First days at Rothera

Flying in on the Dash 7 was not your average flight. With the freedom to wonder around, make your own hot drinks and chat to the pilots made a welcome relief from the crammed commercial flights we had previously been on. It was cloudy until our final decent where we dropped below the clouds and got stunning views of Adelaide Island and the extensive sea ice.

inside the dash

It was pretty surreal wondering around the base and trying to understand that I was finally in Antarctica. This was made harder by the fact that that it was uncharacteristically hot (4℃) and sunny, the air in Antarctica is also very dry (it’s the driest continent on earth) which means you can become dehydrated very quickly.

sea ice near Rothera

Being the run up to Christmas every night this week has been a movie night with a choice of two films to watch. When we arrived Elf was being shown in the Fuchs loft. Fuchs is the field guides’ building and in the loft is where all the sleeping gear is stored which had been arranged in rows and draped with sheepskins to make for a very cosy viewing and a relaxed end to my first day.

Gator buggies

The following day was packed with various bits of training including field medical box training, living and working around aircraft and a vehicle familiarisation. The vehicle familiarisation was good fun we got to take the gator buggies for a spin before going over to the ski ramp where we learnt how to use the skidoos which enabled us to take in the view of the base and surrounding mountains for the first time.

Skidoo at the top of the ramp

Thursday was the start of our field training in the morning we got to grips with the primus stoves and tilly lamps before getting kit together for our first overnight trip. After lunch we loaded up the snowcat and drove up the ramp and across to the caboose (small overnight hut) which is out of sight of the base. Our first job was to pitch the pyramid tent, despite being up in the mountains it was still really hot so we took a break in the caboose and had a drink before setting out to complete our training. We walked to a snow scoop which provided a steep slope to practice using our snow axes and crampons. It was really refreshing to be out walking around after being cooped up on the flights south, despite working hard I felt the most energised since being south.

Charlie, Hully and me in front of the snowcat

field practice 

We headed back to the Caboose at 1900 where we cooked a dinner of cheesy tuna pasta we managed to chat away until we realised it was 2300. Time is a strange concept at the moment with 24 hours of sunshine it is impossible to judge the time of day and you can easily stay up until the early hours without even noticing. The only thing that does mark the passage of time is the regularity of meals, during the day you are never more than 3 hours away from your next meal. The three usual meals are split by a morning and afternoon smoko (the term for a glorified tea break, in the morning soup is always on offer and in the afternoon there is sometimes biscuits if not toast and cereal are always available). After realising the time, we decided to turn in for the night. Due to the weather being so pleasant, we all opted to bivy out on the snow instead.

bivying out

pyramid tent and caboose

It was probably the best night sleep I had had since being at Rothera mainly because of the sleeping gear we were provided with. All of your sleeping equipment gets put in to your own “p bag” for the entirety of your time south. It contains a foam roll mat, an inflatable thermarest, a sheepskin, a fleece liner, a cotton liner, a very thick down sleeping bag and a waterproof bivy bag. Which was more than warm enough out on the snow. The only thing to get used to was the silence and it was truly silent the smallest rustle was deafening.

sleeping system

After breakfast we made our way back down to base where we sorted the gear out. Teresa and I had the afternoon free so we got Denzel, the vehicle mech to teach us how to drive the tractors which are used to move the boats around base. Which was great fun and a lot easier than driving a car. It’ll be hard to go back to the uk where you need a licence to drive! My training is all complete now and I will be starting work after boxing day.

Flying South for Winter

Getting to Antarctica is a bit of a mission in itself.  Unsurprisingly you can’t just jump on to a direct flight from Heathrow to the South Pole (this is probably a good thing as it holds back the hordes of adventure seeking tourists), instead you (and your luggage) have to survive four separate flights (Heathrow, Madrid, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Rothera), a journey which started mid-afternoon on the 18^th and has so far taken over 24 hours and as far as Punta at the southern tip of Chile. We now have a one night stop over to eat, sleep and freshen up before we throw ourselves off the end of South America and into the adventures that lie in wait.

Santiago, with the snow capped mountains just peaking above the mist and smog

Despite the journey consisting of a lot of long and tedious ques, turns out the weekend before Christmas is a busy time to fly, there were some spectacular aerial views. Some of the best were during our twelve hour flight to Santiago, which included lightning displays over Brazil and soaring straight over the top of the Andes. We then proceeded to follow the Andes south to Punta no need for inflight entertainment when you can gaze across the vast ranges and pick out volcanoes some covered in snow others spewing out ash and smoke. The further south we flew the greener the land became and we eventually touched down in Punta getting a good view of the Dash 7 which will take us on our final leg to Rothera.

Smoking volcano

This fails to capture the epic scale of the mountains

We now have to wait for the all clear to fly, which is mainly dependant on weather a factor which can cause you to be delayed for a week but hopefully the weather gods will be on our side and we will be departing this morning (now the 20^th).

Intro

I've created this blog so that friends and family (and anyone else who's interested!) can keep track of my upcoming adventures and to give everyone a flavour of what life in Antarctica is really like. As it's my first time (both blogging and going to Antarctica) I can't say what exactly this blog will entail although be sure to expect lots of photos of snow, ice and wildlife (although I am quite certain there will be no pictures of polar bears or the northern lights (the southern lights are quite possible)). In the mean time I'll use this first post to try and explain where I'm going and to dispel a few myths that people have about living in Antarctica (based off many of the questions I have been asked).

I will be based at Rothera research station (which is run by the British Antarctic Survey, BAS, for loads of info about Rothera and BAS click here), which is on Adelaide Island just off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. But where is that I hear you cry, well it is 2500km away from the South Pole (7500km away from the Equator) and it's roughly halfway up the bit that looks like it is trying to grab onto South America. Because it is so far away from the equator it tends to be a bit chilly (hence why Antarctica always seems to be pictured as a snowy, icy, desolate wasteland… because it is), in summer Rothera can be as warm as 5℃ but in winter it can drop below -20℃. This brings us to myth no. 1: won’t you be freezing cold the whole time? Thankfully BAS has been kind enough to fit the buildings with central heating, so as long as nothing breaks I will be warm when I am sleeping in my bed at night. As for being outside, there is no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing… The kit we get to wear and use is built for the cold and can do a really good job at trapping warmth around your body although it is inevitable that at some point I will be cold, although it is unlikely to be for the entirety of my time down south.

Another question I get asked a lot is: won’t you be really isolated and lonely? Well Rothera is actually quite big (by Antarctic standards), in the summer 120 people are able to live and work on the base. Thanks to its runway people are also constantly coming and going, either moving off to do research in the field or to other stations around the continent. But once the runway closes and the last ship leaves for the winter, there will be just 20 of us to keep the station running and to continue with the ongoing research projects. So how it will feel to live with only 20 people for 6 months is impossible to say, but one thing is for sure I will not be in a tiny shack on my own! Also the internet is surprisingly good so keep emailing and messaging me!

The fact that nobody comes or goes over winter leads to the impression of us slowly wasting away as we eat our way through an ever dwindling supply of tinned food. This may have been the fate of early explorers to the region but BAS now has decades of experience as to how much food us winterers like to eat. We will also have a chef wintering with us who will undoubtedly be serving us up some amazing food even when the fresh supplies have gone.

So Hopefully you now feel a little bit more informed about where I am going? If not don’t worry (I don’t think I truly know where I am going) there will be loads of information to follow, but in the mean time here is a flying tour that someone from the current wintering team has made so enjoy and stay tuned!