Pizza house) the monitor in the corner showed a sudden drop in ozone levels, the second of the day, so rather than retire to the bar we headed outside.

Dean steadies the Blimp

Tamsin about to attach the Ozone Sonde*

Up she goes!

We send the Blimp up at about 5m per minute, slowing the rate when it enters the body of ozone depleted air. Luckily, this was relatively short flight, peaking at 150m. There's enough line on the winch to reach 500m!

*(The ozone sonde is a custom made datalogger that records temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction as well as ozone. It's mounted in a toilet roll tube, giving it the local name "BluePeter Sonde"!)

Deja Vu

2007-09-08T12:38:00.000Z

Warm weather over night, so up at 8 to pack bags and make flasks for a second attempt at seeing the penguin. We planned to take a Snocat, so Matt switched on the pre-heaters (a fuel fired device that warms the engine by heating the coolant and pumping it round the block) and checked it over.

From black-out to white-out in a few weeks

But two hours is a long time in Antarctic weather terms. The nice warming cloud blanket dropped enough to reduce visibility to under 1km and contrast to zero. One thing no-one fancies is driving towards the edge of the iceshelf and not being able to see it, so the trip was canceled.

No penguins today

Nevermind. Absolute zero contrast means no distinction between sky and ground. It made for some fun photos:

Playing with angles

More whiteness

Spent the rest of the morning lounging about drinking tea, chatting about places to visit and waiting out crap weather. It felt just like being back in Bangor!

Never say never!

2007-09-07T09:56:00.000Z

Yesterday I said "Possibly the last aurora we'll see before it gets too light...."

But last night we had this beauty:

This one was fantastic. Although not as bright as previous displays, it made up with spectacular movement, snaking across the sky overhead. Imagine standing inside a plasma ball and you're halfway there.

I didn't take many photos. It was just good to watch.

Contract Extension

2007-09-06T15:42:00.000Z

You may remember I was offered a second winter at Halley and that I declined it?

Well, I've had a couple of goes at getting a transfer to Rothera and despite a good interview, no positions were offered. However, I have accepted a contract extension at Halley until early March 2008, working on the Halley VI build project.

This means I'll be leaving via Cape Town sometime near March 20th.

Out and About

2007-09-06T11:30:00.000Z

...Continued from the last post:

Sunday got better still, as after 6 months going nowhere, Richard, Sune and I fired up the skidoos and headed for the emperor penguins at Windy Bay. It was a perfect day, dead still and clear. It felt so good to be riding a 'doo again and just traveling somewhere. Anywhere!

Sune and Richard hauling pulks

After about an hour's ride, we arrived at Windy bay, unpacked the sledges and man-hauled our ropes and sea-ice kit to the edge of the ramp. Scott considered man-hauling "the more noble" method of traveling on ice. I disagree! It's damn hard work, and we only went about a mile.

Richard unpacking the ropes at Windy Bay

Standing on the edge of the ice-shelf, the frozen Weddell sea stretched to the horizon with pressure ridges poking up between the older "fast-ice" and this season's "first year" cover. About a kilometre out, the penguin colony stretched out around the headland. Sadly this was as close as we were going that day, as a radio check with Halley revealed the temperature had plummeted 10 degrees to -40C, and we needed to return for the sake of the vehicles.

Starting skidoos warms the arms

Although we'd only left them for an hour, the 'doos had cooled completely. Amazingly, one started on the key and a second after a few minutes pulling over. The third took half an hour, including some encouragement from a Tilley lamp and much swearing! Once running, we stood around eating pre-cut chocolate and hot ribena, then returned home, happy despite not making the full journey.

Right now I'm GashPig again, doing some much needed laundry and trying to upload our band's latest recordings. Watch (or listen to?) this space...

A new month. A new vibe

2007-09-06T10:39:00.000Z

Sorry for being slack, but September has brought a massive change to life down south. For a start, we now have proper days and nights again - I may be repeating myself, but waking up to natural light is something I really missed. The other big difference is that the inside of buildings are a lot darker than outside. They're little differences, but very significant.

Bright snow. Blue sky. About time too!

The brightness at midday is once again blinding, and with the ozone hole open above I've had to dig out tinted goggles and suncream again. Not that it's warm enough to expose the face very often as the Austral spring is one of the coldest times of year, being breezy with clear skies. Glancing at the monitor now, it's -44C with 16knts wind, giving a wind-chill equivalent of -64C!

Chris flies past the Law

Around the site, it feels like everyone's had new batteries fitted. One third of Team Met is on nights leaving Tamsin and I flat out with Blimp flights, Ozone monitoring and a very tempremental weather balloon GPS system. But science doesn't stop at night - Kirsty grabbed some willing helpers for a 2am blimp flight over the weekend.

Last weekend was fantastic for leisure as well as science. Our Saturday night webcam darts match with Rothera was interrupted by a fantastic Aurora, possibly the last we'll see with the fast returning 24hour light. This was R's second defeat, forcing us to the enlightened conclusion that base moral at Halley is approximately 68% higher than on the peninsular!

Cook for the day

2007-08-30T10:23:00.001Z

Ant, Sune and Matt have gone to see the penguins, so I'm cooking today!

So far it's French bread pizza for lunch (with beans and side stuff).

Torn between casserole or curry for main. Will check the fridge...

Bank Holiday Weekend

2007-08-27T19:50:00.000Z

It's not just the UK that had a superheated bank holiday: Down here the temperature soared to a sultry -15C! Saturday afternoon's run felt warmer than ever, so good in fact that Richard set a new record of two perimeter laps. The bar has been raised.

Saturday night brought depravity in the form of Alex's Rocky Horror themed birthday party. My camera had a flat battery, but no doubt there's some horrific photos lurking elsewhere in blog-land...

I worked Sunday, but did manage the afternoon CASLab commute by kite. A solid 20knots made the 1 mile journey a matter of a few minutes. Coming back upwind, I was surprised how much easier it felt to keep the board on edge. As the scales are back the right side of 90kgs, I must be getting better! Yup, that's definitely it!

Yesterday brought good enough weather for Neil and Tom to head to Precious Bay and assemble the new Ozone loggers. The wind had dropped a touch from Saturday's levels, but there was plenty to kite-commute to the Lab again (I'm covering while Neil's away).

On returning, rather than follow the straight hand line, I picked up the circular flags marking the perimeter. Trying to follow a circle on a wind powered craft is harder than it looks, and the dinghy racers on base probably got a good laugh from my tacking efforts. Once sussed, I popped round the masts onto the open West Side and zoomed along happy again. After lunch more people came out to play and with six kites in the air, it almost felt like summer. After six hours flying yesterday, I'm really aching. In a good, "I've done some sport" kinda way. About time too!

To finish the holiday with a bang (and celebrate Notting Hill Carnival), the Halley Samba Band "Drum Line" banged out a few rhythms on the snow. I don't play drums, so took some photos:

"Drum Line" - The Samba sensation...

...and Halley's loudest band!

Antarctic Essentials

2007-08-23T11:29:00.000Z

This time last year we were frantically buying toys on Ebay and wondering what would enhance our lives down south. So, to help our replacements (and for general interest), this is what I'd bring if coming again.

Essentials:
Snowboard and kite. (Outdoor sports are the key to having fun down here)
Two decent cameras. You can get away with just a pocket jobby, (Canon Ixus (Ixii?) are quick and even work in -40C!), but if you're thinking of a DSLR, then it's well worth the cost. Nikons and Canons both work well down here.
Laptop and music.
Guitar.
Winter present / personal project materials. There's fantastic workshops, so if you feel like making something, bring the bits!

Worthwhile
Magazines. Other than Q, there's not been a restock for a few years, and it's getting familiar. Order a year's back issues of your preferred volume and ration carefully.
Indoor entertainment - projects, models etc...
Nice treats - chocolate, sweets etc

Don't bother
Everyday chocolate / toothpaste / shampoo etc. It's all here.

To answer some questions...

2007-08-23T11:17:00.000Z

Dave asked:

1) It appears as though the staff at your base changes on an annual basis? Are there any processes in place to ensure experimental continuity year to year? I know what it can be like when one set of experiments is repeated by another person!

Traditionally, science contracts lasted two years, ensuring a one-year overlap between outgoing and incoming staff. Most knowledge was passed on in this way, but there are also sizable manuals with (nearly!) everything written down. And of course, the Cambridge staff (who designed and set up the experiments) are only a phone-call or email away.

2) Any more info on those survival bags and general practices for survival when you are out and about working.

Working on site is different to field travel. For site work, we wear PPE developed for the Alaskan oil industry and dress to the weather. For instance, yesterday when flying the Blimp it was -35C with 8knts wind. I wore: Thermals top and bottom, moleskin trousers, fleece jumper, and thick boiler suit. Because the work involved either a lot of movement (when setting up), or standing around (when in flight), I added the thick Canada Goose down jacket when I felt chilly.

The main secret is good glove selection:Dexterity Vs Warmth is an on-going battle, with at least 10 different gloves vying for supremacy. Personally I favour thin thermal liners (worn with my thumb poking through a hole in the thermal sleeve to prevent bare patches) with either leather/thinsulate work gloves or the massive Bear Paw mitts over the top.

The bivi-bags are standard Goretex examples you'd find in any UK supplier.

Bring out the Blimp!

2007-08-22T19:27:00.000Z

We've had a busy and interesting couple of days running the first ozone experiments of the spring season.

Experiments at Halley monitor both the 'ozone layer', the concentration of gases about 20km above us and 'surface ozone', which is found in the first 500m. The two are completely separate, although frequently (and sometimes deliberately) confused by the media.

All ozone absorbs energy in the infrared to ultraviolet frequency range. The higher 'ozone layer' absorbs short-wave Ultra-Violet light coming from the sun towards us. UV is harmful to us, so this is a Good Thing. When the 'ozone hole' opens up, Aussie cricketers dig out their heavy sunscreen and pigs get burnt.

Surface ozone, however, absorbs longer-wavelength infra-red energy being radiated out from the earth back into space, in effect trapping this heat near the earth's surface. This is a Bad Thing, as it causes local warming over the highly temperature sensitive ice shelves. This was commonly seen as Smog in cities, and is still a problem in places such as Los Angeles.

Read more about the science behind the blimp on BAS' site, here.

So, how do we do it?

We know ozone depleting gases (in the Halogen series) are released by the formation of new sea ice in the coast some 15km from Halley, so we monitor wind speed and direction, looking for a sudden shift to an on shore direction. Once the wind has changed, we watch the CASLab's ozone instruments until we see levels drop at the base. Then we bring out the blimp!

Tamsin steadying the Blimp

The blimp is a small helium filled airship, of the sort seen advertising used cars dealers and golf sales across the UK. We blow it up, attach it to a winch, send it up until it settles into stable flight, then attach the instruments and wind it up into the packet of air we're interested in.

The Blimp over its hanger

Every 10 seconds the instruments sample temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and ozone levels. We raise and lower the blimp and about 5 metres a minute, slowing down when we reach an interesting height. This height is determined by a Sodar (an upward looking sonic sounder, working on similar principals to a RADAR) which reveals temperature differences in the air above the station, revealing warmer 'layers' that have arrived from the coast.

Kirsty shows Dean the controls

The Blimp can reach about 500m! Yesterday we flew for about three hours, reaching 250m and got good results.

Phew, that was probably the biggest post so far! Tune in next week for more climate saving antics...

Ant's IceBar

2007-08-20T12:07:00.000Z

The old ice bar is too well buried to use anymore. But Ant, Dean and Richard have been busy digging in secret, and created this little venue for Saturday night refreshments!

The Ice Bar

Inside the lounge

Got the colours right!

2007-08-20T12:01:00.000Z

After a good play with RAW on the Nikon, this is what the sky really looks like in the mornings.

Orange horizon, purple sky.

Silhouette

Click here for more

A Spring Morning

2007-08-18T09:20:00.000Z

Nice moody mist

Work picks up

2007-08-18T08:38:00.000Z

One of the main reasons for having over-wintering teams based in Antarctica is to study changes in the local climate that take place in the Austral spring. My department is interested in two media favorites - global warming and the hole in the ozone layer. Global Warming is studied by analysing trends in long term records (which we've kept ticking over through the winter), but Ozone levels stay pretty much constant across the year, save for a big drop in the southern spring. One research area is the chemical interaction between the southern ocean and the lower atmosphere (more here).

What this means to us is a busy time getting instruments ready for deployment. Most of this falls to Neil, our atmospheric chemist, but I've been covering for Jules by preparing the solar/wind generator power system. It's an interesting and well built little system comprising a controller/data-logger for each of the three wind generators, all sending data back to a central logger. This lot will be deployed at Precious Bay, about 10km away to monitor ozone levels at the coast.

Wind generator controllers (L) and logger enclosure (R)

We're also chasing Ozone on the Simpson. But rather than looking across, we're going straight up using a set of mirco-instruments mounted on a helium filled blimp. This experiment begins with setting up the Weather Haven, where the kit is stored between flights. A nice day made for plenty of volunteers.

The weather haven goes up

It's been flat out, but there's still been time for a laugh. Ant, our ever cheerful chef, turned 30 last week and wanted to go camping. Un-deterred by the cold, seven of us grabbed survival bags and headed into the grounds.

Ant celebrates his 30th

It was about -40C with a bit of wind, but nowhere near as much snow as the photo suggests (the flash picks up on really tiny particles in the air). It was a bit cold when we toasted Ant's birthday with some perfectly chilled champaign, but I soon warmed up when wedged in the down-filled warmth of the survival bag.

Bivi-ing in the garden

Today is gash-day, bringing the delights of domestic chores at the weekend. And so life swings back from Polar Hero (TM) to housewife!

Nice days again

2007-08-13T10:10:00.000Z

The day after a blizzard is always the best. Lots of soft snow, perfect winds and warm temperatures make for great kiting. I was also woken up by sunlight for the first time. That made me happy.

BLASTED WEATHER!!

2007-08-11T17:53:00.000Z

Blizzard. Two nice days. Blizzard again... It's getting samey and it's getting annoying!

Battling out to the melt tank, goggles misted and frozen seconds from the door!
Picking up a shovel and getting whacked by so much static electricity it flies from your hand!
Having to dig out more snow to find the hatch than would actually be required to fill the tank!
Jarring arms by hitting rock hard ice (coz frozen goggles reduce visibility to something like a steamed up car)!
Overheating!

It's not all Club 18-30 on ice.

Some things really annoy me.

Rant over.

Here comes the sun!

2007-08-11T17:25:00.000Z

After over 100 days absence, the sun is back!

After 100 days, it's back

No two computer models agreed on the exact date of 'sunrise', so we held a sweep-stake on the time of its exact return. Yesterday, last week's blizzard had settled down bringing excellent visibility and a defined glow on the horizon as I walk back from the Simpson for lunch. After the meal, a heated argument arose between those still in the bets as to whether a mere glimpse of the sun was enough, or did the whole disk need to be visible for a win? Eventually astrophysicists and meteorologist agreed that a glimpse would suffice, and Tamsin won.

Freezing for Queen and country.

Being one of the last outposts of the British Empire, we couldn't let such an occasion pass without some pomp and ceremony. So in BAS tradition, Jim, the youngest member of the team, made a short speech about surviving the dark period and best wishes for the busy work ahead, then hoisted a new flag.

Festivities continued into the evening, with Ant putting on his most extreme BBQ yet, grilling steaks in the -40s. It's not worth risking beers outside - they freeze in seconds!