This years first field trip

I was lucky enough to be asked to accompany a field party of one of our winter science programs to check access to a few lakes and bays in the northern Vestfolds. Since it is relatively early in the sea ice season, lightweight and dependable Honda TRX420 quad bikes would be the mode of transport and we would be staying at our northern most field hut, Bandits.

Think of a trip like this as a camping trip. A camping trip in -25 temps and riding around on frozen lakes, fjords and sea. Needless to say, it requires quite a lot of planning and packing. Our shopping list consisted of:

Personal Kit:

Survival Packs – including full survival gear, ice axes, crampons, throw bags

Radios and spare batteries

GPS with waypoints and spare batteries

Head-torches and spare batteries

Epirb/PLBs

Foot and hand warms

Warm clothing for 3 days

Winter sleeping bags

Group Kit:

Trip form

First Aid Kit

MSR Stove and Shellite Fuel

Sat Phone

CO detector

Mega bivvy

Ice Drill

Electric drill and spare batteries

Quad Recovery Kit

Jumper pack

Jumper leads

Heated visors

Spare fuel

Fuel spill kit

Grey water container

Food:

2 x breakfast each

3 x lunch each

2 x dinner each

Snacks each (3days)

Beverages 

So Sarah, Alyce, Rob and myself started planning and preparing almost a week before our departure day. 

We departed station after Smoko (11:00am) on Thursday and ventured onto the sea ice. The ice around the Vestfolds melts every summer then reforms at the beginning of winter so we had to drill and inspect the ice regularly as we were the first group in this particular area this year. 

Lots of drilling for thickness

The trip through 'Ice Berg Alley' was as breathtaking as usual and made the journey to our first destination, Organic Lake, seem like minutes.

Iceberg Alley!

After Organic we decided to make our way directly to the hut as the sun had finished rising and had begun setting. At the moment we aren't getting any 'daylight' just long sunrises that turn into sunsets and then darkness.

Bandits

Loo and entry to the 'cold porch'

As mentioned before, Bandits is the northernmost of our huts in the Vestfolds and is considered by many to be the best hut in the area. It is on an island which makes it inaccessible during the summer unless you hitch a Helicopter ride but proves to be a perfect winter hut when you can use the sea ice to almost drive right to the front door. It is constructed near the top of hill and gives amazing views of the Icebergs, Hills and Antarctic Plateau.

The next day involved finding a route to a large inland bay (almost a Saltwater lake) called Taynaya Bay. This proved harder than expected as the tidal flow through the extremely narrow Barker Channel meant instead of sea ice there was open, flowing water. We tried another couple of routes near Lake Fletcher and Rubnaya Inlet but they were too rocky and steep. This day (Saturday) was particularly cold, -35 with wind chill so we called it quits and returned to the hut.

The extreme cold adds extra dimensions to being out in the field. Any exposed skin when travelling can freeze and get frost bite. Any food or water you are carrying freezes (ice sandwiches aren't much fun) and it is hard on any equipment you are carrying. 

Consider trying to live outside for 3 days at temperatures colder than the inside of your freezer.

Ice Crystals on my helmet

Sarah's frozen eyelashes

Frozen Snickers really satisfies!

On our final day (Saturday) we departed at first light (11:30am) to attempt another pass at Taynaya Bay from Tryne Fjord. 

This proved more fruitful as we scaled a large blizz tail (where snow builds up on the lee side of a hill) and we made it onto the bay! We didn't proceed further as our intentions were to head home via Pioneer Crossing and Long Fjord which also had not been tested for safety. Good thing we did leave plenty of time as we constantly came across thin ice in the Long Fjord narrows. 

Eventually we found a safe route through the Fjord and made it back to Davis, cold, smelly and tired.

All in all it was an amazing trip. We were blessed with perfect weather (yes it was cold but we had no wind) and had no health or equipment issues. I can remember declaring at one point that I believed the four of us were the luckiest people on the planet at that particular time. Money could not buy what we were experiencing, perched up on a rock in -30deg, watching the sun set at 3pm over hundreds of icebergs and kilometres of frozen sea.

Ill leave you with a quick shot of some experimenting I have been doing, and yes, that is the Moon, not the sun!

Work days and public holidays

Bit of a mixed bag this time...

Recently had another Antarctic Easter and ANZAC day!

These can be another of those celebrations which can make people that are here miss home but I think that can also motivate people to make the most of what we have and enjoy their time on station.

Easter was great, if a little subdued. It was a huge surprise to find that Easter Bunny managed to find us all the way down here and proceeded to jump around the Sleeping Quarters leaving a trail of delicious handmade Easter Eggs and flour footprints...

Easter Bunny couldn't decide where to go next!

There aren't too many things that can put a smile on my face at 7am on a Sunday but that was pretty cool to wake up to...

ANZAC day on the other hand was far from subdued! First, we had to drag ourselves out of bed at 9:45 for our dawn service (at the moment the sun is rising about 10:15am and setting around 5:15pm). Then we had a full 'gunshot breakfast' and after migrated upstairs to put the sheep stations on the line in a few games of Two-Up. The afternoon consisted of an ANZAC movie in the cinema and drinks and Tapas in the evening. It was a great day!

10am 'Dawn' service

Two-Up was popular

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Last Blog I mentioned we had been having a bit of snow on station

The main door to our Sleeping Quarters

Compressed footprints that refuse to blow away

Snow does strange things at -20

Being a Dieso on station, one of our jobs is clearing it. Luckily we don't just have a variety of shovels at our disposal, we also have numerous machines to help us out! 

Ironically, sometimes these snow moving machines need to be rescued from the snow they are supposed to clear!

This will keep us busy!

One of the more specialised pieces of equipment we have are the 'Snow Groomers'. the versions we have are Prinoth BR350's. They are powered by 350hp CAT engines and are designed to push snow around and smooth what is left over.

Loaders pushing snow to the Dozer which is pushing snow to the Groomer...

Note the Tiller on the back which can smooth the snow

They are an incredible machine that is surprisingly light and agile but still has amazing traction in difficult conditions. They are a pretty fun machine to spend the day in.

Hard day in the office

and finally, we have finally seen a decent Aurora Australis!

It has been frustrating lately since we have been getting less and less daylight (currently losing about 10 minutes of light per day) and our 'Aurora alert' television in the mess has been lit up like a Christmas tree but we haven't been able to see the sky due to cloud. Luckily a few nights ago the sky cleared and we finally saw a healthy glow from the southern lights!

Hopefully there will be more to come!

A belated yet healthy new post!

Well things have been moving along fairly slowly here, mainly due to the weather. Over the last couple of weeks we have had regular snowfalls and one full blown Blizzard. We almost had another Blizzard, I say almost because to officially have a Blizzard the weather needs to meet three separate conditions over the course of an hour. The conditions are as follows: 1. Temperatures below 0 deg (yep, we are doing that easily) 2. Visibility less than 100 meters (tick that box) and 3. Wind speeds of over 68kph. And yes, believe it or not, our wind dropped to 65kph in the 56th minute of the hour. During our 'real' blizzard we had a highest wind gust of 124kph!

Couple of photos of the aftermath

The SMQ (where we sleep)

The MPH

I know what everyone is thinking "but he is in Antarctica, of course it will be snowing, windy and cold" but Davis actually has an unofficial title of the 'Riviera of the South'. Even though we are the southernmost of the Australian stations (closest to the South Pole) we typically have nicer weather. Couple that with the kilometers of frozen Fjords and cozy field huts dotted throughout the hills it makes for a pretty enticing place.

MMmm comfy, yet cold!

The Elephant Seal intersection

Today in my building feature I'm going to show you what is possibly the most important building here for some people. Tucked away up the back of the station near the MPH are a couple of unassuming containers linked together that contain one of Davis's biggest secrets!.. ..Greenery!

We have a Hydroponics setup which is able to supply station with just enough fresh food to be a continual reminder of what we could be consuming copious amounts of if we were back home.

Hydro is tended by a caring and passionate group of volunteers and after slipping up there to take some snaps of the 'little darlings' I can see why. The building is kept at around 20 degrees and has a tropical humidity especially compared to the 'desert' outside. If I wasn't so 'gardenly challenged' I would be keen to get up there more often myself.

Lots of green things!

More things growing and stuff

Obligatory Gnome

Now this is my type of vegetation!

Little Tomato's, so well behaved!

I think the couple in the background 'fell off'

Not all Milk and Honey

From what is portrayed here on my blog and seeing photos and information from other people who are working in Antarctica you would be forgiven for thinking we are the luckiest people on earth.

The truth of the matter is this place has one major flaw. The elephant that seems to be in the corner of every room is the realisation that coming here for work means spending large amounts of time away from friends and family.

Sure, we are being paid reasonable money to experience one of the most extreme and yet beautiful places left on earth. We have a chef that cooks meals for us 6 days a week. We drink free beer that is brewed here on station ourselves. We have lights in the buildings that turn on and off as we enter and leave. We have Internet, reasonable phone services, radios and GPS that are all open to any use. We are allowed to get out in the field, travelling over frozen sea ice on Honda quads and specially designed Hagglund over-snow vehicles for weekend trips away to fully equipped field huts. We have access to a regularly updated library and a cinema with reclining Italian made leather chairs. We have darts, pool, board games, Wii's, Playstations and a full set of musical equipment with more lighting gear than some touring bands have access to...

But none of this can fill the hole left by friends and family.

Everyone that travels down here for work realises this but it doesn't make it any easier when you realise what you are missing out on being away from home for such long periods with it being practically impossible to return home.

Congratulations to my sister Alyssa and her partner Rhys on bringing their beautiful daughter, Evie Rose Hortle into the world. You should be so proud, you three have bought everyone so much joy, I can only imagine how you all must be feeling!

Mat, Ash, Debbie and Paul living it large on the Hahn Ice 'Back in Nam'

Congratulations to Tim and Bianca McCall on their marriage. Looks like it was a perfect day!, you guys deserved it, well done!

Shame I missed your Bucks too Tim! I heard everyone had a ball!..

Congrats to my old friend Nick Rundle on another big title! Keep smacking 'em mate!

Josh, why did you have to wait till I left to get Sofia rego'd again!? Haha!

Despite how privileged I feel living and working down here, not a single day goes by that I don't think of everyone back home. For all those people linked to someone doing work like this, keep it up, we all need it more than you realise!