The traverse

It seems as though every blog entry I've made so far has started off with me making excuses/apologising for the passage of time since my last update!  So, seeing as though 2 months has passed since my last entry, I'll spare you all the blubbering and just get straight into it.  My last blog finished off with our Mid-Winters celebrations and with us preparing to head out on our traverse attempt to Amanda Bay.  So what happened?  Well what didn't happen!

The main purpose of the traverse attempt was to visit the remote Emperor penguin colony of Amanda Bay in the Larsemann Hills which lie some 100 km to the southwest of Davis.  However due to the uncertainty of safe sea ice travel in the more direct and shorter path to the Larsemanns, the traverse route was to head inland.  This particular path was to almost triple our traveling distance and meant that we had to drive some 60 km "inland" over the Antarctic plateau before we could even head towards our intended destination.  This was done in order to avoid the heavy crevassing that occurs on the plateau as it slopes steeply towards the coast.  Here's a map of the route we took.

As you can see we didn't quite make it to our destination, but oh so close.  Along the traverse route over 3 days of travelling we experienced the most extreme conditions that I have, and probably ever will experience.  Who thought travelling to elevations of ~1,500 metres on the Antarctic plateau in the middle of winter was a good idea?  Temperatures hovered between minus 40 and minus 50 degrees Celsius with a blizzard thrown into the mix, just to keep things interesting.  This made life fairly uncomfortable as life inside the sanctuary of our "heated" Hagglunds vehicles never rose above freezing.  The extreme conditions proved all too much for the majority of our equipment.  Engines wouldn't start, doors wouldn't close properly, tents couldn't be packed away properly because the material had frozen, fuel stoves leaked because of frozen "o" rings (causing a fire whilst I was boiling water for everyone), batteries failed and water not kept in thermoses would freeze within minutes.  After overcoming all of these little setbacks it was a broken spring at L126 on the track of the Blue Hagg that put an end to our traverse.

The polar pyramids were erected at this point and camp was made for two nights while some ingenious repairs were made to the crippled Hagg.  Go team dieso!  If I thought sleeping in a tent at minus 45C was bad, I couldn't imagine what those guys went through for over 12 hours whilst they carried out repairs in those hideous conditions.  Thanks to their efforts we were able to break camp and after three days of constant driving, make our way safely back to Davis.

The relief of seeing the lights of Davis off in the distance was a moment we'll never forget, our little home on the edge of the ice never looked so good.  We were all disappointed that we didn't make our destination, but everyone I've spoken to thoroughly enjoyed (in retrospect) the experience.  The way we were able to work together and bond as a group was something that caught me by surprise too.  It will certainly be an experience that I'll never forget.