From the Ice

The sun is getting closer and for once there is only low drift so we can see the horizon. This shot was taken from the door of the living caboose and is looking north towards the Sør Rondane mountains which we must pass through on our journey back to the coast.

CampNice While it Lasted – a blog by Spencer SmirlYesterday, the 14th of June, was a rare day for us here at our winter camp. It was the third of three consecutive days of no wind.  Not only was the air as still as stone, the sky was clear as well. I couldn’t remember the last time I witnessed the sharp edge of the horizon in the distance. The thirty plus days of howling wind spins the snow…

Temperatures of around minus 56C might not be too comforting for the Ice Team right now, but at least the winds have dropped aenough for them to be been able to get outside for more than just the briefest moments. Over the weekend they had the combination of low winds (and therefore no drift), clear skies, a small setting moon and aurora activity which lasted throughout the night. This photo…

A nunatak is an isolated rocky peak that is sticking up through an ice sheet.

Richmond wearing sleep monitor By Brian Newham We are now in the midst of another five-day series of tests as part of the White Mars project. We do these tests every 28 days, and because they take about four hours for each of us to go through the process we stagger them over five days. For those of you who don’t know already, the White Mars project aims to examine the physiological and…

This photograph of the camp was taken by Brian Newham several hours ago. It’s going to be weeks yet until it starts getting light again.

A day in the life of Spencer Smirl As the expedition objectives have been changed, so have our daily routines.  One of the biggest changes is we get a lot more sleep. Rich and I no longer have to get up and begin the start-up of frozen vehicles and we also have a huge surplus of personal time as well. It has almost been weeks now that we have been pinned down by severe weather. Temperatures w…

Inside the workshop. Picture by Spencer Smirl with Richmond Dykes just about visible. Can you spot him?

With the Met observations and GPS trials continuing daily in spite of the blizzard, today was the first time in more than two weeks that the winds have dropped enough to allow the team outside to work in earnest. The team took the opportunity to begin a new snow sampling regime, as well as some digging out of Cat’s. Brian Newham also managed to get this picture of camp. The intentions for…

In this video Ian Prickett reports from camp, where the Ice Team have been more or less confined to the indoors for more than two weeks as they wait for a monster blizzard to blow out. &nbs…