Progress Report

By Anton Bowring Last night, following a wonderful dinner with our hosts, Brian and Lee-Anne Singer and their family, Ran, Jo and I retired to our rooms knowing that by dawn, the team should be in Cape Town. Earlier that evening I had been in touch with ALCI in whose Ilyushin aircraft our five colleagues were due to fly. Antarctic logistic arrangements are complicated and during this early…

After an early start we have moved all of our loads safely through the area known as “The Valley of the Three Holes” – although it is now known as “The Valley of the FOUR Holes”. The loads were all winched through and it’s nice to have this terrain behind us. We are now camped 3km north amongst some great scenery and at the entrance to a small valley to the west of us. Our plan tomorrow is to do…

After a few well-earned rest days, the Ice Team got back on the move yesterday and are tonight at a new camp 5.6km along their destination north. The Ice Team are heading for the Princess Elizabeth Research Station, and are hoping to arrive there by the end of the month. The intention will then be to fly out at the end of November, heading for Cape Town, South Africa, and then on to England. If…

The excellent and stable weather continues and it has to be said that we are thoroughly enjoying it. Today we moved all the remaining loads down into the valley without drama. It’s nice to be through this section as there is both significant, and large, crevassing as well as an awkward sleep slope which has a nasty camber. The fuel scoots were brought down with a braking Cat at the rear but…

Today We were extremely fortunate to have had such good conditions yesterday and to have taken full advantage of them. Whilst the weather wasn’t bad today, the visibility has been quite limited and it would have been hard to do a meaningful reconnaissance of the route ahead . With that already done and some of the loads already moved through this tricky section, as we did yesterday, we had good…

by Brian Newham Visibility wasn’t great this morning but it looked to be improving so we made a move. All four loads made it 5km to our old summer depot site. The edge of the mountains are now tantalisingly close and as the conditions improved they were a feast for the eyes. Soon we will be back amongst them. This afternoon we broke the loads down from four to seven in readiness for the tricky…

by Brian Newham A bright and sunny day but a wind gusting well over 60 knots (70 mph) added a bit more of a challenge. Surprisingly, despite the high wind there was very little drifting snow in the air and visibility was quite good, so we made a move. The two loads of fuel scoots went first and were dropped at 5km. Cabooses next and they then leap-frogged the scoots to a point just under 10km.

An almost cloudless start to the day but it quickly invaded from the east. The wind came and went and with it the drift, but overall it was a good day for travel. The first couple of kilometres were across blue ice, so for the most part we had to double-head with both Cats pulling each of the four loads. Once we were past that and got onto a firm snow surface the Cats could move independently…

Good conditions today and we winched the cabooses up and over the hill followed by the remaining fuel scoots. All somewhat relieved to be beyond this obstacle and to have done so without any serious drama. We are now camped just to the north of the hill and are busy this evening reconfiguring the loads ready for the next section. Ahead of us lies a few kilometres of blue ice where traction could…