Other side of the world

Uspallata and over the Andes

2011-03-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

From Mendoza my destination was Santiago in Chile ready for my flight to New York, but by this stage in my travels I was way ahead of schedule and had plenty of time before the flight so I decided to stop at the little town of Uspallata. This is right on the edge of the Andes and only a short distance from Aconcagua, South Americas biggest peak and the bigest mountain outside of the Himalayas.

Uspallata by night

I had looked into a joining a tour to climb the peak but it was the end of the season and climbing permits had ended a couple of weeks earlier so I will have to save the climb for another visit. From Uspallata though I was able to make day trips into Aconcagua park and do some short hikes. On my first day in the hostel I met a Greman girl called Heidi who was planning to do the same as myself, so we headed out together the next day by bus to the park and did a short walk before heading down to the nearby town of Puente del Inca to see a natural stone bridge over the river (also visited by Charles Darwin so I learned).

Inca bridge

Then a quick visit to the cemetary for all the climbers who have died on Aconcagua and we thumbed a lift back to the hostel.

Aconcagua cemetery

The next day we hired bikes from the town and cycled into the desert to see a feature called 7 coloured mountain. I didnt excpect it to be too amazing but I was surprised to find that it really was very colourful. It was an hour and a half cycling uphill to get there but barely twenty minutes of racing down the dirt road back into town.

Desert Biking

Most of this stuff really needs pictures so I will update this post once I am able.

Heidi left the next day so I went for a walk into the desert nearby the hostel on my own, I was aiming to climb a peak and get views across the valley to the Andes, the peak I chose was a lot higher than I was expecting when I started and it took a full four hours of hard climbing to get to the top but the views were amazing.

View from the top - Uspallata valley and the Andes.

From the top I had hoped to find an easier route down as the one I had taken up was not suitable for descending and I was pretty much through all the water I had taken with me. I was out of luck as there were no easy routes down and so it took me another two hours to descend. After reaching the hostel I was told by the owner that I had walked into a military area, he was a bit anoyed as he said he was responsible for his guests, I told him that it was traditional to put up signs and fences as I had passed none, he wasnt too pleased. I am still trying to find out how high the mountain I claimbed was.

My last day of adventure in Uspallata was a return to Aconcagua park for a longer walk, this time up to Confluencia Basecamp, this is the first campsite for climbers on their way up Aconcagua and sits at about 3500meters, not too high but since Uspallata is only at about 1900meters it was a big height gain for the day and got me breathing a bit harder.

Looking towards Aconcagua

The views from here are amazing and just a short walk from the campsite is the end of a glacier that snakes its way along one side of the mountain. Unfortunatly there wasnt time to explore further and I had to head back down, even so I had missed the bus and faced with a long wait for the next one I thumbed a lift again and got back to the hostel a lot faster.

High altitude traffic jam

My next destination is Santiago and to get here I had to cross over the Andes, there is a road winding its way into the mountains and through a tunnel which eventually spits you out into the neighbouring country - the high altitude boarder post is interesting but what is far cooler are the 29 switchbacks that take the road down the mountain on the other side, at times I could peer out of the bus window and see the road looping around below me again and again as it headed down the slope. There are no barriers to the roads so if we had gone off the edge we wouldnt have stopped for a long time.

Long descent

Buenos Aires

2011-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

I am falling behind a bit in my blogs so I will keep them short and try and catch up. I am already back in Santiago Chile but I have yet to write about most of Argentina. I still can´t add any pictures yet, either because the hostel PC´s wont let me or because I dont trust them not to be riddled with viruses and I dont want to loose my pictures so I will update some of my blogs once I am back in the UK and add pictures then.

Anyway, back to BA. I spent about a week in the city and liked it more than I expected, I am not into big cities but BA is a lot of fun with plenty to do. The hostel I was in was great with other interesting travellers to chat to, which helped a lot.

One of the stranger tourist activities I got up to was visiting a cemetary, it sounds odd but it is a must see for anyone in BA. First up it is packed with many of Argentinas rich and famous (and dead), a few presidents, some great military leaders, and probably most well known to the world Eva Peron (known by most people as Evita). The cemetary isnt full of gravestones as the caskets aren´t burried, instead they are placed in morseleums, each family having its own little building, the richer the family the more ostentatious the tomb. The cemetary is massive, like a town with little streets running between the tombs.

The nightlife of Argentina takes a bit of getting used to, they often dont eat dinner until 10pm and head out for the first drinks of the evening at midnight, so the clubs dont even open until 2pm and kickout time is generally when most people are getting up for work the next day, I managed a couple of nights but couldnt get into the locals routine without tuning into a vampire.

On one of the nights out I went to a drumming session called La Bomba del Tiempo, a kind of folky drumming band who were on stage for a couple of hours of fast and lively music.

The city has plenty of museums and architecture to see so I had a bit of culture and saw some of the modern and fine art galleries. The rest of my time was spent being a tourist, visiting areas of the city like the working class area of La Boca which is famous for its colourful tin buildings and tourists getting mugged. I wasnt all that impressed as it seems like the neighbourhood has been done up for tourists and was way too much like a theme park for my likeing. A far more enjoyable activity was getting a coffee in one of the sidewalk cafes and watching the people go by.

Resistencia

2011-03-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well I was due to stay in Paraguay for about six weeks at a voluntary job but the organisation at the place was lacking to say the least so I only spent two weeks there before deciding to head out for a bit more travelling. With an extra months travelling to play with I headed south out of Paraguay in the direction of Buenos Aires.First stop was Resistencia just over the boarder into Argentina, The town is very easy to sum up - dont bother going! Its a relatively pointless town to visit as a tourist with no attractions, it is in no way geared up for the transitory traveller. There are no hostels that I could find so I stayed in a cheap but nice enough hotel but this isnt a great way to meet other people and there was no internet for me to plan my next destination. In most towns this wouldnt be a problem, just find an internet cafe, it wasnt until my third and last day in town that I finally found one, and it wasnt working. I never did manage to track down the tourist information either! It rained seemingly consantly here, indoor activities are few, activities in general are few. I did spot what appeared to ba an art museum - closed. On the plus side there are a limitless amount of pharmacies here, practically one on each corner, there are only slightly fewer shops offering all manner of printing and photocopying services.

Street sculpture in rainy Resistencia

The memorable highlight of my couple of days here was a crash outside my hotel between a motorbike and a car. The bikerider lay in the street motionless in the rain for quite some time with police and bystanders milling about and not a single person giving him any medical attention. I finally headed down to the street to see if I could at least make sure he was still breathing when the ambulance arrived. There followed what seemed to be some fairly sloppy medical handling of him onto a stretcher and he was whisked away in the ambulance. I want back to watching TV in my room, I was glad to leave that evening on an overnight bus to Rosario.

Iguazu Falls

2011-02-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Having recently visited Santiago and Asuncion I have noticed one or two differences between the two capital cities, maybe you can spot these in the pictures below;

Santiago

Asuncion

Santiago

Asuncion - Nice eh?

From Ascuncion I took a six hour bus ride to the opposite side of the country to see Iguazu Falls – one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. These are located just outside of Paraguay on the Brazilian/Argentinian boarder, I first went to Brazil to see the falls from their side; impressive but limited views so I looked forwards to going to Argentina for what I was told was a much closer and involved tour of the falls.

Iguazu Falls

Me posing at Iguazu Falls

First though, whilst still in Brazil I went to Itapu Dam, a massive structure full of facts and figures. It was apparently the biggest dam in the world until China’s Three Gorges dam was constructed (or will be constructed - not sure if its finished yet). Itapu dam was built jointly by Brazil and Paraguay – what is most amazing is that both were equal investors in its construction. It now provides 90% of Paraguays electricity and 20% of Brazils. Paraguays share of the dam actually produces double what the country needs so it sells the excess back to Brazil, corruption and shady dealing prevents Paraguay from making a fortune from all this free energy.

Massive concrete wall

Ituapu dam from the top down

Nearby the Brazilian side of the falls is a fairly low key but very nice bird park, there are the usual large cages in which you can view the birds but as usual these are quite dull, what is far more interesting are the huge walk through aviaries, these contain an impressive range of birds and butterflies; parrots, humming birds, toucans, flamingos, the list goes on. These are used to human contact and so were not disturbed in the least as I walked through, I’m fairly sure the toucans were posing for the picture.

Finishing my very brief stay in Brazil I made the quick boarder crossing to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the falls. What I had been told was true, the views and experience on this side was far above what Brazil had to offer. Walkways lead right into the base of some of the falls where the spray soaks you, these then lead to the tops of the falls where the scale of the whole park can be appreciated.

Thats it for now - more later.

Torres Del Paine

2011-01-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

OK so some of this blog is written retrospectively and some I wrote at the time. I am only now getting around to putting it up as a blog because I wanted to get some pictures on this one - you'll see why below. So, even though Torres was pretty much my first stop after leaving Rothera it is only just going on the blog now...

Rothera is receeding behind me following my whirlwhind departure on Monday 3rd Jan, from there I managed only one night in Punta Arenas in a hotel courtesy of BAS before heading further north the next day to Puerto Natales. Its a nice enough town, fairly small and windswept and the gateway to the national parks here in Patagonia. It is for that reason, as the tourist books say, a hive for gore-tex clad travelers lugging huge rucksacks in readieness for treking in the mountains. I was one of these people and after a couple of nights in town I was prepared to head for Torres del Paine national park.A two hour bus ride took me to the park boundary from where I caught a catamaran ferry across one of the many lakes to take me to to the start of the trail. On the ferry ride I got chatting to Dave and American and Kate an Austrailian, since each of us was travelling alone and doing the same route we decided to travel together.

The mountains of Torres del Paine from the catamaran.

The scenery on this first day was stunning, from the boat we got great views of the mountains as we approached and once on the trail the peaks towered above, glaciers on their summits cascading down into waterfalls and the trail winding its way though the warm hills and forests below.

Looking back across the lake to our start point.

Waterfalls, glaciers, and forest.

Each day we hiked from one campsite to the next on our circuit of the mountans which covered about 140km, some days were harder than others with long distances (22km being our longest distance) or steep climbs up into the mountain valleys.

Looking back down the valley.

The first four days of the trip were spent walking the 'W' trail which took us across the south face of the Torres range and into two of the deepest valleys.

Our campsite in the Torres valley.

The most spectacular of these was the Torres Valley itself, from the campsite at the top of this valley we got up at 4am and climbed up to the base of the towering granite peaks. From our vantage point on the huge morraine above the lake we waited for the sunrise. For a while it appeared that clouds on the horizon would ruin the sunrise but just in time they parted and for a brief few moments we were treated to a great view of the face lit up by the orange glow.

Early morning at the foot of the Torres spires.

The circuit now took us around the 'back' side of the range - this is less frequented by most travellers and so the days walking in this area was often very quiet.
It may have been tranquil in terms of fewer people but this terrain brought us some very strong winds. At one stage Dave was blown over by a strong gust and I felt as though I were walking at a 45 degree angle. This was fairly shortlives though and as we descended from the exposed mountain slopes to the sheltered valley floor the wind eased and the temperature soared.

Warm and calm down in the valley.

We were now nearing the end of the trail with only a couple of days left but one big event to look forwards to. This was the mountain pass which climbed high towards the peaks and allowed us to break through into a glacier filled valley. There was some low cloud as we crossed the pass but even so the views were amazing and we now started our long decent of about 700 meters to our last campsite.

Views over the Gray Glacier from the mountain pass.

The last day had been kept purposfully short and was quite plesant with a great deal of decent and fantastic views back over the glacier.

Last views of the Gray Glacier.

It was now though that we became more aware from chatting to other trekers that all was not well politically in the area and we reached the end point amid rumours of road blockades and the potential that we may be trapped in the park - these all turned out to be true!
Plans were made, changed, made again, and in the end Dave decided to chance the offer of a lift in a car and an attempt to get through the roadblocks, whilst me and Kate walked a further 17km to and administration center in the park which was near a road. From here we were still trapped but in a better position to get information and to get out once a bus could get through, which one did the very next day courtesy of the Red Cross and the blockade organisers themselves.

Red Cross and Chilean Airforce arrange things in Puerto Natales.

Ascuncion

2011-01-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

Its hot and humid. Arrival at the airport came with its customary attack of the taxi drivers wanting my custom as I left immigration. Looking for a cash machine and finding none I could get to work I went for the money exchange instead - closed, a boy tagged onto me at this point and took me to a money exchange that was open. I changed some dollars into Guruani - He waited, I had found my new local guide.
A taxi to town was going to be expensive so I asked him to take me to the bus stop, he got me on a bus to the city and in return got a tip of about $4 and went on his way (the taxi was going to cost about $20 so we were both happy, plus the bus only cost 20pence.
The bus driver was a fan of the accelerator and brake in equal messure. Embarking or disembarking this bus was all about timing and split second reactions.
I was going to throw the scrap of a ticket the driver had given me away - lucky I didnt - it was checked twice on the short trip into town, they really dont like fare dodgers.

I wasnt entirely convinced I was on the right bus until I passed a landmark that was shown on my map. The Plasa de Uraguay, a green park the size of a city block - one of the largest in Ascuncion, and it seemed, home to the down and outs and vagrants on the city. It resembled a refugee camp with shelters made of sticks and plastic leaning against the trees. Entire families appear to be living there, cooking, sleeping, eating, existing, all in the park.

Thinking I might be getting close to my hostel I got off the bus, I was facing a sign saying 'Black Cat Hostel', I had arrived

Evacuation

2011-01-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

Although I have been in South America for a couple of weeks now and have just finished trekking in Torres del Paine national park, due to rather strange and interesting circumstances I am going to have to start at the end rather than the beginning.

Right now I am in Santiago a few days earlier than expected so I am staying in the city waiting for my flight to Paraguay. This has come about because at the end of my trip in Torres I discovered that there was a strike on in the area so no busses were running – in fact there was no road transport whatsoever as roadblocks were in place around all the towns as part of the protest over fuel price increases by the government. Anyway, this meant that I was stuck in Torres for a couple of extra days until a bus was allowed through by the protesters to evacuate the tourists from the park (food was running a bit short so the authorities were eager to get rid of us). This got me back to Puerto Natales where I was once again trapped due to the roadblocks. The Red Cross had set up in the local school and were organizing buses to the boarder with Argentina (some folk chose to walk the 24km) and had linked up with the Chilean airforce who were putting on flights to Punta Arenas airport. There were hundreds of tourists in the town by this point some sleeping in the school and being fed by the Red Cross; who seemed to be very twitchy about getting foreigners out of the area. I managed to find a hostel but did have free lunch in the refugee camp served by the local scout group – all good fun. It was the most affluent and multicultural refugee camp you are likely to see, with most of the ´refugee backpackers´ sat around using iphones, blackberrys, laptops, etc. Some had been stuck there for over a week.

So I had a couple of nights in Puerto Natales, checking in with the red cross each day to get myself a flight (free by the way!) to Punta. On the morning of the third day I made my way to the Red Cross only to find the place almost deserted, the last few tourists were being ushered onto on of the last buses to the airport, so, like the fall of Saigon I grabbed my backpack and ran for the last bus from the besieged town lest I be left behind. At the airport the Chilean airforce took over and a military plane flew me to Punta Arenas airport which was also surrounded by roadblocks so nobody could get to the town about 30km away without walking. The airforce had put on a soup kitchen and somewhere to bed down for the trapped tourists. I did consider walking to town but I was able to get my ticket brought forwards by a few days and so get out of that mess and to Santiago – which by the way is not suffering from any protests. Unfortunately I got here at 4am and so had to spend a great many of the early hours walking the deserted streets looking for a hostel. I got quite a nice place in the end and so I am sorted for the next few days.

I’ll have to get around to writing about the Torres trip later.

Escape from Rothera

2011-01-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Rothera in winter snow

Well I have now escaped the confines of Rothera and left Antarctica far behind me on my journey into the wider world. I am currently in Punta Arenas (4th Jan) and am heading to Puerto Natales this afternoon. From there I should be going to Torres del Paine national park for about a week before heading back to Puerto Natales and then to Punta for the 21st Jan for my flight to Paraguay. I am planning to be in Paraguay for about 6 weeks so hopefully I will have a chance to add to the blog more once I am there.

Competition winner

2010-10-31T20:55:00.001-07:00

I won! With a last minute entry taken on my winter trip this photo won the competition. No fixing or bribery required on this occasion.

After storm pitching the pyramid tent Bruce prepares camp – a windy day on the ice.

I must admit I am quite pleased with this photo, just a quick snap of pitching camp has captured the scene pretty well. The blowing snow, silhouetted campsite, and dark heavy sky make for a moody shot.

With the kudos of taking the winning picture comes the job of making a frame for it, so that should keep me busy in the chippy shop for a couple of evenings.

Photo Competition

2010-09-13T08:31:00.001-07:00

Each year the wintering team here at Rothera holds a photo competition for everyone with a camera and a little skill to show off their best pictures from the year. The winner has the honour of having their picture framed and hung on the wall with the growing collection of winning photographs from previous winters.

The categories for the competition are pretty varied and include; Landscapes, People, Wildlife, and Base Life.

I am submitting some of the pictures below as these are my best of the season so far.

Dive team and arched berg

Hazy sunrise

Sun Pillar

Dive Team and Sea Ice

Mirrored Berg

Met mast and Star Trails

Moonlit Bay

Tern in Flight

Weddell Seal

Tabular Bergs

Incinerator at night

Star trails over Ryder Bay

Sunrise

Sun Halo

Justin with new magazines

Aurora and Star Trails

Antarctic 48 hour film competition

2010-07-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

The Antarctic 48 hour film competition is an annual challenge set by the Americans on McMurdo station and is open to all wintering Antarctic stations of every nationality.

The challenge is simple; on Friday evening all competing bases are emailed a set of elements which must be incorporated into the film. This year these were;

Character: A grumpy diesel mechanic
Line of Dialogue: Has anybody seen my chicken?
Sound Effect: Sound of a siren
Prop: Mop
Prop: Bottle of mouthwash

Random I know!

Each base then must film and edit their movie in the next 48 hours. These elements ensure that filming only takes place during the weekend of the competition.

All the films are then submitted and compiled online for each base to download and vote on their favourites. The link to all the movies in this years competition is;

http://cid-143586e833b2f7ce.office.live.com/browse.aspx/2010%20Winter%20Film%20Festival

There are some really great movies in there which look incredibly professional, especially when you consider that all the filming, editing, sound, and music was done in only two days.

My favourites and ones you should really watch are;

KEP; Mission Unmoppable
Davis; Fitness Month
McMurdo; Who’s in the Galley
Scott Base; Big Brother
and of course: Rothera; From Rothera with Love

All the votes should be in in a few days so we will see how Rothera has faired in the competition.

I’ll try and get a few of the best movies on this blog so you can watch them direct – I cant at the moment as a few have copy write music on them so they get removed :/

Enjoy the movies!

Midwinter

2010-07-23T10:55:00.001-07:00

This next blog is one which I have written for the' ‘web-diaries’ of the British Antarctic Survey website. The link to these web pages to see other diaries from Rothera and the rest of the BAS bases is;

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/diaries/index.php

June – Midwinter

The month of June is one of great celebration in the Antarctic; it is the month when the days are at their shortest and the sun remains below the horizon. During this month we celebrate the Midwinter solstice, with a weeklong holiday on base centred around Midwinter’s day, the shortest day of the year and one which is full of tradition for Antarctic winterers all over the continent.

Rothera in June

For us at Rothera, June continued where May had left off, with strong winds and drifting snow. This combined with the short daylight meant that outdoor activities were heavily curtailed and some of the more active base members were beginning to get cabin fever. Most folk though were still being kept busy with other tasks, namely completing their winter gifts ready for Midwinter’s day. For myself and several others we were kept especially active by taking part in ‘Race Antarctica’, a challenge within BAS to travel the equivalent distance from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to the opposite side of the continent; a journey of 6000km, to be covered as teams of six by running, cycling, rowing, skiing, etc. So throughout June the gym got a lot of use as the miles were racked up.

There were also four birthdays celebrated this month, those of Bruce Maltman, Mike Stainer (AKA Smiler), Jon James (JJ), and Ben Tibbetts.

Creative birthday cakes

On the 10^th June we marked the point at which the sun had set below the horizon (although we had lost sight of the sun several weeks earlier behind the mountains that surround the base). We congregated at the flagpole for Alan (our oldest base member) to lower the flag. This was by now rather worn and tattered (the flag that is not Alan), and back in the canteen, with a cup of tea to warm up again, it was raffled off. Mike our comms man won the flag and it is now his to keep as a memento of the winter.

Flagdown

With Midwinter imminent, plans were made for midwinter’s week and production was stepped up a gear to complete winter presents. All too soon for many, who were still putting on last coats of varnish and polish to their gifts, midwinter arrived and the day began with the illustrious Base Commander (me) delivering breakfast in bed to the folk of Rothera.

After digesting their breakfasts many folk emerged from their beds an hour or two later just in time for brunch. Never known to miss an opportunity to eat, the team sat down and powered through another helping of bacon, egg, sausage, beans, and tomatoes.

Their appetites finally sated it was time to move on to the next task on the agenda; the long standing tradition of watching ’The Thing’, probably one of the finest pieces of cinematic genius ever created, and a true representation of life in the Antarctic. Obviously we no longer have the dogs down here but I am glad to say that the flamethrowers, cupboards packed with explosives, and battling alien foes, are still a daily part of life in this barren wilderness.

At 4pm the evening’s festivities began in the bar with Champagne and canapés as we each gave our midwinter’s presents to their recipients. There were some fantastic and beautifully crafted presents to be seen; I received a framed, hand drawn panorama of the Ellsworth Mountains, a great reminder of my time spent down there. Other presents included an electric powered model skidoo, a handmade quilt, and potentially the oddest present was a framed set of fishing flies, each one made using the hair from each one of the winterers – strange but very nice.

The Midwinter presents

With the Champagne drunk and the presents given it was time for dinner – a lavish affair laid on by Justin our chef, it consisted of eight courses. After the starting courses we had a break from eating in order to head over to the comms tower where we could listen to an HF broadcast by the BBC World Service with a song of our choice (we chose Times Like These by the Foo Fighters) as well as messages from friends and family back home and even a special message from Rolf Harris saying hello to all us Antarctic winterers on the BAS bases.

Then it was back to the dining room for the main course of Marinated Ostrich Steaks with Red Wine Lentils (it really is tough out here in the wilderness). Dinner stretched on for several hours, what with deserts, cheeses, port, coffee, and more wine.

Justin at work and the first course

Midwinter’s Day dinner

The winter Olympics was organised by the GA’s during midwinter’s week and included such events as ski and snowboard slalom, ice climbing, javelin (using bog chisels), skidoo time trails, and box stacking.

Winter Olympics; Ice climbing and Box stacking

Midwinter’s week was also the first outing for the new Rothera band called ‘Snow Rhythm’. Despite the band name they certainly did have rhythm and performed some great covers.

Colette, Alan, and Justin

Snow Rhythm; the Rothera Band

The last big event of midwinter’s week was the pub crawl, when all over base bars spring up for one night only and the tour takes us from the Bonner Lab to Fuchs House and from the Electricians workshop to the Food Bays, each bar with its own theme, which this year included a casino bar, Texas penitentiary, and the bungee bar.

Bar Bungee – attached to the wall by a giant rubber band

For me another winter is passing its halfway point and again I am wishing there was more time left. This is a very special place and each winter team shares a great experience, I am lucky enough to be wintering with a fantastic group of people whom I look at as being much more than just friends and workmates.

Rothera Midwinter postcard

Dickie Hall

Winter begins – winter trips

2010-06-23T20:32:00.001-07:00

With the departure of the last aircraft and ships we can now settle down into winter; with shortening daylight, colder temperatures, and few distractions from the outside world.

Throughout the first few weeks of winter we have regularly had four or six folk off base for a week at a time on their winter trips. This is an opportunity to get out into the ‘real Antarctic’ away from the modern comforts of base, going climbing, skiing, or sightseeing during the days and spending the nights in a tent. The camping equipment we use is probably something Scott and Shackleton would recognise; pyramid tents, Tilley lamps for light and heat, and primus stoves for cooking.

Pyramid tent

I was out on the last round of trips before midwinter, which was the second week in May. At this time of year the daylight is fairly short, dawn arrives at about 10am and it is dark by 5pm. This was still more than enough time to get out and about during the day which is exactly what me and my GA (called Cheese) did. Once we had set up camp next to a peak called Trident we spent the first day of out trip ice climbing in the gullies nearby.

Looking up

The second day we aimed for something a bit more adventurous and set out for an ice climb that had not been recorded as having been climbed before. The photograph below is of the peak but it doesn't do it justice as this is a 450 meter route and took us about five hours to summit.

Our route up the first gully on the right of the picture

Walking off the summit

The next day we had a lie in to recover from the exertions of the day before and climbed another of gullies close to our campsite in the afternoon.

By this stage of the trip the weather was beginning to deteriorate and the forecast wasn't looking great so on our fourth day out we did a spot of ski touring and reckied some other possible climbs for other days, but any hopes of further climbing were dashed because as the day continued the wind rose and blowing snow drove us back to our tent, the stormy weather set in properly that night and continued blowing for the next two days. At times we estimated that it was gusting at 60 knots – enough to keep Cheese awake thinking that we might loose the tent, and enough that whilst going outside Cheese was blown clean off his feet by one strong gust.

Ski touring

Digging out the tent

Eventually the weather did allow us to break camp and after a lot of digging to uncover the tent we packed up and headed back to the comforts of Rothera.

End of the Summer

2010-05-04T14:40:00.001-07:00

The summer has now officially come to an end now that the last visitors we will see for quite some time have been and gone. These came in the form of two ships, we had the RRS Ernest Shackleton here at the end of March and the RVIB Nathaniel. B. Palmer here at the start of April.

The Shackleton was the last of our own ships to visit Rothera, she conducted ‘last call’, bringing in cargo and supplies for the long winter as well as the last two members of our winter team. She also loaded our cargo and wastes to take north to the Falklands or all the way to the UK.

The weather turned in the days leading to the ships arrival and we had a lot of early snow on station which covered the depot lines of cargo, neatly arranged on the wharf ready for loading and made it very difficult to get the large vehicles and trailers full of delivered cargo up the hill and into the base.

Shackleton at the wharf as the weather deteriorates.

Here's the 2010 winter team – the first picture of all of us together, taken on the Shackleton just before we sat down for a meal together. With the departure of the Shackleton there is now only the wintering team of twenty two left on station.

The Palmer was an unusual visitor for us at this stage in the season, normally once last call has taken place we wont see any other visitors until the aircraft return in October. This season though a team of American scientists have been working out of Rothera on the Avery plateau and the ice cores they sent back have been stored in freezers on base. The scientists left Rothera some time back and only the ice cores remained to be picked up by their science vessel.

Palmer at the wharf

With the departure of the Palmer we wont have any visitors to base until the aircraft return some time in October, so now we can settle down as a winter team and enjoy the peace and quiet on base after the busy summer season.

Tsunami!

2010-03-08T18:37:00.001-08:00

Saturday morning of the 9th March made for a very early and strange start for those on base at Rothera, I was woken just before 6am by the base commander telling me that we had received a tsunami warning. The rest of the base was roused a few minutes later by setting the fire alarm off in order to muster everyone in the dinning room for a base wide announcement.

Within thirty minutes we were loading up the Sno Cat with emergency supplies – medical kit, generators, fuel, food, stoves, clothing and had it sent up the hill, high and far enough away from base that it would be safe. Soon after we had an aircraft in the air – out of danger, and heading north to have a look around.

Andy releases a dove to bring back an olive branch

At this stage we began to get more information about unfolding events and an American tsunami warning system (aptly named NOAH) indicated that the wave was at least a couple of hours from us. So it was time for a cup of tea and to make some plans.

Ready to spring into action; Clem and Jonny – our rapid response team

We gathered everyone together again and updated them on the situation, then in the time remaining, five of the six aircraft on station were launched to keep them out of danger, a second Sno Cat with supplies was sent up the hill, and in the hour before we were due to be hit, the whole base was evacuated to high on the glacier to wait and see what happened.

Everyone on base is tallied out as they escape up the glacier to safety.

But as with all these things, for those of us with plenty of time to prepare for the worst, it came to nothing. The time of the wave came and went, so as it became clear that any danger had passed we allowed everyone back down from the glacier and onto station to warm up with a cup of tea. Our tide recorder had measured an increase of 20cm as the wave passed.

Off Base for a Holiday

2010-02-25T18:01:00.001-08:00

Back in January I got away from the hustle and bustle of base for a couple of weeks, out to some of our field camps further south and much deeper into Antarctica. I was about as ready as someone can be to get away from base - by this I mean I would have killed someone if I had stayed at Rothera another day.

First it was off to Sky Blu, our forward operating station which is based at a natural formation of blue ice; which is basically a huge ice rink. Here our largest aircraft, the Dash 7 can land on wheels (it dosnt have skis) and unload its cargo of food, fuel, and scientific equipment to support the base in this isolated location; over 800 miles from Rothera and 150 miles from the nearest human occupied site - an American field camp at a site called Patriot Hills

Sky Blu, a collection of melon huts, weather haven and pyramid tents

I spent about a week at Sky Blu, driving machines to clear snow from the runway, raising tents, refueling planes, and generally helping with the running of the site.

Eventually it was time to head south again, this time by a smaller aircraft, a Twin Otter; fitted with wheel skis, these aircraft are able to land pretty much anywhere and are the workhorses which take our sledge parties and their equipment into the deep field, about as far away from civilisation as it is possible to get.

Arrival at Rabid by Twin Otter

I was being taken to a deep field depot known as Rabid, here a sledge party of four people (Dr Andy Smith, Roger Stilwell, Iain Rudkin, and Sam Doyle; collectively known as sledge November) had been working for over two months conducting seismic surveys, GPS work, and radar surveys of the Rutford ice stream on the edge of the Ellsworth mountain range.

The Ellsworth Mountains - the tiny black dots at the base of the peaks are scientists on skidoos

Me with the Ellsworth range in the background

Rabid field camp

My job here, other than to help my mate Rog drink all his whisky, was to move the fuel depot a few miles upstream to create a new depot called Beamish (I dont know why its called this, it just is) which will be used in several years time on a planned project to drill through the ice and collect a sample of the bedrock from deep below. Andy Smith has calculated the position that the depot should be placed now, so that in four years time it will arrive in the right location for his work as the flow of the ice stream takes it towards the coast. Clever eh?

The fuel depot to be moved - lots for drums

Twin Otter returns to pick me up

After a few days of moving drums of aviation fuel and working in 24hour glorious sunshine, the new depot was set up and my work here completed, so the Twin Otter aircraft came to pick me up; returning me to Sky Blu for a few more days.

I couldn't avoid the inevitable and eventually I had to board the Dash and return to Rothera, the base motto; Work is Freedom, I hear we are getting it put up on a big sign.

In the cockpit of the Dash - they do look where they are flying sometimes, and even hold the controls on occasion

Blue seas and blue skies - view from the Dash

Merry Christmas from the Antarctic

2010-01-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas here is very different from back in the UK, it is the middle of our summer, there is 24-hour daylight, the seasons work is at its peak, and the base is a very busy place with around eighty personnel on station.
We do celebrate Christmas but we only get a couple of days holiday and even so many people involved in the flying operations and communications have to work as the planes make the most of the fine weather whenever they can.
This year we have been very lucky with the weather so far, all of the science parties have been deployed to the field without much in the way of delays, and the season is going to plan so we were able to stop flying completely on Christmas day and allow everyone on base the day off.
Many of the bases around the Antarctic send greetings to each other at this time of year, ours and a few we received are shown below;

The days off were not spent lazing around by many people, instead there was a football match on the apron in front of the aircraft hangar, Tamsin opened a sweetie shop, and others took to the kitchen to bake cakes, mince pies, or to help out with dinner. Although there was talk of the traditional movies such as The Great Escape, Its a wonderful Life, and Indiana Jones, I didn't get a chance to see any of them.
I did get to chat to some of our other bases and field parties on HF radio, speaking to a friend of mine who is the base commander at King Edward Point was clearer on the HF than it is on the phone!

Back to the great white south

2009-11-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

My Base

I have made it back to Rothera on the Antarctic Peninsula, but what should have been a fairly easy (if long) couple of flights to get here, turned into an epic. The plan was to take the military flight from Brize Norton to the Falklands, spend a night in Port Stanley and fly to Rothera the next day.

The first part went well and we landed in the Falklands after an 18 hour fight, with a brief stop off on Ascension Island to refuel. But then the cracks started to show, a cough here, a sneeze there, and before we knew it half of our group were in bed sick with temperatures in the high 30's Celsius. Our flight the next day left with cargo instead of us and we were to spend the next week quarantined in Stanley until dead or better, luckily we all managed the latter and so after several checks of our temperatures to prove that we really were well and not about to carry the plague to Rothera we were finally allowed on the flight and, all be it a week late, we got here!

The place hasn't changed much; lots of white stuff, blue skies, and mountains, I am back in my old room. In fact I am not convinced I ever left. A few of my old winterers from 2006 and 2007 are even back here too so it is very groundhog day.

Stirling Moss?

2009-08-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

It may not look it but I was moving very fast here.

This is the track day that I went to last week, a present from my dad. After a briefing session about how not to crash the car (or I would have to pay the damages), I got to go out on the track in a mini cooper with an instructor. We did a few circuits so that I could get used to the racing line, where to turn into the corners, and generally not having to worry about speed cameras. Then it was straight into the single seater to be let loose on the track and see how fast I could go, it really wasn't all about speed though, braking at the right time and getting around the bends without loosing too much speed was half the battle. But the car was very fast on the straights, I didn't have too much trouble passing the Ferrari 360's that were using the track at the same time.
A great experience - I think I could go for a career change.

The blogging begins

2009-07-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hi all, well I'm heading back to the Antarctic again, this time I'm going to be the winter base commander of Rothera and during the summer season I'll be the station support manager, grand sounding titles; yes, massive amounts of money; no.
I'm starting this blog now so that I can actually try and make it work before I head south and hopefully keep in touch with everyone through the blog rather than forgetting to send emails as I did the last time I was south. Unfortunately by starting it now I have nothing interesting to post at all, as for the next four months I'll be in Cambridge preparing for my new role, but hey, when I get there I should have something more interesting to talk about.
For now its a busy few months of training, conferences, and meeting all my winterers.
That's about it - look out for some of my old pictures from Rothera, Bird Island, Belize, and Peru going on my Picasa site which I have linked through the blog.
More posts when something interesting happens.

My Cambridge residence - nice eh?