Antarctica 2018-19

[cquick]

Looks like the same loading shovels and blowers!
Shame I never got to have a play with the blowers, but the winterers were quite protective over them..

Second photo I would guess the Fossil Bluff skiway looking over king George VI sound?
Also would guess he went before 2013 as the genny shed has been replaced with something far more modern looking

 

[Phil P]

Looks like the same loading shovels and blowers!
Shame I never got to have a play with the blowers, but the winterers were quite protective over them..

Second photo I would guess the Fossil Bluff skiway looking over king George VI sound?
Also would guess he went before 2013 as the genny shed has been replaced with something far more modern looking

Think it was 2011/12 he was there, dam how time fly’s only seems like yesterday! Remember him calling me on the sat phone.

 

[Whits]

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.
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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..)

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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.

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It wasn't all work though! There was plenty of skiing to be had, and the 5 chefs always strived to make dinner interesting!

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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.View attachment 811116

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!

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That takes us up to about Christmas, I will follow up later with more photos from the rest of the season.

Thanks for sharing, did you meet a pilot called Vicky, she’s my next door neighbour.

 

[cquick]

I'm leaving for Halley on Thursday so I thought I had better finish off last year's story!
It's now mid January and the base has reached peak occupancy at around 170, so some of us got the chance to leave base for a few weeks and live on the Shackleton, which had come for a second relief and to act as a floating hotel to make up the extra bed space.

At first we steamed over to break some heavy pack ice that the Shackleton's sister ship, HMS Protector, had managed to get stuck in. The sound of breaking ice is remarkably soothing, reminiscent of velcro, until you hit a 'growler' at speed with quite a jolt! My favourite place to sit and listen was the sauna, which was just a few cm of steel away from where all the action happens.

The Protector, marooned.

To the proper work, we visited a few of the islands around the peninsula to upgrade and maintain the science sites. Here we are lugging batteries up a mountain on Horseshoe Island to add an Iridium Store and Forward unit to an existing GPS site. There is a network of these sites around the continent measuring isostatic rebound.

We also pulled out some sea ice depots, which were emergency stores to be used if you were stranded while travelling on the sea ice in winter. The sea ice is no longer reliably thick enough due to climate change, so it was thought best not to replace them. Getting to some of the islands felt like approaching a Bond villain's secret island lair.

I think we pulled the fuel jerries out just in time before they leaked - Clearly the box had let some sea water in.
I managed to find a bar of 2003 vintage Dairy Milk in the box, which, despite what some say, tastes no better than the modern stuff!

Straight off the ship and back out to Sky Blu!
It was getting late in the season at this point, so we were treated to some beautiful sunsets. The two 'melon huts' are what we slept in, one for staff and one for visiting pilots. However as we started closing up camp for the winter and putting everything safely underground, we moved cooking, comms and the even the toilet bucket into these things.

This was one of the last planes to leave the field this season, a Kenn Borek Twin Otter which had flown directly from the Pole. They landed here at 2am to switch over from skis to wheels, so they could later land on the gravel at Rothera.

And some late night Skidoo antics!

When all was put away and we were ready, a plane arrived to take us home. As there is only one pilot on these flights, occasionally you get to be co-pilot and this was one of those times! I was incredibly lucky to be in the front seat for a night landing at Rothera, and I even got to do some night flying myself!

 

[grasstype]

That's breathtaking.

 

[gorgous]

Have a great time the pictures are just breathtaking.

 

[Oscar]

Yea good luck and have a great time again. Good photos !!

 

[Cab-over Pete]

What a great thread.

Thanks for taking the time to post it all. My lad has got really interested in this for some time in the future.

Have a great trip.