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.

Mid-Winters!

A few pictures of our Mid-Winters festivities for you all.  Below are just a few of our station Mid-Winter photographs!

Breakfast in the new Living Quarters consisted of bircher muesli, croissants, Russian caviar, eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, Danish pastries and "fresh" juice.  Yes, we do it tough down here.

Dinner was also huge and one of the highlights of the day, if not the year!  Kim (Iron chef) de Laive, raised the bar with that one.

Below is the menu for the evening.

And for the next issue I'll show some pictures of the various shenanigans that took place on the day.  This includes, but is not limited to, the outdoor spar/hot tub, winter Olympics and of course the Mid-Winter swim!  Lots of mankini photos to come (maybe).  For now though 12 of us are heading off on our traverse to the Larsemann Hills to photograph the remote Emperor penguin colony at Amanda Bay.  So I'll be back in a couple of weeks.  But in the mean time here's a teaser for you....

The sun's long gone

Well okay, there have been a few firsts since I last posted something up here.  We've had our first "official" blizzard, I've had my first birthday in Antarctica, we also had our first game of golf and for the first time we said goodbye to the sun for the last time in 38 days!  So with the exception of darkness, what else has been consuming our days down here?  It just so happens that June is a rather busy month for us Davisonians.  For one, mid-winters day is coming up on Monday and a week after that 12 of us are due to leave for the Larsemann Hills on a 800 km traverse for a couple of weeks.

Mid-winters is the biggest day of the year for wintering Antarctic expeditioners and it is something that has been heavily celebrated ever since the first Belgian wintering Antarctic expedition in 1897.  Unfortunately for them they inadvertently spent their winter trapped in the seaice on board their ship the Belgica and two of the ship's crew consequently went mad!  As I've been flicking through the numerous accounts of Antarctic literature in the library shelves down here, I've stumbled across a few accounts from that particular voyage.  The ships doctor, Frederick Cook, wrote in his diary at the time:

"The curtain of blackness which has fallen over the outer world of icy desolation has also descended upon the inner world of our souls"


"I can think of nothing more disheartening, more destructive to human energy, than this dense, unbroken blackness of the long polar night"


Happy days all round there!  I'm glad to say that none of us (to my knowledge) have slipped into any such depression or fits of madness, but I have noticed in myself an even greater reluctance to get out of bed in the mornings.  Even though the sun only left us a couple of weeks ago I have realised that it has been much  longer since we have actually felt any benefit from it.  In recent months the sun has stayed so low on the horizon that what rays had hit us had been too feeble to be of any real benefit.  But I am still looking forward to the 10th of July when the sun will once more poke its head above the horizon.  Until then, small stints in the hydroponics shed will have to suffice.  Below is a photo taken from the plateau of the last time we saw of the sun.

So in between preparations for mid-winters, 12 of us are busy preparing for the traverse at the end of the month.  This has involved various forms of training such as ice arrest techniques, glacial travel techniques, camping in polar pyramids (in rather ordinary conditions, see photos below) and search and rescue skills.  There is also a mountain of gear that needs to be prepared too.  The diesos have been busy readying the three Hägglund vehicles while sleds, trailers, tents, warm sleeping gear and food must also be prepared.  And the purpose of all of this?  Well our aim is to make it to the remote Emperor penguin colony of Amanda Bay to carry out a photographic census of the male birds.  We have to visit the colony at this particularly dark time of year as it is the only time when there will be no female birds around.  Females tend to complicate issues and make simple things difficult (female birds that is). Whilst we're in the area we'll also call in and say hello to both the Russian and Chinese wintering parties at Zhong Shan and Progress.  Should be interesting!

Hope everyone is all well back in civilisation.  Take care, will be in touch again shortly.