I finally broke free from a week long sentence at Davis station which was extended due to bad weather. The original plan had a team of five people heading out into the deep field. However, the five quickly got reduced to two surveyors or geoscientists with an additional worker and two others, intending to tag along as a jolly, missing out due to weight restrictions and poor weather. A common situation in Antarctica where you have to change your plans at a moments notice. I went out to repair a GPS station and a geoscientist, Dan Zwartz, went to withdraw a seismic station. After waiting around on station it was the usual mad rush to get out into the field with a quick helicopter ride to the skiway over the Vestfold Hills and then straight into the CASA aircraft which flew us to our destination, the Grove Mountains.
The Groves are a large scattered group of mountains and nunataks (rock outcrops), located about 500km in land from Davis station with nothing but ice in between. The mountains are at an elevation of over 1800m and are considerably colder than anywhere else visited in the season. When you look at the location of the Groves on a map you realise they are in the absolute middle of nowhere. Brilliant! Another one of these spectacular places tucked away in one of the more remote parts of the planet. We flew through the mountains before landing and I couldn’t wait to get in amongst them.
We were told we only had two days to complete our work before we would be collected by the aircraft and returned to station. This was barely enough time so we set to work straight away carting batteries and other heavy survey equipment up to the work site. This was made considerably easier with the use of the quad but still involved a significant climb over loose rocks and snow. I found the GPS station in relatively good condition with only minimal damage (wind turbine blades missing, one solar panel smashed) and the GPS receiver still working although the memory card was full as the site had not been visited for two years. Repairs were made and new equipment was installed at the site. A large amount of time was spent trying to establish communications with Canberra and after a lot of attempts, a comprehensive test of my patients and some colourful language on top of a mountain, data was successfully downloaded out of the receiver from Canberra, via satellite phone. The GPS station was completely rebuilt and in good working order within the two days we were provided. Of course, once the work was done the weather turned nasty and we were stranded in the mountains for an additional two days.
Being absolutely exhausted after two days working flat out in the freezing cold I had no problem filling in the time with sleep and lying around in the tent. Dan actually managed to spend 36 hours straight in his sleeping bag, a personal best time and an achievement he was quite proud of. Luckily Dan and I get along quite well and can both tolerate each others stirring. We filled in time between essential activities such as sleeping and cooking with sharing of stories, telling bad jokes, describing what we would prefer to be having for dinner and by singing songs making up new lyrics as we went along.
Although the weather was the worst I had experienced in the field this season, I still got out for a few short walks around the local area. It was so cold that I had icicles (or snot-cicles) forming in what can now actually be described as a beard. We took the quad for a ride on the blue ice of the glacier along the edge of the moraine (debris trail of rocks in the snow). With the strong wind, the speed of the bike and no helmets this was a quick and easy way of freezing our faces. Great fun! The wind was consistently blowing the entire time we were out there although when it eased the sound of the glacier popping and cracking was all around us. Hearing these sounds is an amazing sensation. Sometimes it sounded like it was cracking directly beneath our camp. What a sound to listen to as you drift off to sleep.
