Work and play here can sometimes be the same thing...this job is pretty amazing!
After an epic weekend of walking up a mountain called Gwendoline outside the flag line on Saturday, with Al leading us up the icy and sometimes snowy walk.
 |
| We set off early..lovely colors! |
It was outside the flag line, so we each had a skidoo. Two people were tied together and pulled a half unit of emergency supplies just encase the weather prevented us from getting back.
So good to be able to play in the sun.
Rob loving it. Me, Hector and Rob were all snowboarding so walking up was much more tiring that Al, Kate and Bradderz who were skinning up on their skis! Maybe I will learn to ski....
 |
| Hector trying to look cool... |
 |
| -20 with a slight windchill...pretty chilly so down was needed! |
The fun for the weekend did not stop there. Malcy and I decided to tackle Orca again, but this time it was the mighty Alpine route of Toulouse Lautrec on ORCAAAA!! A 6 pitch ice climb and then a 2 pitch mixed climb at the top. A calf burning mission.
I was wondering why I was finding it so difficult...after my 3rd pitch Malcy and I decided to see if my shoes were undone because my feet were killing...and of course they were!!!
Amazing view of the Sheldon glacier.
A pretty epic day....no wonder I fell asleep at 6pm and didn't wake until 8am the next morning!!!
 |
| Struggling!! |
But I did make it to the top for an epic view!!!
I woke up Monday pretty tired and achy. However, no rest for the wicked it was time to test the sea ice that had been forming since last Tuesday.
 |
| We all loose our grip sometimes... |
Fantastic fast ice formation in Ryder Bay, this is a tide crack covered by frost flowers.
Manhauling to site 2 which is 3 km south of Rothera....pretty tricky over the brash ice that formed inbetween the fast ice...I'm not going to lie it is terrifying skiing across a bay which you are used to being on a boat on! It is however very safe as we checked the weather conditions for the day to check for a stable air mass with light and variable winds and low air temperatures (working in -15 all day is pretty tough)!
 |
| Frost flowers |
 |
| Polar hero pose |
Working here is pretty amazing, but it was a pretty stressful week. I didn't sleep much on Tuesday night because I was stressing about the fact that the next day we were about to skidoo across the sea ice 4 km away to site 1 in order to sample. I was down at the Bonner by 6 am ensuring everything was well prepared...!
On our way to site 1 with over 600 kg of weight we skidooed across the fast ice. WE were drilling to check the depth of the ice all of the way, it had to be >30 cm for us to continue. We made it to site 1 1.5 hours later!! I was hoping that all of the instruments were still going to work in the -20 conditions.
Adam chainsawed two holes for us. I needed a big hole for the profiler as it was the first time that this has been done underneath fast ice. Mark Inall from Oban left me with a profiler which measured turbidity, I had to assemble the kit on the ice as it's pretty fragile so we didn't want to break it on our way out to site 1! The boys conducted the CTD and water sampling for me in a separate hole just to speed up the process. It was a great day and we were finished after lunch in time for me to complete the lab work!! I was so happy that everything worked well!
A stressful but very good day! We were happy to have a celebratory drink that night! It's now the end of the week and I can safely say that I am shattered!
