- Location
- Foothills of the Quantocks
So this winter I headed down with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to Rothera research station as a vehicle operator, for 6 months between October and March. The lesser known of the large BAS stations, it is situated on the western edge of the British Antarctic claim. It has capacity for up to 170 personnel and unlike Halley, it is built conventionally on rock and melts out over summer, reaching a height of around +5C. The season starts with clearing the snow that has built up over winter, in most cases to quite a depth.
In terms of equipment there was nothing particularly exotic; A pair of JCB loading shovels, a 13t excavator and a pair of Massey 4370s were mainly used. (and plenty of shovels and pickaxes..)
The snow is dumped into the sea over the edge of the wharf. Early on in the season this felt rather hairy as the sea bed drops away rather quickly if you were to go over the edge!
By December we had most of the station cleared, just in time for relief by RRS Ernest Shackleton. The ship brought fuel, spare parts, dry goods and frozen food, and the first of the equipment for this year's wharf redevelopment project, which involves the complete dismantlement of the current wharf and building one capable of accommodating the new RRS Sir David Attenborough.
It wasn't all work though! There was plenty of skiing to be had, and the 5 chefs always strived to make dinner interesting!
Just at the end of relief I was posted out to Sky Blu for a few weeks. This is a small camp with a blue ice runway staffed by 3 people; a field guide, a mechanic and an operator. Our job is to refuel passing planes and serve as a sort of depot for cargo going out to, and coming back from, the 'Deep Field' (remote science camps). The blue ice runway allows BAS's largest plane, the Dash-7, to land safely and deliver fuel from Rothera. It can deliver 14 drums of fuel at a time. One can only imagine the cost per barrel at this point is into the thousands.
The workhorse of the BAS flying programme is the Twin Otter, a sturdy bush plane known by many as the land rover of the sky. They are fitted with hydraulically operated wheel-skis, allowing them to land on wheels at Rothera and Sky Blu, and on skis when in the middle of nowhere. On these flights they only have one pilot, meaning that the passenger gets the privilege of sitting up front and even flying the plane!
That takes us up to about Christmas, I will follow up later with more photos from the rest of the season.
In terms of equipment there was nothing particularly exotic; A pair of JCB loading shovels, a 13t excavator and a pair of Massey 4370s were mainly used. (and plenty of shovels and pickaxes..)
The snow is dumped into the sea over the edge of the wharf. Early on in the season this felt rather hairy as the sea bed drops away rather quickly if you were to go over the edge!
By December we had most of the station cleared, just in time for relief by RRS Ernest Shackleton. The ship brought fuel, spare parts, dry goods and frozen food, and the first of the equipment for this year's wharf redevelopment project, which involves the complete dismantlement of the current wharf and building one capable of accommodating the new RRS Sir David Attenborough.
It wasn't all work though! There was plenty of skiing to be had, and the 5 chefs always strived to make dinner interesting!
Just at the end of relief I was posted out to Sky Blu for a few weeks. This is a small camp with a blue ice runway staffed by 3 people; a field guide, a mechanic and an operator. Our job is to refuel passing planes and serve as a sort of depot for cargo going out to, and coming back from, the 'Deep Field' (remote science camps). The blue ice runway allows BAS's largest plane, the Dash-7, to land safely and deliver fuel from Rothera. It can deliver 14 drums of fuel at a time. One can only imagine the cost per barrel at this point is into the thousands.
The workhorse of the BAS flying programme is the Twin Otter, a sturdy bush plane known by many as the land rover of the sky. They are fitted with hydraulically operated wheel-skis, allowing them to land on wheels at Rothera and Sky Blu, and on skis when in the middle of nowhere. On these flights they only have one pilot, meaning that the passenger gets the privilege of sitting up front and even flying the plane!
That takes us up to about Christmas, I will follow up later with more photos from the rest of the season.
. So few people will ever set foot on the Antarctic. 
