A Trail of Bread Crumbs…
By Spencer Smirl. We began our journey back to the coast after departing from our fuel deposit over a week ago. It is nice to be moving downhill for a change. The Cats are enjoying it as well. The decent of almost… 2kms has them purring along at a break neck pace of up to 8km/hr. I forgot what speed felt like. I can’t imagine the shock I’ll receive when I return home and have to make 60mph on a…
Depot on the Plateau
The Ice Team turned around today and started to head back north to the start line, covering 41km in ideal conditions. Here’s a video shot by Ian Prickett of the depot on the plateau, giving a great idea of the layout and terrain.
Back to the Coast
By Brian Newham. The time has come for us to depot our precious fuel and to head back to the coast. It has not been an easy journey to get this far and the large vehicles and heavy loads have given us plenty of challenges as we have crawled our way inland and through the Sør Rondane mountains. In a perfect world we would have liked to get our depot much further south but the terrain, weather and…
The Long and Winding Road
The Ice Team have been pinned in the same position since days before Ran left because of terrible whiteout conditions. The weather broke just long enough for Ran’s collection, but other than that progress has been all but non-existent. The current camp is poised at the bottom of an extremely difficult 7km-long section of terrain which demands reasonable conditions to assess and cross safely.
The Long Haul
It’s been a tough couple of days for the Ice Team as they have had to deal with steep ascents in their bid to make a fuel depot high up on the Antarctic continent. Today, they have also been having to make extensive use of the ground penetrating rader to ensure safe passage through a heavily crevassed area and only managed to haul their load 7km. Currently the Ice Train is split, as the team…
A Friendly Visit
“Princess Elisabeth Station – the first and, currently, only “zero emission” research facility in Antarctica” – by Ian Prickett On Saturday evening we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Belgians Research centre for dinner. Due to a rather long day prior to this and not enough distance gained due to poor snow conditions, we had contacted the Belgian team earlier in the day to let them know…
Boys’ Toys
By Rob Lambert No matter how much planning, preparation, and experience you bring to your endeavours, there’s no substitute for on-the-job learning. They say every day’s a school day, and during this depot run we’re all learning plenty – about each other, about our surroundings, and about the equipment which we’re depending on to cross Antarctica this winter. The Boys (as we’re all now calling…
Blue Ice and Mountains
By Brian Newham. Yesterday was a long day and today isn’t to be any shorter but we really want to make the most of the good weather. Despite a fresh breeze it is sunny with great visibility so we need to push southwards. By late morning we arrived at an area of ‘Blue Ice’. It’s a term used to describe a surface that is just that – it’s like an ice rink but with a few surface imperfections. They…
The Dig
The Ice Team had their work cut out for them when they woke up this morning to find their fuel sleds imbedded in two days and nights of snowdrift. Perseverance paid off and they finished the day 39km further south than when they started. Good work…
On the Move
A sunny but breezy morning. 25kts and low drift. Took us about three hrs to get dug out and the Ice Train reassembled. Now we are trucking at around 5km/hr. Need to make some mileage today so likely to be a long one. Update by Brian Newham, Travers…
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