Antarctic Standby...

Sometimes I look down at the snow & ice beneath my feet and consider how much time I've spent in Cold Places over the last 16 years. Lots is the answer (I am always a little nervous of doing the maths...) Once again I find myself working in the Antarctic, a spectacular and awe inspiring place that I have visited many times. The count in this hemisphere is 7 summers and 2 winters now, which might sound like a lot but I assure you it's all about perspective. There are people working there who have 30+ seasons under their belt and counting - whether I will become one of those people is a question I do not want to ask myself.

Banks Peninsula, New Zealand

And so it was, on the 3rd November, that I was back in Christchurch on a gorgeous summers day after eating a multitude of inflight meals and watching enough movies to make my eyes square. Turning up in summer when you leave the miserable British October only a day before is always a bit of a shock to the system but a good one none the less! (unlike the other direction in January I assure you...)

Unknowingly to me when I took the contract back in May 2010, I had already heard of the Fosdicks, although didn't put two and two together until just before departure for the Antarctic. During the field season there in 06-07 the camp was decimated by the mother of all storms. Winds so strong they picked up a fuelled skidoo carrying two jerries of fuel on the back and blew it away a few hundred metres, writing it off in the process. All the tents in the camp were destroyed or heavily damaged apart from one. Snow stakes left in the ground to anchor sledges were bent at 90 degrees and are still used on training days today to warn newcomers of the potential weather on the continent. It was only on arrival and chatting to the team and others that I realised what I was letting myself in for!

The season was to be spent working with friend and field buddy Kev Emery (www.kevinemery.com) as mountaineers for a team of 4 Geologists in the Fosdick Mountain Range, Marie Byrd Land in the coastal mountains of West Antarctica. The plan was to fly in to McMurdo, transfer by Hercules (LC-130) to Siple Dome, a remote airstrip on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and then use Twin Otters to input a camp in the Mountains. We were going to move camp two times and spend around 2 weeks at each location. 6 weeks field time in total along with kit and training in McMurdo before departure and a day of sorting at the end.

What's the worst that could happen...?

The C-17 landing on Sea Ice 1km from Mcmurdo Station

So, all good so far - hop on a C-17 in Christchurch for 5hrs to McMurdo, the biggest, craziest station on the continent (with the most long timers of the lot) boasting a max population this season of more than 1,200 people. And then get on with it.

This is the Fosdicks Team - Chris (wearing the glasses) and then left to right in the reflection Mike, Kevin, me, Christine and Fawna. The aim was to make a detailed study of the metamorphic rocks of the Fosdicks Mountains - granites, gneisses, migmatites etc etc (I won't go into too much detail!)

A few days was spent in town organising kit, catching up with old friends and getting the team out on ice for some training in basic mountaineering skills and glacier travel.

Crampon use...

Enthusiastically testing snow anchors...

Unloading "hand luggage" for the plane

Training over and gear packed and ready to go, we boarded a Hercules on the sea ice runway and flew to the bleak and barren Siple Dome.

Siple Dome consists of very little - an airstrip of crushed snow suitable for Hercs, a 30ft Jamesway Tent, a bunch of dome tents, a long drop toilet hut, two skidoos and a Tucker Sno-cat. That's about it. Run by a highly trained team of 3 professionals along with a General Assistant some of the time, it's a small, isolated place reminding me a little of Sky Blu, the BAS equivalent on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Arrival on schedule - always something to be happy about! Mike was to join us later on.

The Jamesway tent and our dome tent living accomodation...

Inside the luxurious jamesway - space at the table for the 10 of us at a squeeze

Fawna reading the first book

And then the waiting begins. We were scheduled to receive a Twin Otter a couple of days later to start input of our camp to the mountains, a mere 2 and a half flight hours away. Unfortunately, due to weather delays at Rothera and on the peninsula, there was actually only one plane on the correct side of the continent and so we had to wait a few days until one was available. Nothing unusual, this is the Antarctic after all, and not British Airways... ;-) Time for some relaxing, sleep catch up, reading and card playing. Just what we needed, lovely...

And so the planes will arrive at McMurdo, come straight to Siple and drop us off in the Fosdicks, yes? Days passed, then a week was gone and still no sign of a plane. The other planes arrived at McMurdo but the weather forecast wasn't good in the Fosdicks for input so we were pushed down the list.

After a week or so of waiting a DC-3 came through Siple Dome and took a bunch of our gear to a depot in the mountains, reducing our loads for input and hopefully making it easier. They are classic aircraft from WWII and still in use today all over the world. They are one of only a few mid size planes that can be fitted with ski-wheels making them snow compatible.

History in action - the DC-3 is from WWII, the Tucker from the 70's ish and the Hermie (in the foreground) is probably as old as them both!

And so we waited. And waited. And waited. After 10 days Mike arrived and we were a full team. Some snow craft training for him while we waited some more. On "Standby" is the term we use.

No Plane. Standby.
Poor Forecast. Standby.
No Plane. Standby.
Poor Forecast. Standby.
No Plane. Standby.
Poor Forecast. Standby.
No Plane. Standby.
Poor Forecast. Standby.

And so it was to be. For Days then weeks...

Each day would pass with another standby message from McMurdo, another cards marathon, another section of another book and another two figure sum in mugs of tea. They would involve a combination of the following activities, in no particular order:

Sleep, eat, play cards, read, walk on runway, run on runway, chat, drink tea, pilates in the sunshine, cook, bake, make, sculpt, build. This next photo is my perfect memory of how the season was going so far!

Boredom - sometimes. Calorie Counting - Never. Small library read by each person - definitely. Going slighty mad - don't want to talk about it. And so the entertainments began...

Sal trying out the highly dangerous chair assisted pull up manoevre

What might look a little bit dodgy in the photo I am assured is Kevin "editing his photo library". This is more like a caption competition I think...

"Mama would be proud!" Tony (weather observer) contemplating the next meal.

Eric, our resident artist (and also GA - General Assistant) used to sketch, sculpt and paint when he wasn't mindlessly driving the tucker up and down the runway. He was unduly modest and extremely talented.

This is the Big Poupon. It's not an affectionate name for Chris, it's my mug at camp. Cute, French and bringer of hot drinks - like my girlfriend Emilie. It has a special place in my heart - it's frightening how excited you can become about simple things when stuck in the middle of nowhere.

And then it was Thanksgiving Holiday - Tony, after hours studying the Joy of Cooking, created a masterpiece of American Food. The Turducken. It consists of a de-boned duck stuffed inside a de-boned chicken which is then stuffed inside a de-boned turkey with all the remaining gaps stuffed with stuffing. Nice. It was a FEAST! People really got into cooking and baking at Siple so the food was better than McMurdo Canteen food without a doubt. Fresh Bread (until we ran out of flour!) and random dessert creations including Pineapple Upside Down Cake and my speciality - Goat Cake - a secret recipe that will be handed down through no generations of the Burton family.

Tony and the Turducken

Me knocking up a little chilli shrimp puff pastry appetizers...

Sal filming and photographing Christine giving a talk about the Geology of the Fosdicks

So here to an ice photo interlude - one from the hoar crystals growing on the roof of the freezer cave and another mystery photo that will soon be blown up and hung on my wall as it's as abstract as it gets!

Answers on a postcard (or Blog comment...)

After 4 weeks had passed we realised that there was no point in spending several days putting in and pulling out a camp in the mountains, so we agreed on a "smash and grab" day trip approach. Finally a plane arrived and more importantly a good weather forecast. It was time to escape what was now known as "Simple Doom"

After reorganising our cargo several times for different confirgurations as time went on, we put together gear for day trips - emergency food and shelter, mountaineering gear and a bunch of geology equipment.

Finally we're in a Twin Otter on our way to the Mountains!! Happy faces all round...

After sitting for so long then perhaps we would find any mountains beautiful, but the Fosdicks and other mountains within the Ford Range were spectacular - with everything from volcanic cinder cones to gneiss cliffs and granite towers. After landing we had to rush off and explore the rock...

Unloading the kit ready for geo action!

We walked across the snowy foreground to inspect the yellowish granite dome to the right

Walking along the windscoop with the rock above

Kevin inspects the quality of the rock whilst fantasising about what would be happening if we were there in different circumstances!

Flying for 2 1/2 hours in a twin otter in eager anticipation was worth the wait - walking into a giant wind scoop across blue ice with huge granite towers above. Amazing, unclimbed cracklines across every face, stunning crystals adorn every boulder. Could be worse.

The flight back was pretty stunning as well of course. Wind scoured mountains and glaciers run off to the horizon hundreds of miles away. And so the geology had begun at long last. Excitement mixed with the realisation that the season was going to consist of a few day trips rather than 6 weeks of chipping rocks. The geology was going to suffer somewhat!

Christine watches the mountains disappear again as, after 5 hours of collecting rocks on the ground, we fly back to Simple Doom.

This is a granite tower called the Billboard in the Sarnoff Range. A stunning 700 metre unclimbed face that makes me think of the towers of Torres del Paine or Asgard and others on Baffin Island. A WOW factor beyond many, I am sure there will be plenty of climbers looking at this image wondering about the potential as much as we were (although, I'd say that it's probably a little bit out of my league!)

Over the next 2 weeks we managed 3 more day trips into the mountains, of which Kevin and I went on 2 each as we had limited loads on two occasions with a headwind. Here are a bunch of photos of the locations and geology that we encountered between more time spent doing the acitivites mentioned above at Simple Doom...

4 excited geologists and a bunch of migmatite

Mike gets a detail shot of the rock structure

Much of the rock we are studying is filled with large garnet crystals up to 6cm across

Leopard Rock

Back to get the last ride home

Studying the geology from afar before getting back on the plane home

The mountain ranges here are massively scoured by high winds meaning there is hardly any snow left on the ground in the summer months. I'd like to think this is because it doesn't snow much but, alas, this isn't the case. In the 15 years Christine has been coming here she has never seen it as thin on the ground as this.

4 days in a period of 37 at Simple Doom. Not what we were hoping for. A lesson in planning perhaps, we are taking a different approach next year - a bit more old school BAS style which will be cool - drop us off at the start and pick us up at the end. Simple and hopefully effective, although we'll have to wait and see about that.

Time was up and we left Siple Dome on the original schedule, only to get stuck in McMurdo for Christmas. There are worse places to be I am sure but after such a "special" season people were twitching to get out I think.

The Fosdicks Team, happy to be heading home!

We walk out to the C-17 to head back to Christchurch and Chris pauses for a quick photo before getting on board

An interesting season to say the least - another experience and another chance to teach myself to pass time easily, something that might be useful in many years to come but something I'm trying to avoid at the moment inbetween jobs!

Thanks to the whole team for keeping sane, most of the time, and big thanks to the Siple Dome guys who are still there as I type this and will be for another couple of weeks . They were excellent and very patient hosts and I hope not to be back there next season!

Big Smiles All Round!

Escape from the ice once again, this time to head for new years in Tasmania and then a weeks backcountry skiing in the Tetons, USA. Phew. And then reality bites and I return to England...