In the last week of October Al and Rob went out to Fossil Bluff to begin the opening up of the hut at Fossil Bluff. I then went into Fossil Bluff and Rob got moved onto Sky Blue, so I helped Al to finish off getting the site up and running for the summer after 8 months of being winterised.
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| Fossil Bluff |
Fossil Bluff is used as a refuelling site for the twin otters that fly from Rothera to Sky Blue and then further afield to the Berkner ice shelf where there is a traverse of scientists or onto Halley and other remote sites. I managed to spend a few days here last February (I wrote a blog post called the silent sound). Fossil Bluff has an amazing mountain type hut (photo above) beneath the ridges, the building itself was brought over from Stonington when BAS were the FIDs and then it was rebuilt next to King Geroge IV ice shelf.
We had a big list of jobs to do, I won't lie, it took me a few days to get into the swing of digging as I really just wanted to have a day to get my head straight and have a rest from the busy life of Rothera. However, I got into the swing of it as Al and I started the big dig!
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| The circle at the top is Rothera, Fossil bluff is the middle circle and then Sky Blue another refuelling station has been circled at the bottom |
Luckily all the fuel drums that were left last summer could be hit out one at a time so didn't need digging out. Our first epic dig was of one of the depos. There were 4 drums that made a square to hold up dunnage (pieces of wood), it's taken me ages to remember that word and then on top of that is manfood for the hut and some science gear.
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| Al standing on top of the depo we dug out, before this photo it was covered in snow up to the boxes on top! It did feel great to have it sitting on the surface. |
Our next big day was to get the apple hut raised out of the windscoop that had been made around it during the winter. We used a hand turf winch that we attached with rope to the sides of the hut. It was a pretty epic day getting this to the surface, Al felt like a coal miner as he has to hack at the ice that had formed around the runners of the apple hut.
We use this apple hut to keep warm whilst waiting for planes but also it has a HF radio inside that we use to pass our meterological observations (met obs) to Rothera. We complete met obs every hour when there are planes flying in or around our area. We give them information on the horiztonal definition, contrast, present weather so things like drifting or blowing snow, also the cloud coverage in oktas and then the layers of those clouds. The temperature, dewpoint, wind and also the QNH are given to Rothera and then passed onto the pilots. The pilots use the QNH of the airstrip (we have an altimeter that we use to get the pressure setting of the airfield) at fossil bluff to set that in their altimeter so that they know the height of the airfeild.
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| Great view of the hut from the peak near Gizza |
It was pretty fun discussing the weather with Al, especially cloud heights as we wanted to get it right for the pilots. Usually when the pilots landed I asked for feedback on cloud heights and things to makesure we were being as accurate as we could be!
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| Feeling happy that everything is now back on the ground! |
We battled with a skidoo (I couldn't help much) whilst we were at the Bluff we tried everything with our best knowledge and tips from the mechanic over the radio but we had to give up when we left the bluff and passed it onto Ali Rose who loves skidoos....
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| Al's sledging skidoo fixing service |
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| Al spent alot of his time with his head stuck in the skidoo |
We managed to get out walking on a few evenings and afternoons. The recreational area around the Bluff is incredible, so close to the hut and so out there on our own ! We carried a sat phone so that we could call Rothera every 3 hours.
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| Amazing to see how the wind shapes where the snow falls |
We managed a few big days of walking up behind the hut one evening ending it with an epic scree run. We also got to the top of Gizza the peak behind the skiway and then on another afternoon we got to the top of Pyramid (I always mix this up and call it triangle). We climbed it late in the afternoon as orographic cloud was forming around us, it was pretty awesome!
We also ate pretty well, it was great to have a bit of freedom with things like not signing out in the Rothera book to tell people where you're going and also choosing when to have dinner was exciting; I don't mind the routine at Rothera just sometimes it's great to have a bit of a break and that's exactly why all of the winters get to go on copilot flights and get to stay at the Bluff and Sky Blue to have a break from the base!
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| An awesome invention by a friend of Als, burning toilet paper to chargrill the tuna in its own oil...you should definitely try this! We then added it to the top of a pizza which we made in a frying pan ontop of a primus...also amazing!! |
The other best thing about this break was that I got to go flying!!! I haven't been flying for 8 months (I think that's the longest break I've ever had from flying). On the way there we got a great view of what the sea ice was doing as it has started to break up around the Islands to the south of us; it's so thick around Marguerite bay. On the way back from Fossil Bluff I was the co-pilot with Ollie, it was so much fun, I was allowed to fly the whole way back and with the new Garmin G950, so for all those flying enthusiasts check it out...https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/aviation/british-antarctic-survey-upgrades-twin-otter-g950/ ... it was weird flying without the now old school instruments and flying off screens..!
It was great to have a little mental break and to recharge by batteries, we are now back at Rothera and in the full swing of summer. Watch this space for another blog as I've had an epic week of diving on icebergs!!!