This is going to be a set of blog posts that are hopefully as beautiful and inspiring as the season that they represent. 101 days in Antarctica, working as a mountaineer for the US Antarctic Program once again. Last year was a flunk - we spent 37 days waiting in the middle of nowhere for a measly 20hours of work. This season was extended in both time and personnel to try and make up for the lack last year, and it did the trick in so many ways. Over the season there would be 7 lucky souls in the Fosdicks - Danny Uhlmann and myself as the mountaineers, and Chris Yakymchuk, Fawna Korhonen, Tim Ivanic, Christine Siddoway and Mike Brown (a very dull surname after the others it seems!) And what a dream team they became!
So, to save your poor souls and not saturate you, I will write it in 2 or 3 installments. Thank you for your patience!
Flying into McMurdo earlier than usual, as a deep field science team we had the place pretty much to ourselves, being the first team of this type scheduled to be put in this season.
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| "You are approaching Antarctica" |
Flying down on an Australian commercial jet, business class for those who got to the seats in time, watching the map as we crept closer and closer to Ross Island. On arrival it was a toasty -28 degrees C to greet us, showing us that an early arrival meant it was going to be a little bit nippy.
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| Geotim gets off wrapped for the weather |
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| How many people does it take to rescue Danny out of a crevasse?? |
A couple of weeks were spent on station sorting through masses of kit, planning, preparing and training the geostaff with an occasional jolly thrown in for good measure. Masses of time spent in the field gear section followed by standing by in the library of the Crary Laboratory (and a fair amount on the sewing machine - see below!) the time passed quickly and it was good to catch up with old friends.
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| Passing skidoos whilst out on a jolly with Jo and Allyson, the Seal Team, B470 |
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| Jo and Ally survey their babies |
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| Beautiful fur on a Weddell seal |
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| Jo and Geotim watch as a Weddell seal pops out for a rest |
Finally, after some delays and many negotiations, the input was set - two people would go in on a DC3 to establish a camp and give weather obs - taking along an LC130 pilot for the ride to check out the surface to see whether he was happy to land a Herc at the same place. Remote Open Field Landings are pretty rare in a Herc, and we were very priveleged to have the opportunity for Carlyle and his team to drop us off.
Danny and Chris went in on the DC3, dropped at one of the few sites that are crevasse free enough to land a herc in the area. This happened on a Saturday, after they were able to guarantee their departure by getting drunk on the Friday night and getting "dates" organised for Prom night on Saturday! I had used my British Antarctic Survey Sewing Skills to make a suit jacket and bow tie for me and a matching prom dress for my "date" all with Scott Tent fabric.
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| Jo and I in our home made Prom Outfits! |
So we were off - they were dropped succesfully and Carlyle agreed to land the herc there. On speaking with Danny on the Sat night all he said was "wear your seatbelt, and wear it tight!" You could say that this was code to say the snow surface is very rough and good luck!
Monday came along and the weather Gods
were kind, enabling the herc to load up and fly out with myself, Fawna
and GeoTim on board. I can't say how happy we were to get into the
field after last year's disaster! Brilliant news. Our pilot, Carlyle, and his team were as happy to get out as we were!
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| Our Friendly Pilot! |
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| Our first camp site would be in the first bowl past the lake, and this mountain was our first geology objective |
Sighting the Fosdick range from the air was shortly followed by seeing Danny and Chris waving from their pathetic looking camp in the middle of nowhere.
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| Danny amd Chris and their tiny camp from the air |
A less bumpy landing than expected later and we were on the ground at the tents offloading before the herc had to shoot off again.
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| After unloading, the LC130 (or Herc) gets ready to take off from the "runway", with Bird Bluff in the background. Note how rough the surface is! |
And when I say shoot off, I mean SHOOT off - using 8 x J2 rockets on the side of the plane to help the big bird get off the ground (and make a spectacular exit of course!!)
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| The Herc uses it's J2 rockets for a little extra boost. You |
And then the work began - packing up everything onto sledges, filling skidoos and moving everything but a fuel cache to our new camp. After a recce of the route we loaded up and moved things over, then we dug in and set up camp. This isn't a quick job and we finally got into a scott tent at 2am for a pathetic dehy dinner!
The next day the herc came back again with the rest of our 16,000lbs of cargo (that's about 7 tons for those metric people!) We were set in place and wouldn't see another plane for another month.
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| The last skidoo is dropped by the second herc in poor contrast conditions |
Wow. We spent the next two days setting up the rest of camp, getting organised and doing final training and recce's before the geoteam were allowed to pick up a rock hammer!!
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| Our camp looking out to the North. |
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| Crazy skies with massive lenticular clouds |
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| The local ice skating rink was pretty |
And so it was time for some Geology. After Danny and I had scouted out the routes, we all went in to the rock for the first "touch". This was a pretty overwhelming experience for those who had not been to the area before. It's a pretty spectacular and geologically daunting place!
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| Danny wanders towards the first crag |
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| You can see someone walking on the frozen lake below these crags |
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| Our own Ice Skating Rink - someone top right for scale! |
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| Chris, being the token Canadian, brought his skates just in case - the perfect opportunity was just around the corner from camp! |
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| Chris demonstrates his amazing ability on blades |
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| Or you could go for the usual skidoo option and leave tracks like this |
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| Modern Geology in Action - using a piece of hi-tech tape, some duck tape and a marker... |
So, we dived into our Geology aims in the local area, carried out a few recce's of routes and sneaked a couple of crevasse visits for good measure - as a potential storm shelter of course.. Ahem..
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| Driving towards the huge and intimidating Bird Bluff Central cliff sequence |
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| On a recce to the next cliffs, Danny stands at the base and surveys the size (and every crack line you can imagine!) |
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| Danny "hanging out" bringing Chris up a section while I am doing the same with Fawna a few metres over |
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| Still chilly enough for "Big Red" despite the glorious sunshine |
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| Nothing a bit of sunbathing won't sort out though! |
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| The team surveying a contorted and disjointed Dyke through the migmatite |
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| Crunchy ice under our crampons - a walk back to the skidoos at the end of the day |
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| Captain Kakymchukky of the Antarctic |
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| Under the windscoop that you do NOT want to collapse |
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| A little recreational Crevasse Bagging |
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| Danny helping me satisfy my crevasse habit |
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| Back to camp at the end of a hard day of Geology |
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| Snow textures |
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| On this project, Danny was like a mountaineering Angel sent down from above... |
And so we settled into a routine of long days, lots of good food, great company and amazing geology. Lunches were eaten on beautiful and semi precious stone rich boulders, a platter of biscuits, cheese, salami, tuna, jam, peanut butter, tea, soup, nuts, raisins, and a few other bits and bobs. We were not hard done by in any way!
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| Skippy PB, the Peanut Butter of Choice for Antarctic Geologists |
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| Danny watching the cliffs above from the skidoo park on the lake |
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| A windy day out under the windscoop |
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| Chris checks out the local entertainment facilities a few hundred metres from camp |
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| And climbs back out again |
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| Fawna on her knees for the rock as the first sign of a storm approaches |
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| The weather picks up and it's time to head back to camp |
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| Danny and Chris in the "Leisure Tent"sheltering from the storm |
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| Storm means we can eat, drink and be merry (and write emails and update the team blog of course) |
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| The storm breaks for a few hours as camp is progressively buried further and further by the snow |
We managed to get 7 days of Geologising in before the first storm arrived - and it wasn't much of a storm in the end either. Winds only reached around 30knots in our location, but we'd intentionally picked a sheltered spot, and the winds across the valley near the drop off site were ripping snow high into the air.
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| Every lake has a different texture. Amazing! |
After 15 days on the ground, it was time to dig out, pack up and move
camp. And you'll have to wait until the next installment to hear more
about it. Hope you liked the photos so far.
