Sky Blu, Antarctica

Flying from Sky Blu we saw a faint Brocken spectre in the clouds below us. It wasn't strong enough to come out well in the photos so I've increased the colour saturation.

Fletcher Glacier, Antarctica

The Ellsworths are home to Mount Vincent, the tallest mountain in Antarctica (shown here), so the views from, and as you fly into the field site are pretty special. Once we had unloaded the plane, we got a quick tour of the camp and a cup of tea before returning to Sky Blu. We finally landed at Sky Blu at midnight, by which time it was too late to continue to Fossil Bluff, so we were kindly put up for the night.

Fletcher Glacier, Antarctica

Fog at Fossil Bluff delayed our departure by a couple of hours so by the time we got to Sky Blu (the first time around) it was already late afternoon. We pushed on further south to find Sledge Party Quebec, camped out on Fletcher glacier at the foot of the Ellsworth mountains. Sledge Quebec are a team of glaciologists, who are attempting to drill 130m ice cores in one season. These cores will then be analysed to provide a history of surface temperatures and snow accumulation over the last 200 years. This shows the camp at Sledge Quebec, which is the best equipped camp I have ever seen, complete with showers, microwave, large structured tents and Saturday film nights.

En route to Fletcher Glacier, Antarctica

I’ve already mentioned Fossil Bluff, which is a fuel depot about 225 miles south of Rothera. Beyond that is another depot called Sky Blu, which is about 450 miles south, at a latitude of 75 degrees. Sky Blu has a blue-ice runway which allows not only the Twin Otters to land but also the Dash 7 (larger planes, able to carry greater loads). These two camps enable field parties (known as Sledge Parties) to reach a massive area within north-west Antarctica. Both Fossil Bluff and Sky Blu have to be manned at all times during the summer season to provide constant weather information for the pilots and to provide safety cover for landing, refueling, and taking-off.

I knew I was to be heading out to Fossil Bluff to help man it for a few days so on Sunday morning I had my radio on standby, waiting for the call.

“Andy B, Andy B? This is Clem.”
“Go ahead, Clem.”
“Hi Andy, we’re ready to move the detonators onto the plane now.”
“Thanks Clem, I’ll get everyone ready”.
Goodness, I thought to myself, I wonder what poor people will be flying out on that plane.
“Rosey, Rosey? This is Andy B. Can you get your stuff together and make your way over to the hanger?”. Ah.
It turned out that a field party near Sky Blu needed to blow some things up, and that the plane going there needed a co-pilot, and since I was heading out to Fossil Bluff anyway-- so that Sunday, I got to make the most amazing flights around the Peninsula, flying Rothera-Fossil Bluff-Sky Blu-Sledge Party Quebec-Sky Blu-Fossil Bluff.

Rothera, Antarctica

Skidooing back down to Rothera from the weekly AWS check at the skiway. This is the stillest I have seen the bay yet.

Butler Island, Antarctica

As we got a bit further north the terrain below became a lot more mountainous. Al took over so we could have some fun, weaving in and out of the mountains, dropping and banking.

Just south of Rothera is an Argentinean base, San Martin. These guys get dropped off in January and are left for the entire year with no visitors, so we thought they might appreciate a fly by. Either they were busy or they didn’t appreciate it, as we saw no sign of them, but I did get this picture of their base.

Butler Island, Antarctica

The flight back was <insert long list of superlatives here>. The sun was low in the sky, casting a really beautiful, gentle light. I was co-piloting, so did my bit by flying a little part of the way. Al kept telling me to relax as apparently I was gripping the steering wheel with rods of iron and white knuckles. I told him that I was flying an actual plane that was in the sky and that it was not the time to relax.

Butler Island, Antarctica

On Sunday Tamsin, Al (pilot), Tom (comms) and I flew out to Butler Island to check up on one of our AWS. Butler Island is on the east coast of the peninsula, pretty far south, at a latitude of 72degrees. It took about two and a half hours to fly there in a Twin Otter. The site is flat and white, as far as the eye can see in every direction. And it is very cold and very windy. It felt very Antarctic. Al the pilot landed just a few meters from the AWS and as I was walking over to it I wondered how on earth we would manage to work when it was so cold. But manage we did, as we quickly got used the environment and adapted our actions accordingly (ate more mars bars, ran around lots). Tamsin is proper hard core and doesn’t seem to notice (I like to think that this is what I’ll be like this time next year but I think it might just be because she’s from Newcastle).

Rothera, Antarctica

Ashly (left) very kindly took Tamsin (right) and I out after dinner for a walk along Reptile ridge.
Thanks to Ashly for the photo.

Rothera, Antarctica

Tourists on base with New Bransfield in the background.

Rothera, Antarctica

I'm sorry to keep posting the same views but one picture never seems to do them justice. This is the view west from Old Bransfield looking out across the runway to the edge of the ramp (again!).

I don’t entirely understand this but occasionally Rothera’s power gets a bit clogged up and we have to powerdown the whole base. For the met team this means shutting down all experiments in such a way that will have minimum impact on the data. Once the power is back up we have to restart everything and make sure all the instruments are happy. We had a powerdown on Thursday night, so the met team was ready with their superhero capes and pants outside their tights to save the data. This is us, outside Old Bransfield, during the powerdown, preparing for the momentous task ahead, as only the British can, with a cup of tea. The met team (known as met babes) from left to right, Ross (just-wintered electronics engineer by day, met babe by night), Tom (soon-to-winter electronics engineer by day, met babe by night), and Tamsin (just-wintered full time met babe, my mentor).

Rothera, Antarctica

One of the met team’s jobs is to maintain the automatic weather stations that are dotted around the Antarctic peninsula. This one is just a few kilometers from Rothera, up the ramp, then traverse along underneath Reptile ridge to the skiway (a snow landing strip). The most common work at an AWS is to increase the height of the masts and then raise the instruments because the snow accumulates and buries section after section. There’s probably three or four more sections to this mast under the snow (hence the angle!). Thanks to Ashly for the photo.

Rothera, Antarctica

The weather continued to hold over the weekend and into Monday. I took this from outside my office looking west across the bay to the rest of Adeleide Island.

As well as atmospheric science, there is also a lot of marine science at Rothera. For this purpose there are a couple of ribs, which, if not being used for science, can be taken out for pleasure. On Monday evening some very kindly boatmen took a group of us out in both ribs out for a jaunt around Rothera bay. The harbor is at the southern end of the runway where the ribs are lowered into the water on a crane. It was a really spectacular evening with beautiful low sunlight. The bay was full of sea ice, icebergs and sleepy seals. It was incredible how quickly the sea ice came and went, suddenly we were surrounded by it and had to carefully pick our way through, the next minute it had all dissipated.