Greetings,
Firstly my apologies that it’s taken this long to get my first post in since being on the ice. It’s been 9 days since we arrived and it took a few days to get the Iridium internet connection up and running and then in the last few days I have simply been too busy or too tired to sit down at the computer.
I’ll try and give a summary of what I’ve been up to so far. We arrived to clear blue skies and light winds. It felt really good to be back here and seeing this amazing landscape and all these wonderful people again. On arrival back in camp we immediately set to work setting up tents, first the main Dining tent and staff tents, followed over the next few days by the other large tents, toilet blocks were dug out, the Comms box was dragged to its summer location along with all of the various storage containers. I spent one or two days plumbing in heating systems, fitting windows and generally doing anything that was needed to get camp up and running before moving onto more mechanical tasks. Although there hadn’t been a lot of fresh snowfall over winter, those structures that had remained in place over winter had drifted in in a big way. The view from the workshop entrance last year was a flat view out over the expanse looking towards the Meyer Hills. Now there is a 2 metre rise up to the current ground level. And the snow was literally rock hard having been so heavily windblown. Despite the severe conditions though all of the structures had survived remarkably well, only a small rip to the workshop tent was sustained whilst digging for the entrance.
The first 4 days continued with nice weather and clear skies and 3 further Ilyushin flights brought in Cargo and Passengers. For the last of those however winds picked up unexpectedly and trying to stand on a smooth ice runway in 50 knot gusts is challenging to say the least. On more than one occasion myself and others could do nothing to stop ourselves being blown many metres up the runway whilst unloading the aircraft. And 50 knot winds at -28 is pretty chilly. Removing gloves or face shields even for a few seconds was very painful.
In the last few days the weather has turned and we have had overcast conditions with heavy snow and strong winds so as much as possible we have been confined to the workshop working on repairing the Tucker Snowcat which had cracked the rear steering plate and was also in need of some other repairs including new leaf springs all round, a new brake, full fluid and grease service, a new side window, a couple of new idler wheels, a few small welding jobs, and lots of other little bits besides. We’ve also already had to do one recovery expedition to fetch the older of the Blue vans which died at the runway during one of the flights. The auxiliary belt had come off and had completely flattened both batteries so it was winched onto a sledge and dragged back to camp where I removed the batteries and refitted them with brand new much heavier duty ones which should see us through this season at least. Unfortunately I did put a few holes in my jacket whilst removing the second battery from underneath the van. It had leaked acid badly and the melting snow from the Herman Nelson Aircraft heater dripped nicely onto my arms and neck carrying with it the acid. Both new batteries were fitted with nice new dense foam covers in an effort to keep them warm.
In general it seems to be warming up here though. Coldest night was close to -40 and – 30 during the day when we arrived (frost around the edge of the sleeping bag hood certainly gives you a shock when you roll over in the night) but now with the snowfall it has risen to a pleasant – 17 in the day and – 25 at night. Pee bottle is no longer freezing in the night which is a bonus.
Work on the Tucker should be finished tomorrow and then the first Van can come into the work to begin its treatment. At present my departure date for Pole is the 29th of November so I have a few weeks at least to prepare, and as always down here that date is subject to a few conditions, mostly the weather.
Other things to note are that wer currently have 20 BAS/Morrisons workers in camp waiting to fly to Halley station (BAS station on the Brunt Ice Shelf) to commission the new Halley 6 base. Most are sat around very bored but one of their mechanics has been incredibly helpful in assisting me with work on the Snowcat. Lake Ellsworth drilling project cargo is being prepared and tested in base here before the traverse up to the plateau. New CAT 950H should be coming in in 2 flights time, nominally the 10th of Nov but as soon as this weather clears it will be all go to get flights in. There is so much more I could say but hopefully will be posting much more regularly from now on so will try and keep on top of the immense amount that goes on here on a daily basis. Should mean shorter posts and easier reading! So that’s all for now, thanks for reading
