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| Danny in a tight corner |
I am finding the Olympics very distracting when trying to write this blog, both the Bradley "Legend" Wiggins time trial win and the addictive female beach volleyball.... And so it is time to crack on to the last installment of this epic blog. So many stories, so many photos. Phew.
So the last part of the season was here, much geology had been covered, the Great Storm of 2011 had passed and it was warming up to be a bumper season. And Christmas was just around the corner. So it was time to get thinking about food, glorious food.
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| Our Freezer Cabinet with Christmas treats galore!! |
"An army marches on its stomach"as the old saying goes. Food for people in the field is very important and we tried our best to eat as well as possible. And boy did we manage it. Every time food came out the bar was raised many times until someone had to sacrifice themselves and lower it to a sensible level once again...
If you want to see a list of the meals served over the season then click
HERE - this may sounds like a boring thing to do but trust me, you might chuckle a little bit. After working for the Brits for 4 years eating dehydrated chilli con carne and chicken tikka eating with the US Antarctic Program is a dream. My Favourite quote from the team blog:
"We brough in approximately 2330 pounds of food and are leaving with
about 200. The difference was turned into energy, gas, and poop. We estimate the amount of natural gas produced by G097 in the two months here is enough to power 6 average American homes for an entire year. Our
proudest feat is that we managed to consume 103 pounds (or 47kg for those civilised nations... ;-) of cheese in 52 days. Wisconsin would be proud!"
And so this naturally leads us on to Christmas - a season of alcohol and calorie abuse. On Christmas morning we awoke to see that Santa had visited - how exciting!!
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| Danny the Elf-boy presents Elfin Tim with his special stocking |
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| Chris Surveys the rookery through his amazing 3D Penguin Viewer! Totally the best present of the day! |
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| Geologists aren't known for their cutting edge humour... |
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| Mt Mara-shoe-go |
We still had an agenda to work to so after the Christmas stockings were emptied, we headed out to Mara-shoe-goo in the heat, crossing supraglacial streams as we went, an amazing knife edge ridge split between two glaciers, where we split into two teams to cover as much ground as possible.
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| Danny on a lakeside drive by |
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| Christine gets up close and personal with the swirlywirly rock |
And so it was time to head home early to start cooking a feast! And this was the menu taken from the team blog... and all cooked using 4 gas hobs with metal box ovens on two of them. A positive feast!
"Shrimp teryaki amuse bouche, teryaki beef appetizer,
herb roasted cornish game hens, stuffing, fresh whole wheat bread, mixed vegetable medley, cranberry sauce, and gratin dauphoinoise with a
dessert of extra creamy brie and summer fruits pudding with custard "
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| The Main Course |
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| All followed by a traditional game of the infamous 500 |
But celebrations weren't over as the next day was a monumentous occasion - Christine's 50th Birthday and her tenth in Antarctica!! Wow, lucky her. So to make it memorable, as the team were working I had a sneaky peak around to find a nice little crevasse to visit. And here it is:
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| The Birthday Girl coming back out from the abyss with Chris at the bottom in the background |
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| Mike feels that as Head of Department he should be able to move these walls a little further apart |
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| Not the ideal tool for the job... |
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| Danny plays around on marshmallow wall |
This was a fantastic corridor into blueness with beautiful features all along the walls. And all a walk down a lovely ramp to enjoy the views.
And that was it. Geology for the main team over, and a plane on the way the next day to collect Christine, Mike and Danny and drop off a team of 3 diggers for a few days to remove the drums of fuel from the ground. We weren't expecting it to actually arrive on the forecast but it turned out to be nice and then it was on. Crazy times. A bit of a rush and a bit emotional for the whole team. All that would be left would be Chris and I for two days before becoming the "Twotter Boys" and flying off to Siple Dome for a few days of Close Support.
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| The aptly named Icefall Camp |
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| The DC3 arrives to pull the guys out |
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| The Basler leaves with Christine, Mike and Danny on board |
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| The Dream Team MkII from left to right: Tim, Chris, Christine, Mike and Danny |
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And so there we were - a third change of team on the ground. A team of 3 elite diggers were brought in to spend a few days digging out the cache. After a scenic tour of the area and brief of the safe areas they started digging. And did not stop for two days. Job Done. And in that time we managed another day of geology on local ridges, three crevasse visits and an ascent of the unclimbed (apparently) peak of Mt Columbo. Not bad for a finale to the season.
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| Chris on a local ridge looking back towards camp |
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| Chris wonders how we're going to get the hell out of this hole |
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| Into the jaws of the glacier |
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| The Twotter Boys on the summit of the unclimbed Mt Columbo |
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| Looking back to Mird Bluff from the descent of Mt Columbo |
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| The D Team at the bottom of their hand dug pit |
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| And then the bad weather arrives... |
And so we were done, the dig team were done, and then we were on standby. And the weather was bad. Then we were on standby. Then the weather was bad. And so on. 8 days later in poor weather and it didn't look good. This included a New Years Eve with one shot of gin and 8 cans of tonic each - quinnine poisoning was dangerous. I had a few conversations on the phone with the pilots who were at Siple Dome trying to get to us. We were bored. They were bored. And they wanted to try. A tiny window was hanging over us with strong winds and thick cloud on the other side of the valley, a few miles away. We laid our a line of rock boxes at the last minute to help out and after two passes finally they landed. Phew. But only to pick up Chris and I - the dig team were to wait for another plane. And wait they did. For another 12 days to be exact. Needless to say we left them the cards and speakers!!
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| The Team - Corey, Solomon, Tim, Ken and Chris |
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| Our private jet awaits... |
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| It wasn't long before the early mornings of weather obs caught up with Chris on the plane... |
And so it was that we were back where we started. Siple Dome, also known as Simple Doom. We spent 37 days here last season waiting to go nowhere and the plan was for Chris and I to have our own personal plane to fly us to all the mountains we couldn't reach by skidoo. Ahhh, the extravagance of it. Brilliant.
And here are your Hosts!! Tim and Phil in the Twotter and Drew and Silver at Simple Doom!!
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| Phil and Tim |
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| Drew and Silver |
And so it began. The weather in the Fosdicks wasn't always that good but we managed to get to some other locations. As well as being stuck at Simple Doom for some time too for old time's sake of course. 14 days there with 3 of those getting out to do some Geology.
We discovered the delights of Ground Fog Day at Simple Doom. Ground fog has always been a feature of the place, situated on a small dome on the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Ground Fog Day would consist of getting up to hear the forecast in the fosdicks was good but the forecast for SDM was fog. This would be evident on the basis it was white everywhere outside and it would usually remain for enough of the day for the flights to be cancelled... Phew. Lots of cooking, lots of eating and lots of miles running and walking up and down the runway.
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| Make your own Pizza night at Siple Dome |
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| This is what you look like when you go running in the freezing fog |
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| The mechanic does the books for the plane so we can load up and go |
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| Finally the weather is good and the plane is ready |
And so we did have some away days after all. And here they are, stunning spots all round and many many thanks to the pilots for hopping around all day in some challenging conditions.
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| Chris taking out his Siple Dome aggression on the rock |
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| Our aircrew awaits in the sunshine ready to move on |
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| Waiting in the sunshine again... |
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| And again... |
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| Random Rock Thingy |
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| Our little plane parked in front of The Billboard - the most amazing face I've ever stood near the foot of |
And so, after 3 away days covering as many spots as we could in some very spectacular places, we went back to Simple Doom with our own private Herc LC130 scheduled to collect us and take us and all our kit back to McMurdo. The Dig team were back by now, but only just! The crew at Siple Dome, Drew and Silver, were the loveliest and most patient hosts and we enjoyed their company and appreciated their early weather observations a lot. Finally, after 77 days without a shower, if was time for us to return to McMurdo Station, where we would amaze and dazzle people with our manly beards and big bags of stinky clothes.
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| Drew in the SnoCat ready for the LC130 |
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| Chris and the Ginger Wonder await the loading of the plane so we can head back to hot water |
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| Back at McMurdo Airport |
So we had 3 days back on station including a rather heavy saturday night to sort ourselves, our kit, say our massive thank you's and then our goodbyes. Our next plane was not, unfortunately, a private jet, but when it's this big I can understand the USA tax payer isn't going to send us alone...
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| Chris gets on board ready to head out to the Green Green Hills of New Zealand |
Such a massive thank you to the G097 dream team and to everyone at McMurdo and beyond who made it posisble. You Were Amazing.
And so the season was over, 101 days in Antarctica. And what an amazing season it was too. Going to be hard to beat, but I'll try...
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| Icefall Camp. Probably the Most Amazing Camp in the World... |
