Crater Hill and Arrival Heights

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

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!

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!

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