DC on The Ice 2

Final two weeks in Antarctica

2009-12-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
Final blog, because, well, I'm writing this from my flat in Wellington having returned to NZ yesterday evening.

The final two weeks of the trip have been really busy, and included 3 nights away from base last weekend (hence no blog then) at Cape Roberts.

The first photo is of the ice-wall that was built in front of the flagpole for the Erebus commemorations. Then there's a couple of photos of McMurdo Station from the Hut Point Ridge track.

We finally got our work done at the Arrival Heights Laboratory (the planets must have aligned). These are the photos of me working on the roof- doing a horizon profile from the centre of the roof.

Some photos of the awesome launch of a Long Duration Balloon- massive balloons which circle the continent for a couple of months at 40,000m - thats above 99% of the atmosphere. They can carry loads underneath them of 2 tonnes, and cost $US2m per launch (not including the scientific instruments, which can cost up to $US30m!).

A set of photos follow from a really productive day in the Darwin Glacier region doing our photo-control. We were able to get all of the 8 points we were hoping to, which means that we'll be able to complete the mapping we want to do. That's about 40 x 60km of mapping in one days work- pretty impressive!!!

There are a heap of photos from my 4 days at Cape Roberts. This was a trip to try and fix our tide gauge there, which has been giving erroneous results. Unfortunately, this couldn't be done until after the end of our scheduled programme, so Rachelle had to return to NZ before this trip. We took a couple of people to help out- Darcy, an engineer from VUW, and Stephen, the winter science-tech at Scott Base. They only stayed for a day, and we managed to swap out the gauge sensor in one day. I stayed on with Dave- a field safety person, who was there to make sure I didn't fall into a tide-crack while undertaking the calibration of the gauge.

A blurry photo of the new wind turbines at Scott Base, and then some from our return wrap it up.

It's strange being back, and is always strange how easy it is to come and go from Antarctica- a 5 hour flight and that's about it.. It always takes a while to sink in.

McMurdo parties, Cape Evans, and some outdoor activities

2009-11-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a full-on week this week. Family members from the Erebus tragedy are at base at the moment. They tried to get to the crash site on Friday evening, but the weather prevented them from landing. They'll hopefully try again in the morning before flying out tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. There was a very emotional service held here at base- very intense.

Right, another mix of photos this week. We start with some photos from a birthday party at McMurdo which we crashed cos the drummer in the band is a kiwi!
Then some more skiing ones, just cos I've been doing a fair bit of it.

We spent a night out at Scott's hut from his Terra Nova expedition at Cape Evans. The Antarctic Heritage Trust conservators are there at the moment, so we stayed with them. The vortex generators that I talked about in last years blog haven't worked as well as hoped, so there were also some base staff out for the day fixing them.

They've got a kite out there, so I had a decent play with that- sooooo much fun!

Finally, there's some photos from another wander up Crater Hill.

We're hopefully heading to the Darwin Glacier tomorrow- should be a really good trip. Rachelle is due to head back to NZ on Wednesday, then I'm out to Cape Roberts to help fix and calibrate our broken tide gauge there (it's claiming 0.8m of sea-level rise per month at the moment). Then I'm due to return to NZ sometime around the 10th. So it's all gone pretty bloody quickly really!

Lizzie, Fran, Me, Rachelle, and Lucy

A whole heap of photos...

2009-11-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I've got quite a range of photos this post...
It's been a pretty busy time since my last post. We've mainly been supporting some gravity measurements as part of the POLENET project. This involved measuring absolute gravity at Scott Base (which meant setting up a temporary hut in front of base which had to be heated to >15°C - easier said than done) as well as relative gravity at Cape Roberts (which involved two half-day-trips out in a helicopter).

The first few photos are of the takedown of our GPS receiver which we setup out on the sea-ice as part of our tide-gauge calibrations. Rachelle wasn't feeling too well, so I roped in Jess to help. She studies Marine Science, but her father is a surveyor, so it was the best I could find! :-)

Then there is a photo of some scoria/gravel being bought in so that we could create a bit of a flat surface to set the gravity hut up on.

We had a bit of a storm last weekend as I mentioned in another post. It cleared enough on sunday for me to get out for a ski, so there's some photos from that. We had over a foot of snow in places. Unfortunately it was so soft that I was sinking most of the way up to my knees even with ski's on (they're skinny cross-country ski's), so it was a bit of work! Also a photo of a C17 landing, as seen from Arrival Heights.

Then more photos of the hut being put up, and the instrument (apparently worth 350,000 Euro) installed inside. It usually runs for about 2 days to obtain a really precise value for the gravity, but some strong winds came up, and some snow was getting inside the hut after only 24hrs of measurements. The French guys- Yves and Nicolas- who were responsible for the instrument decided to take down the instrument so that it was not damaged.

Some photos follow of a walk up Observation Hill- it was myself, Rachelle and Sandi- the base medic.

Also, pictures from Cape Roberts doing the relative gravity. This instrument is a fair bit more robust, and we just needed to put a cardboard box around it to keep the wind off it. The sea-ice is considerably closer this year, to the point that we had to go around the edge to get to Cape Roberts (the helo's aren't allowed to fly over open water).

Then some photos from a trip to Scott's Discovery Hut at Hut Point.

Finally, our second trip to Cape Roberts, including photos of a science camp which we stopped at at Granite Harbour- just around the corner from Cape Roberts. It's pretty cool- 3 big Rac tents for eating and science, and a heap of polar-tents for sleeping in. It's got wind and solar power, as well as some generators for backup. Pimping. There's also a shot of the gravity hut in front of base from the air.

Hope you enjoy the photos, some of them might look a bit weird- I'm not sure if it's the screen of the computer I edit them on, or the one I upload them on, but they definitely look different!

Last years ice-breaker channel from the air.

Some panoramas from the trip so far

2009-11-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

With the weather being so bad the last couple of days, I've managed to find time to process some of the panorama photographs I've taken recently.I suggest you click on the image to open it at the largest resolution Blogger lets you upload at (1600 pixels wide I think).

The actual images are a lot bigger, and most would be well over a metre wide if printed at full resolution.

Cape Royds and Emperors

2009-11-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

The main piece of fieldwork which we undertook this week was a survey of Shackleton's hut from his Nimrod expedition at Cape Royds. Every year we survey it to determine if it is rising or falling due to ice buildup underneath. It's reasonably stable at the moment.

We took a Piston Bully tracked vehicle out. This is slower than a Hagglund (it took 3.5 hours each way, making for a looong day), and it doesn't float if it goes through the ice. As we were driving over sea-ice (frozen ocean), we stopped a few times at cracks in the ice to drill through and make sure it was thick enough to take our weight as we drove over.

There's an Adelie Penguin Colony at Cape Royds. The biggest difference from last year is that the sea-ice edge is about 100km closer than it was this time last year, to the point that it's about 1km from Cape Royds, so you can easily see open water (something I didn't see at all last year). One of the results of this is that there are a quite a few Emperor Penguins wandering around. On our drive back, we saw a group of 5 about 300m off the road, so we went over and checked them out.

We also stopped at the ice cave at the end of the Erebus Ice Tongue. It wasn't as impressive as last year, but I think I got some interesting photos. Last year there wasn't as much direct light in the cave, so there were a lot more intense blues which didn't really come through this year.

This evening I'll be continuing the century-old tradition of men wearing skirts in Antarctica, as it's the Scott Base Skirt Party, whoop. Photos may or may not result.

American Hag

A Busy Week

2009-11-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

The weather's packed up at Scott Base in the last couple of days- wind up to 50kts, although the temps get warm when a blizzard hits- it's only -3.5°C outside at the moment. But it's meant we've been confined to base, which is good for catching up on emails, and data processing, and photo editing!

It's been a pretty busy week this week. We are supporting some French scientists who are measuring gravity at certain points around the Ross Sea Region, and one of the points they want to do really precise measurements at is Scott Base. This requires setting up a portable hut, with no floor, and heating it to between 15 and 25°C. So quite a bit of our time has been spent sorting that out.

We also completed the Scott Base tide gauge calibration, and having processed the data, it's all looking good. The other task we completed this week was a survey at Shackletons Nimrod hut at Cape Royds. There's a Adelie penguin colony there, and with the sea-ice edge so close this year, there are also a lot of Emperor penguins wandering around (which I'll put the photos up for in a seperate post.

So when we're not working and the weathers good, I've tried to get out and do some of the recreation activities. So there's some photos of a walk Rachelle and I did around the Ob Hill Loop. There's also a couple from the Pressure Ridges in front of base.

Not all science in Antarctica is undertaken in the field- some is done in labs back at Scott Base. I made friends with some of the scientists here from Otago Uni, and have thrown in a couple of photos of one of them cutting up a worm..And there's some big traverses going across to New Harbour and Granite Harbour, so I've put in some photos of the loaded sleds for those.
Oh, and there's also a photo of the wind turbines being worked on, which are being installed above Scott Base. Hopefully will have some more photos in the next week or so- they're being put up now- weather permitting.

Quick Update

2009-11-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Just thought I'd post a few photos, as I'm pretty busy, and struggling to find time to write stuff.

It's been a pretty busy week- a few issues with our programme which I've been trying to sort out, but we seem to be getting towards resolutions on them, so thats good. Will write a bit more later on (I'm off to a science lecture at McMurdo this evening, so can't be late).

The first few photos are from us testing the configuration of our GPS receivers, to make sure they're recording the information we want. There's quite a few, but I like them, so tough, haha.

Then there's a few of our setup on the sea-ice for our tide-gauge calibration. We only had to dig down about 20cm this year to hit the ice, as opposed to just over a metre last year- thats a lot less digging.

The final photo is from an evening ski with a couple of scientists here- Simon and Jess. I've been out for a couple of ski's with them now- good times.

So yeah, I'm really trying to fill my time in while I'm here- burning the candle at both ends a bit, but thats ok..

Off to Cape Royds tomorrow to do our work at Shackletons hut, which should be awesome!

Enjoy the photos.

Halloween and a jam-packed Sunday.

2009-11-02T01:11:00.000-08:00

Well, Saturday night was Halloween, so a few of us got dressed up and headed over to the American McMurdo Station for their big Halloween party. It was an interesting night- it sure drew a few interesting characters out of the woodwork! So yeah, a few photos from that first up.

Down here we have a 6-day working week, with Sunday being the only day of our weekend. So when it's a nice day on that Sunday, you've really got to make the most of it.
So after brunch, Rachelle and I headed out for a wander around the Pressure Ridges. Here we found some fresh Adelie Penguin tracks in the snow. They looped around a bit, as it obviously came across the barrier of the pressure ridges and decided to try a different route.

Since last year, they're relaxed the recreational safety requirements considerably, and now you can go on pretty much any recreational trail by yourself as long as you take a radio. You also don't have to take your full ECW gear. They also have cross-country ski's which you can use, and I made good use of them on this day! I started by going for a ski around Cape Armitage, which is on the sea-ice and goes around the bottom of Observation Hill. This took a little bit of getting used to, as I hadn't done any cross-country skiing since last time I was down here. It was still a nice trip, and quite the workout.

Then after dinner, I decided to have a go at the Castle Rock Loop, which I didn't do last year. The round-trip is about 19km and it took me 4 hours. I took my skis, but walked most of it, and skiied the last 4-5km back to Scott Base along the ice shelf. I was going to do it with a couple of crazy Germans who are down here playing with radar and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) - a very cool project. However they are pretty fit and good skiiers and had normal downhill ski's. So the idea was that i'd start an hour and a half ahead of them, and they'd catch up to me. As it turned out, the terrain was well suited to my type of travel, so I actually took less time than they did, and arrived back well before them. Unfortunately my little camera isn't as good in the cold as my SLR, so it stopped working about half-way round the loop, which was disappointing. It's fine now, and I just need to keep it closer to my body to keep it warm.

Anyway, onto the photos...

Halloween:

Some Kiwis

Mario-Kart!

More Kiwis

It felt like uni again- drinking while it's still light outside!

Pressure Ridges:

Adelie Penguin Tracks

Cape Armitage:

Crater Hill:

Crater Hill and Arrival Heights

2009-10-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we're getting into the swing of things now. We've completed most of our training (we still have our Antarctic Drivers Licences to go), and have had our in-brief. All our gear is out of storage, and we're going through testing it now.

The weather the last few days has been mixed. Rachelle got back in from AFT before the weather really turned nasty, although some of the photos from it look interesting. We had some travel restrictions put in place for most of Thursday due to the weather. But then yesterday and today have been gorgeous- hardly any wind, and great weather to get out and get a feel for the surroundings.

Last night, at about 9:30, I went for a walk up Crater Hill again. On such a clear evening, you could see for miles, and I was able to see my first open water in Antarctica! In the distance the sea-ice edge was visable beyond Inaccessible Island and Cape Evans. Its amazing how much closer the ice-edge is this year! We'll be flying over it to get to Cape Roberts later in the month, and will get a close-up view from Cape Royds in a week/10 days when we head out there.

Then today (Saturday) we headed up to Arrival Heights, where we are doing some surveying, with Mike from AntNZ. This was to take a look around, and so that he could explain the work that he wants us to complete up there. It's an Antarctic Specially Protected Area, so we had to get a permit to even go there.

On the way back we checked out the gravity hut at McMurdo, and dug the snow out of the entrance.

It's the Halloweeen party at McMurdo this evening- most of the base seems to be heading over. I bought down one of my costumes from the Wellington Sevens a couple of years ago. Although I didn't bring down all the props, nor do I have the beard I did then. But i'm sure it'll be a good night. The only problem is that we're on dinner dishes this evening, and the vehicles will be heading over reasonably early, so I'll probably end up doing the dishes in my costume, which should be interesting!

A few photos from my second walk up Crater Hill:

The Road to Willy's Field

The crater at the top of Crater Hill

The dark line on the horizon is the open water.

Walking around the crater

The sea-ice runway out in front of McMurdo

Icebergs and open water in the far distance

The shortcut down to SB

And now some from Arrival Heights:

From the roof of the Lab

Mike adjusts the webcam.

Clearing the entrance to the Gravity Hut

First Couple of Days

2009-10-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Sorry, I'm not going to be writing much this season- i'm going to be getting amongst it, and making the most of being here rather than spending a couple of hours a night writing a blog like last year! I will try and keep some photos coming though.

We flew south yesterday- a 5 hour flight on a C17- left CHCH at 9 (after getting picked up at 6), so arrived at 2. Had a safety briefing, and got settled in.

Today, I had an Antarctic Field Training refresher, and Rachelle (who's here with me from LINZ) has her full training. This means she's out in the field this evening, which should be interesting if the forecast storm comes through! I'm glad I'm inside this evening!

I also went for a wander up Crater Hill this afternoon (as I heard some the bad weather was coming), so I've thrown in some photos of that.

It's great to be back- this is such an addictive place!

Today Christchurch, Tomorrow Antarctica!

2009-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Team,

Just a quick post from Wellington Airport (gotta love free wireless!).

I'm here waiting for my plane to take me to Christchurch. This afternoon we get kitted out with all the extreme cold weather gear that we need to survive in the hostile conditions.
Then first thing tomorrow morning (assuming the weather in Antarctica is looking OK), we'll be boarding our plane, and will be southbound! Exciting times!

I've been asked by a few people how I'm feeling about the trip. It's really hard to explain- I'm not nervous about it, because I've been there before, and done all the prep I can do. I'm kinda excited, but not overly, partly because it's come up so quickly I still can't really fathom that in just over 24 hours i'll be on the ice.

I think the strongest feeling is confidence. Confidence that I'm reasonably prepared, and that I'm going to one of the places I feel comfortable. Scott Base is an amazing environment- everyone is there to have a good time, and are ready and willing to help you get your tasks done.

I can't wait!

T Minus 7 Days!

2009-10-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it's down to one week before flying out. This time next week, I'll hopefully be on an American C17 Globemaster, excited as anything!

I thought I'd post the link to a post I did on last years blog about why I'm heading to Antarctica. The link is here.

Our work programme is largely the same as last year- we'll be undertaking the following tasks:

Tide Gauge Calibrations at Scott Base and Cape Roberts
Ground Control for new 1:50,000 topo mapping in the Darwin Glacier region
Deformation monitoring of Scott and Shackleton's historic huts

This year, we'll also be:

Supporting a French project to undertake gravity observations on Ross Island and at Cape Roberts
Undertaking a topo survey and horizon profile at NZ's Arrival Heights Laboratory.

But yeah, check out my old blog for lots of photos and content from last year: http://dc-onice.blogspot.com

Videos from 2008

2009-09-27T03:01:00.000-07:00

Here are four more videos from last time...
If you're looking at this as a Note in Facebook, you'll just have to look at the vids on my profile.

4 weeks and counting!

2009-09-27T02:36:00.000-07:00

Well, four weeks this evening, and I'll be in Christchurch, desperately trying to get to sleep before an early start to get to the airport in time to fly back to Antarctica!

For those who missed my last trip, you might like to take a look at the content on my last blog, which can be found here.

The last 9.5 months since I was last there seem to have rushed past crazy-fast... Already, just from the planning that has taken place, I can tell that this is going to be quite a different season for me compared to last year. Last year I was there learning how our programme works, and basically stood where I was told, and did what Glen told me!

This time, however, I'm the Field Leader for our event, and so am responsible for ensuring that our programme objectives are achieved, and that everything goes to plan. While I'm sure I can handle this added responsibility, it does make me think about the trip quite differently..

I definitely won't have as much time to update this blog, and post photos. That said, if you have questions about Antarctica, I'll try to answer them, so let me know...

I've recently gotten around to editing some video that I shot last time I was down.. Here's the first, it's from the inside of an American C17 on the southbound flight.