Winterer's Antarctic Field Trip - Part 2

We spent the next two days in the tent. Poor contrast kept us static at camp. I wiled away the hours catching up on the blog and honing the text. I enjoy writing. I enjoy trying to make sense of things with words and I enjoy trying to make the words make sense. The summer season was full on. After Relief I was so tired and I don't think I had really recovered from that. I seemed to enter a work, sleep, work, sleep routine. The blog fell by the wayside as did my other side projects like learning computery stuff like UNIX and UNIX scripting and mastering the basic card slights. Now that the 'quieter' winter season has arrived I can now afford more time to those other things…..well I hope that is the case.

Being tent bound also gave me the opportunity to talk to my friends / colleagues. It was interesting to hear about James's other interests like diving and kayaking (paddling as it's generally referred to) and Ian's many adventures out and about in the wildernesses of the world.


I also got tucked in to a bit of reading. I don't usually read books. I read loads of text on the computer screen but to sit down with a book is unheard of. Richard left me 'Carrying the Fire' to read. Michael Collins' book ticks many boxes for me; it's an autobiography (I love learning about interesting people), it's about an astronaut and it's written in a very honest, almost self depreciating tone. I have alway been amazed and struck by mankind's endeavours into space since I was a little boy. Anything to do with space really. My mum brought me up on Star Trek, Doctor Who and Blake's 7. I remember her taking my brother, Ian and I to see Star Wars in 77/78 and whilst I was drilled into the back of my seat as only a wee boy could be by that spectacle of a movie my Mum was actually teetering on the very edge of hers. Mum sure does enjoy a bit of sci-fi and it has definitely rubbed off (03/04/2011 Happy Mothers Day mum and thank you for being such a great mum).

Anyway, there's nothing fictitious about Michael Collins story. It's all fact and the autobiography details how he ended up becoming the command module pilot for the Apollo 11 moon landing as well as detailing his journey to and from the moon and his travels in life after his lunar adventure. His words offer a real human insight in to that amazing journey of exploration and the innovative engineering that made it happen. His autobiography is recognised as being one of the best in it's genre as Michael manages to accurately document the life of an American Astronaut as it actually would have been during this exciting period of manned space exploration. I'll keep turning those pages because, as it stands, there's nothing else to do apart from melt snow which is in itself a very very important task. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink (unless you melt it)

By the evening of the fourth day the clouds eventually broke and with good contrast we grabbed the bull by the horns and headed off to do some exploring. Off to Aladdin's cave we went. After a quick abseil down into a crevasse and an ice scramble up the other side we found ourselves in this well known and very well explored little cave.

Inside Aladdin's Cave (Photo: James Goby)

Once done we climbed down from the cave then up out of the crevasse and managed to back to the tent for some tea and biscuits brown just before bed time.

James making his way down from Aladdin's cave into the crevasse

The next day we broke camp and before heading back to Halley V we went on a reconnaissance mission to survey the lay of the land during which Ian undertook some 'safe route' flagging. We arrived back home safe and well later that evening. It was a cold trip back. It was the first time that I really felt the Antarctic winter beginning to take hold. The temperature was definitely beginning to drop.

The weather changes for the better the evening before we have to go home. I thought this only happened to people holidaying in Scotland (Photo: James Goby)

I must thank Ian for keeping us safe and both Ian and James for being such cracking company on our predominantly tent bound adventure. I hope we have better luck with the weather on our next trip this October.

Outside Aladin's Cave. Ian looks over the Hinge Zone

Winterer's Antarctic Field Trip - Part 1

With the summer season behind us and with only the Halley winterer's left at Halley V, winter trip season is now upon us. The winter trip is essentially a week away from the base and a break from ones work. The winterer's go out in pairs to explore the Brunt Ice Shelf (a seasoned field assistant accompanies them to ensure that they don't fall in to any crevasses). This trip is repeated in October so, in total, the winterer's spend two weeks away from base as Antarctic explorers.

My trip began on Sunday the 6th of March and myself, James and our wintering field assistant, Ian headed out to the Hinge Zone. The fresh water glacial ice flows from the Antarctic Continent on to the sea. This ice then floats on to the sea forming the Brunt Ice Shelf. Just as with a land bound glacier, this process is ongoing and the Brunt gets bigger and bigger until huge chunks break off at it's  extremities (referred to as calving events). The Hinge Zone is the area where the glacial ice from the continent begins to float. Like an actual hinge the zone supports the rising and falling of the huge ice shelf as the Brunt extends out to sea. It is an area of ice caves, contorted ice forms, dangerous crevasses and other fascinating features.

Ready to go. The blue sky didn't last long though....

Every winterer is privileged to have the opportunity to explore this wilderness. It says a lot for BAS that it is one of the few organisations, if not the only one, that still allows it's staff explore in this way. Other countries limit expeditions to those individuals who have to make such trips e.g. scientists etc. Some people come to work in Antarctica and all they get to see of it is the view from their window. In BAS every one of the wintering staff has the opportunity to explore; the chef, the vehicle technician and so on.

However, it's not that straight forward, The wintering adventurer has one enemy….The Weather!

I am two days into my trip as I write this and I have been tent bound for all but four hours. High winds, blowing snow and poor contrast limit our activities to peaking our heads outside the pyramid tent to see if the weather has improved sufficiently for us to get going. I am still lucky to even get this far though. The winterer's have week long slots allocated to them and if the weather is bad through their allocated week there is a chance that they wont even get off of the base! It's just too remote and dangerous to take such gung-ho risks such as charging off into the wilderness in poor visibility and contrast. In poor contrast the diffuse light from the clouds 'hides' the relief of the land meaning that one may not even see the crevasse or even a sharp drop that may be just a few feet in front of them. There are no risks to be taken out in this wilderness. If you get yourself into trouble the emergency services are not coming to get you.

The pyramid tent. The Antarctic explorers 'home from home' of choice

So if the weather is bad? You stay put. And, to be honest, this is no bad thing. I'm enjoying relaxing and kicking back especially after the busy summer season that we have just left behind. James, Ian and I did manage a few hours exploring in the local area. As we headed off into the Hinge all contrast was lost as the cloud came in. As it was a route that Ian had already marked we continued on. Breaks in the cloud afforded a short spell of reasonable contrast. Seizing the opportunity we wandered off route during which we managed to stumble across melt pool. During the summer the 24 hour sunlight is extremely high in UV (there's no ozone to keep this strong radiation from the sun at bay) and this energy does cause the ice to melt in some areas. The water runs off forming pools that continually freeze. I've never seen ice that looks so blue.

The frozen melt pool (an oxymoron?)

With care we made our way back to camp, sorted ourselves out for the night and collectively hoped that the next day brought better weather. It didn't and we spent the day cooped up inside the tent. I still made the best of it and, to be honest, it was no hardship. Not even a disappointment. Again, it's just great to be somewhere else doing something else even if that 'something else' amounts to 'not very much else'. Time to recharge the batteries so to speak. Sometimes, There's a whole lot to be be gained from doing a whole load of nothing.