Travellin’ South

Update on August and I’m off on holiday tomorrow…

I’ve clearly been busy in August because I don’t seem to have found the time to update this blog (and I’m hurriedly writing this as I really need to be packing my gear to leave on my second winter training trip tomorrow morning!). Hmmm, what have I been up to? Well, we’ve had good weather and bad weather in equal doses this month. During the good weather there have been more visits to the repeater on Reptile Ridge, and the now usual long spells out in the cold on any clear night to make the most of the darkness while we still have it – summer is approaching and in just a couple of months we won’t have much night-time at all. Night photography at Rothera will be a thing of the past for me at least…

Winter trips are out again so every evening I’m in the ops tower chatting with the field parties over the radio, checking everyone’s safe and well. We’ve had a couple of fairly monster storms with winds over 60 knots on base at times so a good deal of lie-up was had by a couple of the teams in the field, their return to base delayed until the weather calmed down enough for safe travel. The forecast for the next couple of days looks about as good as it gets although it’ll probably be a little chilly where Dave and I are heading, round to the south end of the island.

We’ve had some more nacreous clouds over the peninsula although these ones didn’t stick around so long and I wasn’t up early enough to catch them before sunrise when they’re at their most colourful. I’m still not sure about the best way to photograph them – this is a HDR shot which, although a fairly good representation of the scene, doesn’t get across just how bright the clouds really are. They are just jaw-droppingly amazing.

It’s been a weekend of clear but very windy weather and, after the battering from the storms, the sea ice around station has broken up. At the ice edge birds are mostly engaged in a feeding frenzy and I’ve spent a bit of time trying to get the hang of photographing them in flight. Yet another photography learning curve that needs to be climbed but there should be fair opportunities over the summer and I’m not exactly going to be doing much night photography!

OK, that’s about all I’ve got time for, I’d better get back to packing my gear and then get an early night - it’s probably going to be a long day in the cold tomorrow…

Break out of the lethargy…

Today it was time to break free from the clutches of the winter lethargy that had settled upon me over the last couple of months. Fitness levels on base have been falling for some (myself definitely included) and, given that winter training trips are starting again next week, Shaun and I took advantage of a short weather window this morning to ski up to the caboose and back… just in time as it happened as it started snowing soon after we got back and 3 inches has fallen since. Here’s hoping for some more calm cold days and it might help the ski conditions on the ramp above station which is currently a desperate 100m-high wedge of solid ice.

A flat calm day today and, while sitting on the porch of the caboose getting our breath back, I took a couple of pics which I’ve been playing around with this afternoon as HDR images and a bit of dabbling with black and white which I’ve never really done before. Although it could do with more contrasty impact, I’m quite pleased with this one…

Some pictures looking north (that’s where the Sun is)…

I think a lot has happened here this week although, when I try and put my finger on exactly what has been achieved, details escape me. Certainly a lot has happened this weekend including some artistic carpentry, some learning of new tunes on the guitar and some watching of Das Boot (Director’s Cut) and the underrated classic Donnie Brasco. Instead of boring you with the minutiae of base life I shall simply show you pictures of the amazing phenomena the Sun has treated us to since her return…

Here we have a sun pillar which is not simply camera flare but appears here pretty much as I saw it as I left the boatshed after tending to a troublesome boat radio. The sight was jaw-dropping enough for me to return to the boatshed, raise the boatman and then put out an ‘all-stations’ radio call so that all of the other base members could take photos.

The sun pillar receded quite quickly and by the time I reached my DSLR it was gone. There was however a very clear sun dog in view to the right of the sun which lasted long enough for many pictures to be taken. Since the return of the Sun, most of us are surprised at just how much we’ve missed it and the contrast it provides.

Since it was such a glorious day with very little wind (and nearly lunchtime), Shaun and I got the deckchairs out and proceeded to soak up the rays on on the beach, despite the temperature edging towards -20°C.

Finally, an example of one of the wonderful scenes across North Cove this week. This was Monday morning, around smoko time and was my first proper experiment with HDR Imaging and the use of Photomatix Pro which seems to create most of the exciting HDR images I see.

So, four views looking north, three of which are essentially the same scene at different times (you should be able to match the bits of ice on the shore in the last three photos). That’s kind of what life is like here, new and exciting things often happen in what is essentially the same scene every day.

Welcome back sunshine (but this week I’m in the dark again)…

Well, I got out on the sea ice last week but only for a few hours as the weather began to worsen and we had to pull back. Winds picked up overnight and the next morning the ice to the south had disappeared. Such is the way of things. Maybe the real highlight of last week was seeing the Sun for the first time in months – Adam and I climbed up to the top of Reptile Ridge where some repairs needed doing and it was the first chance to check the solar panel outputs with direct sunlight since May. Well, that was a good enough excuse to get up there and see the sun before everyone else anyway…!

That was the only glimpse I’ve had however. Starting Saturday (before the Sun actually hit base) I began my week’s stint as the station night-watchman. We all take it in turns to do a week on nights over winter so that there is always someone up on base, checking for fire risks and the smooth running of various critical facilities. So this week I have been mainly patrolling the base, checking the generators and the reverse-osmosis plant every 3 hours and, in between rounds, making the most of the peace and quiet and getting on with the field radio servicing. So far all has been quiet which is good because any exciting thing that might happen on night watch is generally something that would be quite bad for us all… and with that said, it’s 6am and time for me to suit up and head out for another round of checks…

First sea ice party out today…

One of today’s satellite pictures showing thermal imagery of the Antarctic Peninsula. You can see wispy high level clouds and the grey mass in the centre-top of the picture is lower level cloud. The slightly darker shade of grey in the centre of the picture however shows the current extent of the sea ice that has been developing. You can clearly see that Rothera is now surrounded by ice, stretching all the way to the south of Adelaide Island and that the fjord to our east is completely covered.

We’ve all been patiently watching the ice develop around station over the last few weeks and the wind dropped below 15 knots today allowing the first exploratory party out onto the frozen sea to test the ice thickness and… good news! The required 30cm of ice thickness was found and followed out to quite some distance from station.

Travel over sea ice is one of the more exotic activities that we are able to experience (when conditions allow) but it also requires a certain degree of caution and is strictly regulated so we all had our sea ice briefing this morning and training trips out onto the ice will begin tomorrow… expect pictures soon from an exciting new viewpoint!

Things are getting cold around here…

Thanks to everyone who’s e-mailed and left comments this week wishing me a happy birthday! Rest assured, it was one to remember, perhaps as much for the messages from home and presents that had been wrapped up 6 months in advance as anything else… Bonus points to all who attended the surprise birthday party in the Unicorn! A common question this week has been “What’s it like now you’re 30?” and I think I can say it all feels the same as before, but a bit slower… 

The temperature has taken a bit of a nose-dive around here this week and, as if playing birthday golf at -15°C wasn’t enough, we passed -20°C on Thursday and this morning the station temperature was -24°C as I went for a rather brisk walk around the Point. At -20°C you can start to feel your nostril hairs freezing as you breathe through your nose and I tried to take this rather shaky self-portrait of my eyelashes freezing this morning which had to undergo some rather dodgy exposure-blending to rescue anything out of this shot but you get the idea - it’s a bit chilly outside…

It’s been cold where we are at sea-level but temperatures at higher levels have been a lot lower – on Thursday we were treated to a fantastic display in the sky as nacreous clouds formed in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. A few of us had been woken at 3am that morning when we had a power-down and so there were a few bleary-eyed folk walking out of the accommodation block at 9am to see the brightly lit ghostly clouds to the north. The natural instinct when confronted with such an amazing and rare phenomena is to rush and grab camera gear but the haste proved to be unnecessary – the clouds stayed in position, slowly changing in form and colour all day. Pretty amazing stuff. Also noteworthy is the complete lack of wildlife and the extent of the sea-ice in this week’s photos. This morning the sea was frozen as far as the eye could see and we expect to see the first forays out onto the ice to test thickness this week once the wind calms down a bit.

Once again, thanks to everyone for the messages from home. Thinking of you all back in the land of pleasant climate, greenery and sunlight. Enjoy it and don’t let me catch any of you complaining about heat waves!

After Midwinter and I am now officially old…

Midwinter’s week here at Rothera was as action-packed as promised. A mix of celebrations, fun & games and relaxation in between was had by all. The veil of secrecy was lifted off our Midwinter presents and we swapped our gifts with each other. An amazing standard of workmanship was on display and I bagged an excellent set of deck chairs from Kirk which will surely se some use in the near future now that most of the seals have cleared from North Beach…

The weather all through the week was excellent with very little wind, clear skies and temperatures around -15°C (as you all enjoy a heat wave back in the UK!) so there was plenty of outdoor activity (2009 Midwinter Olympics) and some more good nights for photography with some very pleasing results. For this shot of the Milky Way above station one night I overcame the relatively slow speed of my wide angle lens by using my fast f1.8 50mm lens for a series of shots at the same exposure and then a panoramic stitch to bring it all together.

The week was rounded off in style with band night where a selection of classic songs at extreme levels of volume (“WHAT??? I CAN’T HEAR YOU???!!” was the general topic of conversation after rehearsal) were performed to a capacity crowd by probably the best band for at least 400km, perhaps even the best group of musicians on the whole continent…;-)

This week back at work has actually felt like quite a relief after all the effort that was put into the Midwinter celebrations. Still, only a short break in festivities because as I write this the clock has passed midnight and I have now said goodbye to my twenties… It’s my 30th birthday today and, in the morning, I can finally dive into the small pile of presents that has been sitting on top of my wardrobe since they arrived on the ship back in December! Birthday activities for me will go along the usual pattern of probably a bit of golf (big thanks to Al for fabricating a very playable pitching wedge in the garage) and some drinks with friends…

Sorry for being slack with updates recently, a very busy period on base!

Happy Midwinter!

We’re in the middle of Midwinter’s Week here at Rothera. The run up to Midwinter’s Week was was very much like the week before Christmas with everyone frantically trying to finish jobs so we could relax for the celebrations. My main worry over the week was ensuring we had as complete a list as possible of the other Antarctic base e-mail addresses to send round our official Midwinter greetings message, as the tradition goes… and a fine collection of messages have been sent to and fro across the continent, as you can see to the right!

The week is a mix of precious time off work and traditional fun and games such as the Midwinter Olympics (skiing, ice climbing, races and lots of outdoor fun in the cold), round the base Crazy Golf and lots and lots of watching films and eating crisps. Midwinter’s Day was a special day with Riet pulling out all the stops for the Midwinter’s banquet, our very special Midwinter’s broadcast from the BBC World Service and, of course, the final showing and swapping of our Midwinter presents!

Festivities aside, it’s turned rather cold here and, with most of the week seeing fairly calm winds, the sea to the north and south of the station has completely frozen over, albeit with relatively thin ice. Now we eagerly await the consolidation of the sea ice and pray for a few more days of calm, cold weather… perhaps the first ventures out to walk across the sea are not too far away…

Midwinter approaches…

Midwinter is almost upon us down here and all of us remaining on the bases across Antarctica are making preparations for the traditional midwinter celebrations!

This is the big event of the Antarctic social calendar (Christmas is limited to just a slight pause for dinner as we’re all so busy working over the summer) and we’re all looking forward to our week’s holiday of fun and games starting on Friday. The workshops are busy with people feverishly adding the final touches to their midwinter presents - we all make gifts for each other and exchange them on the big day.

There’s a definite last-week-before-Christmas vibe on base! The greetings cards from the other bases are starting to arrive (by e-mail of course, no post for any of us down here!) and we’ve taken our group photo ready for the traditional exchange of pleasantries between all of the wintering stations in Antarctica, just as soon as we lay our hands on the address list…

Perhaps one of the most exciting events for me is the upcoming midwinter broadcast to Antarctica from the BBC World Service. The transmission will go out at 2130 UTC on Sunday evening, 21 June, that’s 6:30pm Rothera time and 10:30pm UK time. The broadcast to us will be over HF (Short Wave) radio on the following frequencies:

• 5950 kHz (broadcast from Rampisham, UK)
• 7295 kHz (broadcast from Rampisham, UK)
• 7360 kHz (broadcast from Ascension Is.)

We’ll most likely be listening on 7295 which was a very strong signal here last night during the test transmission. If you can lay your hands on a radio that can receive Short Wave (or SW, sometimes referred to as World Band), you can try and tune in and listen to the very same signal that we will be as we crowd round one of my radios up in the ops tower to hear messages from home… well, I find that exciting anyway!

The Sun has left us now…

This week has given Rothera its last taste of sunlight for a while. On Thursday we were treated to a fantastic display as the Sun lit the clouds from beneath but alas she did not rise above the mountains to the north and Rothera will not be blessed with her warming rays until sometime late in July. She can still be seen from the hills above station and the islands to the south but it will only be a short while before she dips below the true horizon.

We have also seen some calm weather this week and one night was particularly calm. Calm, a clear sky and not too cold – perfect conditions to walk away from the lights around base and have a good look at the night sky with its stars that cannot be seen from our native Northern hemisphere. Mike and I wrapped up, grabbed our camera gear with the intention of photographing star trails and walked up over the Point away from the lights. Just 100 yards away from base the Milky Way could clearly be seen in the sky above us and we spent about two and a half hours experimenting with long-exposures and the varying difficulties of focusing and artistic composition when your viewfinder only shows complete darkness! The length of exposures we were taking meant we only walked back to base with a few shots each, none of which came out exactly as we’d imagined. Mike took this fairly amazing shot of me checking my camera - unfortunately it’s a little out of focus but you get the idea! Much was learnt and I’ve since been gazing skywards, eagerly awaiting the next clear night…