Breaking The Ice

To celebrate the return of the sun, a ceremony ensued last Friday which accompanied the first sighting of a warm light above our horizon. Those who encountered the glow of the sun on their face (when out climbing in the local travel area on Reptile Ridge) didn't realise just how much they had missed it. In stark contrast to the last 56 days of very dim light, the mountains and islands now glow pink and orange when bathed in sunlight. The sun is something that, like many, I took for granted, I have never experienced a day without it. I saw it for the first time, since it disappearance, on Tuesday after lunch for all of 10 minutes as it crept above a mountain. It's almost sunglasses weather!  Robbie, the youngest member on station, performed 'Elephant Stone' by the Stone Roses on the guitar. In keeping with tradition, he hoisted the union jack flag back into the air to mark the return of the light. For this ceremony the wind was low with temperatures of -13 °C  (quite...

Just over a month ago, on 25th May, the sun dipped below the horizon where it will remain invisible to us until 19th July. A traditional sundown ceremony ensued at Rothera. The oldest member of the station, Sam, lowered the Union Jack flag. We all gathered outside wrapped up in down jackets, scarves, two hats and thick gloves and endured temperatures which felt like -15 with the wind chill factor. The station leader delivered a short speech which was met with a whisky toast! Then Sam removed his gloves and strummed  'Everybody's gotta live' by 'Love' on the guitar (listen here ). How he had bare hands for three minutes is beyond me. Sam is the station's wintering carpenter and as a celebration to mark such an event, he invited us to the carpenter shed where he performed the song again. Everybody resumed the celebrations and relished the warmth whilst playing games in high spirits. Sam introducing his song A traditional speech delivered by our station leader...

Our training on the James Clark Ross ( click to view a previous blogpost ) introduced us to stoves and Tilley lamps which, at the time, seemed hard to imagine the use for while sailing through the tropics. However, when moving around Antarctica, the utility of devices to keep warm is certainly more relevant and much welcomed. On weekends and bank holidays, it is common for people to skin up to the caboose - a small red refuge hut (a reconverted shipping container) -  ski or snowboard in some fresh snow and warm up with a cuppa. Interestingly, melting a whole pot of snow yields only a minute amount of water, when expressed as a volume, the snow to ice ratio is 10 parts snow to 1 part water. Bearing in mind this is fresh snow and ice is denser and cutting ice blocks yields a greater volume than the equivalent volume of snow. The caboose - at the bottom of 'Vals', a gentle ski slope Snowboarding on Vals An excellent place for a cuppa! Primus stoves and Tilley...