Greetings from Scott Base Antarctica
With the dust settling....
As things and work start to fall into a normal type of flow, thought that you may like to see what’s going on. My work load as below will be varied, to say the least, with a chance for something different almost every day. The weather is very warm at the moment flips between say -12 and -3 degrees and an average wind speed of 20 knots, they say we may get an early ice breakup which hasn’t happened since 1995 (because of the warm weather) this means the ice shelf in front of Scott base will break-up leaving open water!!! Hence some excitement as it doesn’t happen too often and few see it. Anyway thought you may like to know what’s going on so I hope this helps, enjoy .........
The plane ride here was excellent, not a bump shimmy or shake. Five hours and some change later, the door is opened to an endless carpet of white and a chill breath that on sight left most of us speechless to say the least. Whisked away on bumpy 40 minute Hagglund ride to Scott base where you are confronted by a “Chelsea Cucumber Green” paint job on all the buildings and Mount Erebus in the background!! (More quiet spoken moments)
Things have been full on, arriving here straight into field training camp for the night whereupon a small blow of wind came up for about 2.5 hours taking the temperature from a warm -30c to add wind chill making it a nippy -55c !! This made digging out our field kitchen a hugely fun task, along with lighting our stove it was enduring to say the least. Adding to the hour and a half or so to melt enough snow to make the water for our tea!! The dehydrated food wasn’t the greatest but it was food.
After a few more life saving tips, its back to base to begin the handover process, drivers licences and basic living rules whilst on base. My first room was 5 bunk beds and 4 people, this was for the first week and a half. I am in my permanent room now which is tiny with a double bunk and no room to swing a cat!! Structure here is very military ie: breakfast 7-8am lunch 12-1pm dinner 6-7pm and always a Sunday roast!! The bar (The Tatty Flag) is open every day from 5.30pm till around 10.30pm dependant on social events.
With this all said and done, time to do some work, 8 till 5 Monday to Saturday having a huge variation from shovelling snow with what here is referred to as a “D1” or using the Cat D4 or D6 ,cat 925 loader or Pisten Bully 300 (PB300 snow plough). General house-keeping stuff, moving furniture, offices etc, or being a driver taking people to and from the airport, away on traverses to drop science events out in the field etc. And then there is actual engineering based work which I do, most of which tends to be repairs like bent / damaged draw bars, trailers falling to bits truck repairs and such. Some lathe work but not anywhere close to what I used to do at Hall Engineering ( I hope I dont get too rusty ) but lots of TIG , MIG and stick welding, improving my skill set with practise.
Currently I’ve been involved with the dive hole drilling for our science events, pilot hole is a Jiffy or post hole borer (like for digging post holes in dirt) then our drilling rigg ,the PB300 which has a Hiyab on the back that we attach to our boring flute which is 3 metres tall and about 1metre in diameter and runs about 20 revolutions a minute. So it takes about 2 hours not including setup time to drill 2 and a half metres through the sea ice, we normally park a tent or a wonagon (a insulated shipping container setup for divers, has a hatch etc in the floor) over the top. We have to cover these holes because of the seals, each time you make a hole they can move their fishing area because this gives them somewhere to surface for air, so we make another hole away from the main dive hole as they will use the more quiet hole out of preference however they aren’t put off by humans being around.
I have taken heaps of photos and probably a heap more to come however, due to email account size restraints I can’t send lots with email but will send out what I can when I can.
The is a nice one of most of the base from the sea ice:
Our first dive hole which gives a better impression than words (I am the one in the black carhartt’s)
Finally this is what we like to call “Condition One” pretty much zero visablility and no vehicle or people travel anywhere.
Shane “The Iceman” Imer
Summer engineer
Scott Base
Antarctica