One flew over the penguin rookery

10/02/2007

Another week surrounded by the crowding mass of yahoos within the confines of the asylum which is Davis station. A full week of work around station undertaking several different surveys. Activities performed included a reference mark survey of the permanent GPS station, levelling between tide gauge bench marks, GPS surveys, slushy work, an infrasound survey and a topographic feature survey as a favour for a biologist on station. It is all well and good to keep busy but one must keep in mind that ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES ALEX A DULL BOY.

Details of the general procedure and purpose of the geodetic survey work have already been documented in previous entries. The infrasound survey was done for some scientists at Geoscience Australia. Fancy equipment was setup in the nearby hills and left running all week. This equipment measures meteorological information such as wind speed and direction while taking extremely precise readings of changes in pressure through the use of a micro-barometer.

Although we have been particularly busy on station this week, a nutcase biologist also asked us to survey the old elephant seal wallow with the main feature of the survey being drill hole samples taken in deposits of seal fur. The biologists had drilled through metre high mounds which were made up of layer upon layer of seal fur, malted each year. A survey was requested to observe the position and height of the samples, with respect to each other, the surrounding wallow and water level on the nearby shore. The survey also provided them with a nice little map of the wallow. Of course, to perform the survey involved getting in amongst the colossal beasts, within biting distance, and who better to do that than your humble narrator. The wallow contained about 15 massive seals at the time of survey and I mean massive, some of them weigh several tonnes. There mass makes them pretty slow which was an advantage to the nimble footed surveyor, trying not to upset them too much and get away with his feet attached. Elephant seals aren’t the most modest creatures, constantly snorting, growling and lying around in their own filth. The wallow smells pretty bad as you might expect, comparable to the smell of tanning factories or abattoirs on a hot day, or the royal show. The seals aren’t the brightest animals either, with their thought processes not extending much beyond competing with each other for space. Fighting and confronting each other is just about all they do, practicing all their lives, starting from when they are pups. Despite all this the survey was completed successfully and the seals were quite good natured about my intrusion into their domain. I think some of the seals followed me back to Davis (like little lambs) and I can still hear them growling and snorting (not screaming) on the shore nearby my donga at night.

The Film Australia crew filming a documentary of the recreation of Mawson’s epic sledging trip by an Australian adventurer have returned to station. In Mawson’s adventure everything went wrong. One guy (Ninnis) fell down a crevasse along with most of the food. Mawson and Mertz continued on, resorting to eating their husky dogs for sustenance. Unfortunately, this led to Mertz getting Vitamin A poisoning from eating the dogs kidneys and he died also. Mawson managed to return to a station, although there has always been suspicion that he ate Mertz as a last resort in survival. Being out in the deep field in a small party of two or three you can’t help but think about these stories and imagine how you might handle a similar situation. I have often wondered what my fellow expeditioners might taste like, perhaps with farmer beans and a nice bottle of …

When we were in the deep field we had to melt snow for water. This is a slow process but at least you know where the water is from and that it is clean. On station the plumbers make the drinking water. They do this through a process called reverse osmosis in which sea water is forced through a membrane skin which extracts the salt from the water. I refuse to drink this water and am continuing to melt snow for my drinking water as I am convinced that there is a conspiracy on station in which the plumbers are trying to sap and impurify all of my precious bodily fluids. I will continue to deny them my essence.

My only break from the insanity of the crowd of people on station comes in the evenings when I walk down the wooden plank walkway to my donga, admiring the view of the sun setting over the icebergs in the harbour. I have taken great comfort in curling into bed each night with my good friend Robinson Crusoe and dreaming of a life of solitude.

Changing perspective

03/02/2007

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.

On arrival at the site we found two quad bikes which had been left behind by a team the previous year. The quads were buried in snow and after digging them out we surprisingly managed to get them both started. One quad was taken back to Davis by the aircraft and the other was left with us for our work and recreational pleasure. We setup camp in the most sheltered area we could find, in the snow, at the base of a nunatak, on the edge of a glacier.

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.

It was nice to just sit and admire the scenery. A huge ice sheet, mountains of all different shapes and sizes, snow blowing across the glacier at foot level and off the mountains in huge walls of spray, and the forever changing sky. The sun didn’t set while we were out, but it dipped close to the horizon. The effect of the light on the surrounding landscape during this part of the day was absolutely beautiful. This amazing environment is forever changing, it might not change much but everyday and throughout the cycle of a day it can look completely different. Maybe this impression was added to by my changing perspective over the course of the journey. Initially I was a little occupied with getting my work done and had to remind myself to take a break and look around at the sights before me. I definitely took more time to appreciate the surroundings once my work was successfully completed. It is a truly awesome experience sitting alone on top of a mountain admiring the spectacle that is this extraordinary place. I recommend you embrace it when you get the chance.

Aussie slang

27/01/2007

A quiet week. Stranded on station at Davis until the weather allows a trip to the Grove Mountains, once again in the deep field. There is another GPS station out of action in ‘The Groves’ and we need to get there and show it the attention it deserves. A couple of other people on station are looking to join us as a bit of a jolly (refer below) which should make for an interesting trip (if it eventuates). The week has been spent preparing for the next trip, writing reports, slushying (refer below), waiting around, catching up on some sleep and then there was Australia Day.

Australia Day started with a 7 – 8km Fun Run into the Vestfold Hills to Lake Dingle and back to Davis Station. Only six people were wild enough to enter, with other potential competitors being put off by the cold temperatures and 40 knot head wind. I ran with a fellow nutcase, crazy Karl, and we finished equal first. It was a brilliant run along a dirt track amongst the rocks in this very lunar style landscape. The run was a tough slog on the way to Lake Dingle as we ran straight into the wind, but on the way back we barely even noticed we were running (more like floating). I got a real buzz out of the run. On our return we mustered up a few more adventurous types and had a quick swim in the Southern Ocean. A lot of people were too scared to get in due to the below zero temperatures, but it wasn’t that bad. Although the sight of a huge elephant seal in the water as we were preparing to jump in put a few of us on edge. To think that in 2005 I had just arrived in Darwin and ran in the Australia Day fun run. There were hundreds of people at the event and it was stinking hot. I would have loved to have had a swim after that but was put off by the threat of jelly fish and saltwater crocodiles. Freezing temperatures and giant elephant seals couldn’t put me off having a splash in the water in Antarctica. The rest of Australia Day was filled in with bbq and spit roast dinner, alcohol consumption and live music.

Being a slow news week it seems like the perfect opportunity to enhance the engrossed reader’s general knowledge of Antarctic lingo and life with a few basic definitions and notes. Read on.

Slushy – Chefs slave. Generally two or three people are allocated the role each day. Involves cleaning up in the kitchen, helping prepare meals, cleaning in the general living area, and pretty much doing whatever the chefs asks. These people also get control of the music heard around station for the day.

Jolly – Joy flight. Whenever someone goes on a trip somewhere just for the fun of it, which isn’t work related. My work in the field is normally jokingly referred to as a jolly.

SL – Station Leader. Boss of the station, makes the decisions and reports back to the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) head office in Kingston (near Hobart).

Wallows – area on station where the elephant seals…wallow. The seals make their way up from the water and lie around in the dirt making lots of coughing and snorting noises.

60 degree princess – name applied to female expeditioners who become a lot more popular amongst the male expeditioners once they have passed the line of sixty degrees latitude. The ratio of men to women is about ten to one. Even the rough ones start to sparkle in the eyes of some once in the Antarctic realm.

Hagglund – small truck like vehicles which can be driven over snow or ice. They have treads rather than tyres, seat four or five people comfortably, can carry a large load and drag trailers etc.

Skiway – where the planes land. A landing strip prepared on the ice. Helicopters are used to fly people to and from the skiway at Davis while Hagglunds are used to transport people at Mawson.

Sling load – a load of freight slung beneath a helicopter.

Polar pyramid – four pole tent used in the field. Two layers with enough space for three to sleep but normally shared by two. During the night clothes can be hung around the roof of the tent to dry (this works) or stuffed in the sleeping bag to stay warm.

FTO – Field Training Officer – Outdoor education people, brought down to train expeditioners in how to survive in the field down here. They also tag along on really good trips to new and potentially dangerous places (due to the unknown). I had one day of field training at Mawson which was more of a play day. You normally are required to have more than one day of field training before going into the deep field. I didn’t have any trouble, I guess common sense can take you a long way.

Rat pack – Field Ration Pack. Food supplies pack for those having extended stays in the field. The food is pretty basic with lots of muesli, crackers, rice, pasta, just add water meals, some flavourings and lots of tea and chocolate.

Sched - Scheduled time to radio base and check in. A chance to talk to someone different when out in the field in a small party.

Sit Rep - Situation report provided to base during sched documenting state of party, intended travel plans, weather observations, etc.

Sorels – big, warm rubber soled shoes supplied to all expeditioners.

Winterers – people who will stay on station all winter and therefore all year.

Summerers – people on station for the summer season only. This included your humble narrator.

Round Trippers – people who travel to Antarctic on a voyage, jump off and do some work really quickly while the ship visits other places and then jump back on the ship and return home on the same voyage.

Wednesday – known as the day set aside for relieving physical pressure within males and females which builds up when away from special friends. Wednesday jokes are fairly regular around station.

Showers – they have water restrictions in force at Davis to ensure the supply lasts through the winter. They do make water on station, either through desalinisation or melting ice, but this stops in the winter and the supply has to last. Thus, showers are normally every third day and toilets are flushed based on the slogan “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”.

RTA – Labelled on freight and rubbish which is to be Returned to Australia.

V2 – Voyage 2 - name given to the voyage I was on when I travelled to Antarctica.

V4 – Voyage 4 - name of the voyage I will travel on when returning home.

Sunset – haven’t seen it yet and when they do happen the sun doesn’t stay down for long. The sun doesn’t set for a long time during the Antarctic summer. During the winter it doesn’t rise for a few months. Dark, cold and windy. There is a great scene in the animated film Madagascar where the penguins escape from the zoo in New York then hijack a ship and make there way to Antarctica. They finally get to Antarctica and the scene shows the four penguins standing on the ice with the ship in the background in the middle of a blizzard with the snow blowing everywhere and the wind howling. They stand there for a little while until one penguin turns to the others and says “Well, this sucks”. They get back in the ship and go to Madagascar.

Donga – where someone sleeps and keeps there personal stuff. Normally a shipping container converted into simple style accommodation. I am in one which has two bunk beds and currently accommodates three people. It is located about 50m from the shoreline. There is a communal bathroom and laundry in a separate building about 30m away. All in all it is like being in an Australian beachside caravan park over the summer holidays. Although there are penguins and seals, the beach is more like rock and dirt and the water is bloody cold.

Spontaneous decisions

20/01/2007

One year ago I made a difficult decision which led me away from something which should have been a good opportunity and directed me onto a completely different path. That decision was inspired by a preference to do what I wanted to do, rather than what I felt I should do, and has now landed me at the bottom of the world at the southern end of the largest glacier in the world. I have spent the last week below 74 degrees of latitude camping in the snow at the base of several mountains. This is what is known as the ‘deep field’. In a small party of three we travelled south and were left at a place called Wilson Bluff and a few days later we moved onto another rock formation called Dalton Corner. These large rock outcrops jutting out of the ice are part of the Prince Charles Mountains which are scattered amongst the Lambert Glacier. We camped alongside the glacier and I took great pleasure in knowing that we were over 700km from the nearest other people. Although we were at an elevation of roughly 1500m and a long way from the coast we were fortunate to have reasonable weather with tolerable winds and temperatures no less that negative 20 degrees.

The reason for our visit to the deep field was work related and involved repairing GPS stations which had not been operational for nearly two years. These GPS sites are part of a network of deep field stations which contribute to studies of continental motion in Antarctica. We found the Wilson Bluff GPS site had been absolutely devastated by the Antarctic winds. It looked like a massacre had occurred. Cables had been split apart, the solar panels were smashed and the wind turbine had snapped off. We sifted through the wreckage and recovered what was still operational and set to work rebuilding the site. Two 15 hour days working flat out was required to get the GPS station back to life, repairing damaged equipment and installing new replacement gear.

While working I was often distracted by the mountains around me and would find myself staring up at the peaks above. We finished work at midnight on the second day at Wilson Bluff and although I was completely exhausted I decided, out of the blue, to go on a trek up to the top of the mountain I had been admiring from my work site at the base. This is a perfect example of taking advantage of the endless sunlight in the Antarctic summer. Finish work at midnight and you still have light to go exploring. I’m not sure how this fits in with the promise I made to my parents “not to do anything stupid” but it re-enforced my belief that I always have the most fun when I make spontaneous decisions. A co-worker and I set off over the rubble and made our way up the ridge line. It was a one hour climb to the peak, scrambling up the slope with rocks slipping and falling beneath every step. It was a hard slog but when we reached the top it was an extraordinary feeling and the view was incredible. The rock flattened out to a plateau which we wandered across to admire the sight on the other side. Nothing but ice from where we stood to the south pole. Spectacular.

We were given a few extra days at each of our deep field sites, due to poor weather conditions elsewhere, and put the time to good use. It was like our own natural amusement park. Kite flying on the glacier, frisbee, long walks in any direction just to see what is over there and three man sled rides down the side of the glacier.

The glacier is an impressive feature. A seemingly infinite mass of ice with large rock formations poking out of it, similar to the icebergs in the ocean. The glacier has distinct curves and waves in it and drops off significantly around the rock outcrops where the heat absorbed in the rocks has melted the surrounding glacial ice. This makes for a great slope for three man sledding, although you do need to be mindful of the crevasses. When the wind died down and everything was still and quiet you could hear the glacier cracking. Creaking and cracking sounds sneaking up on you from all different directions.

The work we did out there was physically demanding and involved a lot of hauling of heavy equipment up and down steep slopes and over long distances. I enjoyed the challenge of these endurance efforts and often pushed myself to the point of exhaustion. I walked everyday I was out there for work and fun, as I was determined to absorb as much of the amazing country as I could. I look forward to more bush walking when I return to Australia.

In The Art of Travel the point is made that no matter how far you travel or where you go, you always have to take yourself. I was in top form for the trip and got as much out of the spectacular environment as I possibly could, enjoying my time out there immensely. I was in no way overawed by my first adventure into the deep field of Antarctica and would not say that the experience changed me in anyway. I simply appreciated the opportunity to visit such an extraordinary place. I made a great decision at the beginning of last year and look forward to enjoying the experiences choices I make in the future bring.

So long and thanks for all the fish

13/01/2007

Straight after finishing my last entry I was told by the station leader that I had one hour before I was leaving Mawson. I quickly got my stuff together (including my towel), jumped in a Hagglund and headed for the skiway. I then boarded one of two CASA planes and flew to a place called Richardson Lake at the foot of Mt Riiser-Larsen in Enderby Land (about two hours west of Mawson). I helped some fellow surveyors unpack their equipment, admired the view, took some happy snaps and then boarded the other CASA plane and flew to the Syowa station skiway. The pilot crew and I then climbed into a large Japanese helicopter which flew us to Syowa base on East Ongul Island just off the Antarctic mainland. We were rushed off the plane by a crowd of Japanese and escorted to a truck with an open back tray which we were directed to jump into. The rickety old truck then drove us along an extremely bumpy road to the main living quarters where we stopped.

I had less than one day at Syowa, and in that time I managed to have more fun than I had at Mawson in two weeks. My reason for visiting Syowa was to undertake a reconnaissance survey of a large (11m diameter) antenna they have on station. The antenna is used for Very Long Baseline Inferometry (VLBI) which, as the name suggests measures very long baselines. The VLBI observes pulses of energy from quasars in space. By observing these pulses of energy from two or more sites on the planet they are able to measure the distance between the antenna locations very precisely. That’s all well and good, you have this very precise distance between two points on the globe but where are the two points. That’s where I come in. I will perform a local tie survey at the VLBI antenna to determine the reference point (or the end of the very long baseline) to millimetre level precision, connecting the baseline to the ground. The Japanese have had trouble determining the reference point of the VLBI antenna at Syowa because it is housed in a dome (to protect it from the extreme Antarctic weather). In Australia we have developed a technique for measuring the antenna reference point indirectly and I went to Syowa to see if we could apply this technique there. I think we can and I will look to return to Syowa in the future.

That’s enough work. In my short visit I also managed to have some fun with the locals. They put on an impressive feast for us of Japanese curry, sushi, some sort of pork and lots of rice and soup. It was so nice to eat something different after the same old meals at Mawson. The people were fantastic. Most spoke fluent broken English and we had a great time trying to get our respective points across. Generally, they ran their station in a similar way to the Australians, though there were just a few differences which I’ll point out for your amusement.

Slippers. On entry into the main living quarters you remove your work boots and put on sandals. The Japanese make the sandals to suit their Lilliputian size feet and don’t really accommodate for the Brobdingnag giant that was I the Australian. With my heel hanging over the edge of the sandal and my toes squeezed into a fist I tippy-toed my way down the corridor to the mess (bar and kitchen). Before entering the mess though I had to kick off the sandals and put on a pair of little slippers. So walking through the buildings involved constantly throwing on and off different shoes.

The visit to the bathroom was an adventure in itself. More like an amusement park. I could wander around there for quite a while and be well entertained. The toilet is the main attraction with an armrest covered in buttons which perform a number of functions which you can only discover by trying. There were buttons for firing bursts of water and jest of air straight at the money spot with a level of precision I’d be happy with my work. Quite an exhilarating experience when you’re not ready for it. I had a couple of rides even when I didn’t need to go.

Our hosts opened up the bar for us and let us sample just about every type of Japanese beer and spirit on offer. I stayed up well passed my bed time laughing with my new friends. As the night was slowing down they pulled out a computer game which involves playing the drums to a beat (briefly seen in the movie Lost in Translation). The game is extremely Westernised with all the songs being well and truly familiar. I had a go, but was no match for my short friends who continued on into the night when I retired to my room. My bed could be considered interesting. It was pretty much a board with a sheet for a mattress. I slept extremely well and I’m pretty sure it straightened my back out.

The next morning we were served a large breakfast with very small plates. I’m pretty sure they tried to make us feel at home by serving an English style meal. I enjoyed the novelty of eating bacon and eggs with chopsticks. I got busy working and also had a quick tour of the station before waving goodbye to my new friends as I was shepherded into a helicopter and flown off to the skiway.

We then took a 7 hour CASA flight to Davis station with a brief stop at the Mawson skiway to refuel. After the excitement of Syowa and a fairly late night I had a sleep on the floor of the aircraft (not allowed on commercial planes). We arrived at Davis at about two in the morning and after securing the plane made ourselves comfortable in the skiway accommodation, best described as a caravan. The pilots and I disposed of some of the alcohol our Japanese hosts had given us as departing gifts and drifted off to sleep. We were woken at midday by the sound of the helicopter landing as it came to pick us up and transport us down to Davis station. We quickly got all our stuff together and flew over the Vestfold Hills to Davis. I was greeted by the Davis station leader, and introduced to my new home. I spent the rest of the week settling into Davis, performing a few odd survey tasks on station and getting survey equipment ready for the next adventure into the deep field.

Melbourne

06/01/2007

“Melbourne, in case you did not know, has its charms: botanical gardens, splendid churches, a high-domed public library where an old man can read the newspapers and stay cold on a hot day, etc. But there is no use denying that it is a flat place, divided up into a grid of streets by a draughtsman with a ruler and a set square. The names of streets are just as orderly. King precedes William, neatly, exactly parallel. Queen lies straight in bed beside Elizabeth and meets Bourke (the explorer) and Latrobe (the governor) briefly on corners whose angles measure precisely 90 degrees.”

No, I haven’t quickly snuck back to Melbourne, or been in Melbourne the last four weeks and been making up all this Antarctic stuff, or gone bananas and think I’m back home. This is an example of what I’ve been doing. Reading. This small exert is from a book called Illywhacker by Peter Carey. Reading is pretty much what I am up to at the moment. I have been grounded at Mawson station all week waiting for an appropriate weather window for a CASA plane to fly from Davis station to pick me up here at Mawson and then fly on to Syowa station. The problem with flying is that you need good conditions everywhere you are going and when you are covering a big chunk of Antarctica this can be difficult.

I have occupied myself in the departure lounge with reading, writing work reports and by getting plenty of rest. I have helped out around station as much as I can, to avoid the feeling of being a complete free-loader. I picked basil and lettuce from the Hydroponics garden we have on station, where we grow as much of our own herbs, fruit and veg as we can. I have helped in the home brewery filling beer bottles with draught and capping the bottles. I have helped in the kitchen washing dishes and cleaning floors for the cook. I visited the cosmic ray vault. This is a room 15m underground with a network of sensors setup which detect tiny particles which are constantly flying into the earth from space. These little particles are actually passing through your body as you read this, they are also passing through the computer, the walls and into the ground. The physics guys love this stuff, they measure the directions that these particles are coming from and other stuff. I have no idea what it is useful for, other than to satisfy curious scientific minds.

My bags are packed and I am ready to go. I am surprised how patient I have been and how well I am managing the delays, etc. A lot of people thought I would struggle with this part of working in Antarctica. Sure, it is frustrating, but it cannot be helped. I would prefer they only flew me around when it was safe. It will mean that I will struggle to complete all my set tasks, but I can only do what I can do. What is important is that I make the best use of the time I am given. I should get away from station sometime today. Then maybe I’ll have something original to report and not have to plagiarise someone else’s writing. So long Mawson.

Work, Rest and Play

30/12/2006

Christmas was a bit different this year. I did eat about as much as I normally do. The food wasn’t necessarily the greatest (freshness is an issue), but there was definitely lots to eat. My survey equipment arrived so I spent Christmas morning unwrapping all the survey gear and managed to finish one of my priority tasks. We spent most of the day preparing for dinner but managed to find time to build a snowman. I’d never built one before so why not get the assistance of a front-end loader. I think it looked a bit more like the nightmare before Christmas. Mid-afternoon on Christmas day a blizzard hit the station. White Christmas? The definition of a blizzard is low visibility (less than 100m), gale force winds and negative temperatures for over an hour. We had all of that for almost two days. I busied myself with indoors work. The wind was so strong the wind turbines stalled and went into self preservation mode.

I’d been at Mawson nearly a week and really hadn’t done much work. Firstly, it took a while for my survey equipment to catch up with me at the station and then a blizzard came along and took out a couple more days. I started to think something funny was going on when the field training officer (FTO) demanded I do two days field training just as the weather was coming good. Do they not want me to do my work?

We loaded up all our survival gear and rode the quad bikes up onto the plateau within the Framnes Mountains. We rode on snow and ice, strictly to the cane lines (marked tracks) as there are lots of crevasse fields around Mawson. We stopped by a crevasse which ran alarmingly close by the cane line and had a look. The FTO got down and had a bit of a poke at the snow which was over the crevasse gap, to see how deep it looked. One swing of the ice axe and the snow fell away about ten metres down. I took a step back. We visited a couple of spots within some of the mountain ranges and went exploring. Away from the ice it is a very lunar style landscape, with rocks of all different sizes everywhere. It reminds me of how I imagined the moon surface in H. G. Wells The first men in the moon. We wandered into a lake area, at Mt Henderson, clambering along the small rocks which lie all over the mountain base. A very different type of bushwalk. The boot chains and ice axe were most useful.

We then rode the quads along the edge of an ice cliff to Rumdoodle hut. It was fun riding alongside the North Masson Ranges. Huge rock formations jutting out of the ice. Another one of those I can't believe I'm here moments. We unloaded our gear, had dinner and then I got banished outside. That's right. Part of the field training was that I had to spend a night out in a bivvy bag (one person bag you sleep in). I thought it was a bit cheeky. My two travelling companions happily got cozy in the hut with gas heater and beds while I had to go and dig a hole to sleep in. Digging my grave sized hole I couldn't help but think this could be my final resting place. Nice spot for it I guess. I set myself up in the bag really well and managed to have a perfectly fine nights sleep. I’d recommend the experience. I woke up a few times to large wind gusts but generally dozed back off to sleep. I awoke to find the other two had struggled to sleep as they had had their own little snoring war. I slept fine outside with the endless sunlight and snow petrels (small snow white birds who nest in the rocks on the mountains) . Most people complain about how bad it is bivvying out with the cold and lack of sleep. I really enjoyed it. Of course, I wouldn’t go out of my way to sleep outside, although it is nice to know I can survive out there.

The next day we did some training, beyond sleeping outside and riding quad bikes, and played with the ice axes working on climbing steep snow slopes and self-arresting when slipping. Fun stuff. We returned to Mawson and on arrival I went straight to work and did what is called a reference mark survey at the GPS station. One of the more spectacular survey locations. The aim of the exercise was to measure the position of three reference marks (pins in the ground) surrounding the GPS pillar, to determine whether there has been any local deformation at the site. In general, the GPS station determines how the point and thus that part of the continent is moving. The reference mark survey helps determine whether the movement at the GPS site is due to the whole continent shifting or just localised effects. I knocked over the survey with impressive results and was very pleased with my efforts for not only coping exceptionally well with the sleep out but also having the strength to complete another survey task that evening. A successful day.

I kept the working wheels in motion the next day as I had perfect survey weather. No wind. I did a levelling survey from the GPS station all the way down the hill to the tide gauge bench mark. Levelling is usually a two man operation so I convinced the station doctor to be my assistant. She had to be the most over qualified survey assistant I have ever had and was definitely the highest paid. She did a great job, standing around waiting for me to take measurements. I figured it was my chance for revenge, against all doctors, for making me wait every time I go in for an appointment. Most of my work at Mawson is just about done. After New Year I am heading to Syowa, a Japanese base, for a brief visit. The fun doesn't stop.