antarcticmonkey

Well, almost......

2007-04-23T12:19:00.000-03:00

When Bridget asked if I wanted to come ski mountaineering in Morocco, I thought it was an elaborate wind-up. But, yes, there is snow in Morocco. In fact they even have a little lift served ski resort. And lots of mules to do some of the hard work for you.

Jbel Toubkal is the one in the middle/top of the pic above. We skied up the obvious wide coulour to the right of the summit then up the ridge to the top. After a wee rest to let the surface of the snow soften a little it was on the planks for a 1000+m descent back to the hut trying hard not to feel smug as we cruised past the walkers.

The summit (4167m). The sahara is the bit in the distance!

Hassan our main mule man.

Food was good but Nido seems to be haunting my every step.....

Back to normality.....

2007-03-24T12:07:00.000-03:00

Flying over King George VI sound in a BAS Twin Otter

Flying over Isle of Wight on EasyJet......

Eating what I want when I want is nice

Although "winter" conditions in the Northern Corries isn't so good

I would've gladly paid double to get away from the Falklands. No idea what happened to "S Stephenson" thou......

Back in civilisation??

2007-02-05T17:51:00.001-02:00

Well, that's me back in civilisation, or at least as close as is available in the Falklands. To cut a long story short, last month we got on the HMS Endurance, sailed down Drake's Passage which was flat calm or at least that's what all the guys on the ship said. When we got down to the pininsula, we were flown by helo(copter) onto James Ross Island (JRI) where we stayed for a fortnight. Then we were uplifted, had a shower and did various day trips from the ship mostly by helo but we were also input by inflatable.

our campsite on JRI

our walk to work.......

our tents getting uplifted

Then we sailed around to Deception Island to help out a Norwegian cruise ship who had had some difficulties finding the way out and sailed north to the delights of Mare Harbour and Stanley. Via Drake's Passage which even some of the crew described as "lumpy". I don't think I've missed my calling in life by not becoming a sailor.
Now I'm waiting in the cradle of civilisation waiting for the weather to improve so the MOD can fly me back to proper civilisation. See you soon.

Dead dogs and pisco sour

2007-01-05T18:19:00.000-02:00

After a false start due to the wrong kind of snow, we said our goodbyes again and escaped the pull of planet rothera. Tom and I spent yesterday wandering around Punta smelling things and looking at trees. Having said that, there was surprisingly little culture shock - it all seemed pretty normal pretty quickly. The pidgin spanish is coming along well - ordering beer, wine and pisco sours are all no problem now although things are a bit more pot luck when it comes to ordering dinner. In fact, probably the most difficult thing to adjust to after living in a place where we're all interdependant is being looked after in a hotel - we keep trying to tidy up after ourselves which confuses the staff at the hotel. That and the hours of the nightlife - we're looking for nightclubs when most people are still eating dinner.

Flying to Stanley tomorrow on a commercial flight which will be a bit of a change after the Dash7 - I'll have to remember not to go up to the cabin to chat to the pilots while we're in the air. And i'd better take the flares out of my hand luggage.

Then it's off to James Ross Island. This was taken from the campsite that last year's field party used.

I'm off!

2007-01-02T21:39:00.000-02:00

Well that's it - I'm all packed, the dash7 is working and the weather seems to be improving. The plan is for me to head north tomorrow, up to Punta Arenas then get a commercial flight to Stanley and meet the HMS Endurance there for a month of flying about in helicopters then home for tea and medals. I've been walking around with my wallet in my pocket to get used to the weight. Although being surrounded by people that i don't know might take a bit more getting used to.... Tomorrow there will be two very startled looking guys sitting in a chilean bar!

Going deeper.....

2007-01-02T21:10:00.000-02:00

RABID is at about 79 south. The mountains in the background are the ellsworths with is where mt vinson and the like are. It's not a bad view for a petrol station.

This is about the point where my boss realised that the person that was as far south as anyone in BAS was the same person who had to be on a plane to Punta Arenas in a week. Nico and i flew to sky blu where the dash7 was waiting for me to take me back to Rothera for christmas dinner.

Fossil Bluff

2007-01-02T20:59:00.000-02:00

Summer is a bit swings and roundabouts. On the one hand, we get post and fresh food. I didn't realise how good bananas tasted. On the downside we have to do some serious work. One of the first jobs is to open up the Fossil Bluff and Sky Blu depots. 'the bluff' is the closest, most relaxed and in early season has really good skiing so i was pretty happy to get out there. Having said that the sun is pretty strong even early season so we were having to be out the door before 6am to get decent snow. Then the rest of the day is spent refueling planes and doing weather observations.

Summer's here.....

2006-12-03T15:26:00.000-02:00

Some random pics

2006-12-03T15:09:00.000-02:00

More winter trip pics.....

2006-10-21T11:34:00.000-03:00

Winter Trips Again

2006-09-28T18:13:00.000-03:00

Winter trips have started again so, while we've been doing some climbing, skiing is the preferred option. It certainly beats walking back downhill again.

While I took no pleasure in throwing Riet off his chair, crevasse rescue training is an important part of pre-trip preparation.....

Ammo Col

2006-09-06T17:52:00.000-03:00

One of the activites that fit nicely into (extended...) lunch hour is the ski over ammo col. A quick skin up from base to the col (half way up the right side of the pic above),

a ski down through perfect untouched powder or more regularly over rock hard sastrugi

then a quick shimmy back over the sea-ice back to work. At the moment the ice is over half a metre thick which means it's strong enough to land a plane on. In theory......

Southern Skies

2006-09-04T18:30:00.000-03:00

Some nacreous clouds for all you met geeks......

and a nice sunrise for the rest of you....

Mid-Winter Continued.......

2006-08-16T18:20:00.000-03:00

One of the most popular traditions is the ritual of present giving on mid-winters day. While MPJ spent hours in the chippie shop making his directors chair, my time was spent more on research and product testing......

And don't worry, the dodgy facial hair went at the end of the week.

Riet produced another impresive feast.

Even in the depths of winter, we still get a few hours of daylight. We've been out testing the thickness of the sea-ice to see if it's safe to go out on without our immersion suits. It has to be 25cms to walk on and it was nowhere near today. Which is why I'm standing on dry land taking this picture......

And a spot of ice-climbing on our local glacier to pass the time. But the one thing we were all waiting for was the sun and after 3 months waiting it finally made an appearance, sneaking over the horizon just enough for us to remember what it was.

Rothera Pub Crawl

2006-07-05T04:44:00.000-03:00

The pub crawl heralds the start to mid-winter week. The lack of venues could have been a problem so bars spring up in the most unlikely of places. The evening kicked off with food and drinks in 'La Cuisine' a French kitchen bar run by a Belgian and an Englishman. Next up was 'Cutting Edge @ The Bonner Lab' where some more world class science proved that tequila sunrises squirted directly down the throat caused difficulty walking across snowdrifts.

The action then moved on to 'Spirit in the Sky' where the met team made good use of a drifted over exit and helium filled weather balloons.

The surgery was the scene of Lowri pushing the boundaries of the hyppocratic oath. She was obviously not using her medicine as enthusiastically as she was prescribing it as she managed to take all these pictures.

However, the most spectacular was the field assistant's legendary 'Bungee Bar'. But then I would say that. The unfortunate participant is tied to all the entire base supply of elastic then sprints off and collects as much beer as possible before Hooke does his stuff and our victim is hauled back down the corridor, usually dropping any beer he managed to collect as he's pinballed off the walls.

Winter trips - the not so good

2006-05-30T19:54:00.000-03:00

Perhaps obviously, the weather plays a major part of life here. While on the last trip we had perfect weather and I was thinking 'why are we carrying all this extra food and fuel?' It does get slightly less ideal, however and while this does give some spectacular skies and nice pics, it isn't ideal for moving anywhere.

So of course on the next trip we got nailed!

After getting to the other side of the island without any problems, we got stuck on the way home. In 7 days we'd moved a total of 120metres and I'd been outside the tent 4 times!

Tent life! Staring at the walls and working on black belt suduko skills.

Just when things were getting desperate (the coffee ran out), we were treated to a day of passable weather! We managed to get to within spitting distance of Rothera looking like we might make it back for a shower and more coffee when my skidoo started playing up, spluttering and cutting out. However, with a bit of creative load adjusting (getting the others to tow my sledges) and mechanical bodging skills, we made it back in time for tea. Just.

Winter trips - the good.....

2006-05-26T08:48:00.000-03:00

One of the best bits about the winter season the winter trips. Each winterer gets two trips, one before mid winter and one after, each around six days long. One of the most requested is trying to get to the semi abandoned chilean base at Carvajal which does have a certain marie celeste charm as well as much nicer sunsets than we get on the other side of the island. It's one big seal colony too which does give it a certain aroma. Which put me off a seafood diet a little.

The 'Carvajal Arms'. Note the chilean 'red death' above the bar....

Travel down there is by skidoo, towing two sledges with enough food and fuel to last for months and all tied together in case one of the 'doos finds a crevasse, although we usually walk through any suspect areas first to find a safe route. It's funny how your acceptable risk level drops when the nearest hospital is 5000km away and they haven't left us an ambulance.

It's about 80km to Carvajal which is a good days drive and blessed with perfect weather we managed to get a little climbing in on the way home thinking that there wasn't much to this winter trip lark.....

Winter has started!

2006-04-13T21:07:00.000-03:00

Well that's winter here now. The Shackleton sailed first thing in the morning, leaving 21 of us to spend the next 7 months together. No planes or ships till the end of october when the air unit arrive with planes, post and fruit and veg!

We gave the shack the traditional send-off with all the out of date flares we could muster then walked back to the main building trying to work out which one would be the mad one....

The other tradition of last call is the practical jokes our departing 'friends' leave us with. Previous efforts include changing the hinges to the other side of doors and changing the milk powder for potato powder. While we did get off pretty lightly this year, it did take us a while to find the 8-ball and food dye in the shower heads did catch a few folk out....

Once we got used to the idea of not seeing anyone else all winter, the german research ship, the Polar Stern, called to say they were sending a chopper over to drop off some field kit of ours they had on board. but now that's gone we really are on our own!

Sky Blu

2006-03-05T14:55:00.000-03:00

I don't know if it's because I've been good or bad but was sent to Sky Blu for a spell. The main feature of 'Guantanamo Blu' (lots of people sitting around in orange overalls doing nothing...) is the blue ice runway which enables planes to land on wheels instead of skis. The main function here is as a refuelling and stopping-off spot for projects further south.

Being at 75 degrees south & 1300m high, the weather can be a little chilly. When it's -30 and 60km/h winds theres no incentive to go outside unless the pee bottle is full. It's at times like these that the Field Assistant's mantra of 'sleep till you're hungry, eat till you're sleepy' comes out.

However, when the wind drops and the sun comes out it does feel a bit more pleasant. Thats when the planes start flying and you're busy unloading fuel from big planes and putting it into little planes, then running back to the hut to give weather observations to the other pilots. And skiing......

Ant tying his plane down for the night.

The Americans Are Coming!

2006-02-07T21:14:00.000-02:00

The American research ship, Laurence M Gould came around for a visit last week. I knew this as I'd left my radio on the night before and they called up at 06:30 to loudly give us a "heads up" to their arrival nearly three hours later. The only person awake at that time (other than me) was Riet the chef getting the food ready..... So the perfect excuse to jump in a boat and go for a jolly around the bay. And check out the icebergs. All very picturesque as long as they don't roll over onto you.....

While we were out there, we took a diversion to Lagoon Island and have a look at the wildlife. These Elephant Seals are big, unfriendly and smelly but pretty safe. Unless they roll over onto you......

Marguerite Bay with Lagoon Island on the left

Art in Antarctica

2006-01-06T21:09:00.000-02:00

The artist on this year's Artist & Writer Programne is Layla Curtis. For the last couple of weeks, we've been wandering around looking for crevasses, then abseiling and lowering cameras into them. For the full story, click on the link to Layla's website in the links section.

I've been helping her out with my duct-taping and bodging skills. The quid pro quo is that she is responsible for the new look and the technological advances of this blog. You didn't think I did it myself did you? And I will change the strap-line just as soon as I work out how.

The sea-ice has really been breaking up which changes the feel of the base. We're pretty much surrounded by sea now. It also means there is a lot more wildlife, especially penguins, around. They also only ever seem to cross the runway when planes are approaching so I've been honing my herding techniques recently.

And Happy New Year. One down, one to go!

Crimbo

2005-12-30T20:30:00.000-02:00

In a barely believable technological breakthrough, it is now possible to view an enlarged image by clicking on it. Is there no begining to my IT skills......? I'll try to get round to re-doing the previous pics but don't hold your breath.

Been abseiling into crevasses for art but this is the christmas post so the art will follow.

Christmas in Antarctica

The annual 10k race was held on xmas eve this year. 5 laps of the runway although some folk didn't enter into the spirit of the event.

christmas eve 10k race (above)

Then on the day itself, brunch, a Bond film and a walk around the point to work up the appetite, then christmas dinner itself.

So many people have asked what we would be eating, here is a pic of my christmas dinner. No penguin in sight....

All this was made possible (well the alcohol bit anyway) by the JCR arriving a couple of days earlier for our re-supply. The sight of this beautiful ship, easing through the sea-ice, full of stella brought a tear to my eye. The thought of having to drink cider all festive season was too much to even consider.

Back to civilisation......

2005-12-18T21:11:00.000-02:00

Just got back from the latest field trip. We were out for a fortnight altogether which included waiting 6 days to get picked up. Lifts down here can get delayed for 3 main reasons :
No available planes
No pilot hours or tired pilots
Bad weather in the field or up at Rothera

Of course we had them all!

The trip started well. The pilot even pretended to not have heard my hillarious comments about landing 'on the ground' or 'on the white bit' before. In order to check the landing area is safe from crevaces, the pilots crank the plane over and drag a ski over the glacier surface while maintening flying airspeed. Then they give it some gas and fly around to check their tracks. If nothing has opened up they try it again or just land if they are feeling lucky. Meanwhile I'm sitting in the co-pilot's seat trying to appear cool while nearly wetting myself with excitment.

Once on the ground there's no niceties. You and the gear gets kicked out, the radio gets checked
then the plane's off leaving you and your beaker (from muppets...) feeling rather alone.

Of course there's plenty to do. Get the tent up, get the dinner on and crack open the whisky. Although it's worth making sure the tent is perfectly pitched since 'blows' can come from nowhere. We woke to the sound of a 30 knot wind rattling the tent at 4am. There was a brief battle of Sloth vs Paranoia which resulted in the tent getting checked. It maybe howling windy and freezing cold but at least the sun was shining.

The reason for this jolly was 'Terrestrial Biology' ie dirt, moss and lichen. so we rambled around with Kevin staring at the ground, me at the views occasionaly pressing buttons on the GPS to log site locations as he takes dirt samples.

Life on Mars

2005-12-18T20:32:00.000-02:00

On the final slopes of Mariner Ridge

Two-Step Cliffs. The route onto the ridge follows the snow on the left.

Getting out the taxi and off to work

New routing potential at Mars Oasis

The sky above the campsite at 1am.....

View from Middle Stork

Descending from Mariner Peak

Sunset?! over the Sea Ice

Camping in Style

2005-11-22T21:16:00.000-02:00

Off into the field soon so went out to try out the tents. They are a lot more solid than they look but they weigh around 80lbs so not much use for backbacking. Just be on the safe side we camped out in the back garden (the base is just around the corner!)

The wind got up while we were out there but once you realise the tent is going to stay put you can relax and get a brew on. I shouldn't talk about this since I'll probably get thrown out of the 'Hard Anarctic Explorers Union' but camping here is probaly the most luxurious camping you'll ever do. The sleeping bags are so warm you could sleep out on top of Everest, wearing boxer shorts and still have to unzip it because you're too hot. Underneath there is two huge mats as well as a sheepskin rug which you can just see under my left hand.

And with your cup of tea you need the morning paper too. The relative importance of different bits of news is a bit skewed down here.....

AntarcticaAir

2005-11-16T23:27:00.000-02:00

The highlight of last week was probably (actually definately!) hitching a flight out to the refueling station at Fossil Bluff.

Antarctic Birthday

2005-11-12T19:49:00.000-02:00

Off for a few birthday beers but first here's a few pics. I took the one below on the way out on to the sea ice. The two dark dots on the right side of the 'berg are weddel seals. The ice is starting break up now. soon this will just be sea with a bunch of icebergs floating around.

And here's a closer view of the afforementioned seals. The ice was about 70cm thick but with some pretty meaty cracks mainle due to the action of the tide. Obviously falling through these would be a bad thing in capital letters so we have to wear these dapper dry suits.

And a sunset one too.......

Heres to another year!
Cheers

Destination: ROTHERA

2005-11-02T21:47:00.000-02:00

Finally flew down to Rothera yesterday. This was my first view of an iceberg. It's in the bottom left of the pic. The difference is that it's surrounded by sea ice so I'm not sure if it counts as a 'berg or not. The co-pilot was unaware of the 5-second rule so I managed to steal his seat and took pictures like an american tourist on speed.

My hoose for the next year and a half! It's the most spectacular place I've ever been by a factor of lots. Not an accolade given out lightly after living in Bethesda for the summer.... I took this one staggering back to my room after a couple of welcome beers. At 1am......

Went out for a cruise in the 'cat this afternoon. The peaks in the background are in fact islands surrounded by sea ice. Which won't last much longer with the heat today - I was stripped down to my last fleece. Sunburn is a real issue too since there isn't an ozone layer above our heads.

Photos in the Falklands

2005-10-31T10:47:00.000-02:00

The RAF flight to MPA (mount pleasant airport) in the FI (falkland islands) stops at Ascension Island (no TLA) and everyone gets off and sits in the "transit area" (like guantanamo bay without the overalls and watches the plane getting refueled. then its back on for another 8 hours of fun.

The Globe seems to be the focus of our attempts to fill the gaps between 3 course meals. Notable for a penchant for hard house at inappropriate times of the day and the machine gun above the bar....

Fat in the Falklands

2005-10-31T09:54:00.000-02:00

Settling into FI life nicely - getting fat on 3 course meals, 3 times a day with a bit of heavy drinking and penguin hunting filling the intervening hours. FI is strange mix of Stornaway and Wyoming with the added spice of beaches surrounded by minefields. We did what any self respecting upstanding member of society would do - starting lobbing rocks in to set one off.... Until we realized anti-personnel mines jump up in the air and explode. Who would be a penguin?

Fun in the Falklands

2005-10-29T15:05:00.000-02:00

After a 50 hr delay I finally arrived at Mount Pleasant (honestly) International. Should be here till tues weather dependant, although thankfully not RAF dependant. After spending 30hrs around Brize Norton I was so thankfull to be on a plane that the fact that we were just sat on a bunch of seats bolted down in a cargo plane that was designed the same time as the mk1 ford escort was low on the list of concerns. getting served by trolley dollys with big muscles and tatoos was an experience I've not had since flying sleazyjet either.

Scenery round here is pretty reminiscent of NW scotland although there are less minefields and more tornados(in scotland). Some of the street names would be a little out of place too. Have had to keep my gob shut in the pub since there is more union jack waving than an old firm match and mrs T seens to be something of a national heroine.