Rothera in winter snowTuesday, 4 January 2011
Escape from Rothera
Rothera in winter snow
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Competition winner
I won! With a last minute entry taken on my winter trip this photo won the competition. No fixing or bribery required on this occasion.
After storm pitching the pyramid tent Bruce prepares camp – a windy day on the ice.
I must admit I am quite pleased with this photo, just a quick snap of pitching camp has captured the scene pretty well. The blowing snow, silhouetted campsite, and dark heavy sky make for a moody shot.
With the kudos of taking the winning picture comes the job of making a frame for it, so that should keep me busy in the chippy shop for a couple of evenings.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Photo Competition
Each year the wintering team here at Rothera holds a photo competition for everyone with a camera and a little skill to show off their best pictures from the year. The winner has the honour of having their picture framed and hung on the wall with the growing collection of winning photographs from previous winters.
The categories for the competition are pretty varied and include; Landscapes, People, Wildlife, and Base Life.
I am submitting some of the pictures below as these are my best of the season so far.
Dive team and arched berg
Hazy sunrise
Sun Pillar
Dive Team and Sea Ice
Mirrored Berg
Met mast and Star Trails
Moonlit Bay
Tern in Flight
Weddell Seal
Tabular Bergs
Incinerator at night
Star trails over Ryder Bay
Sunrise
Justin with new magazines
Aurora and Star Trails
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Antarctic 48 hour film competition
The Antarctic 48 hour film competition is an annual challenge set by the Americans on McMurdo station and is open to all wintering Antarctic stations of every nationality.
The challenge is simple; on Friday evening all competing bases are emailed a set of elements which must be incorporated into the film. This year these were;
- Character: A grumpy diesel mechanic
- Line of Dialogue: Has anybody seen my chicken?
- Sound Effect: Sound of a siren
- Prop: Mop
- Prop: Bottle of mouthwash
Random I know!
Each base then must film and edit their movie in the next 48 hours. These elements ensure that filming only takes place during the weekend of the competition.
All the films are then submitted and compiled online for each base to download and vote on their favourites. The link to all the movies in this years competition is;
http://cid-143586e833b2f7ce.office.live.com/browse.aspx/2010%20Winter%20Film%20Festival
There are some really great movies in there which look incredibly professional, especially when you consider that all the filming, editing, sound, and music was done in only two days.
My favourites and ones you should really watch are;
- KEP; Mission Unmoppable
- Davis; Fitness Month
- McMurdo; Who’s in the Galley
- Scott Base; Big Brother
- and of course: Rothera; From Rothera with Love
All the votes should be in in a few days so we will see how Rothera has faired in the competition.
I’ll try and get a few of the best movies on this blog so you can watch them direct – I cant at the moment as a few have copy write music on them so they get removed :/
Enjoy the movies!
Friday, 23 July 2010
Midwinter
This next blog is one which I have written for the' ‘web-diaries’ of the British Antarctic Survey website. The link to these web pages to see other diaries from Rothera and the rest of the BAS bases is;
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/diaries/index.php
June – Midwinter
The month of June is one of great celebration in the Antarctic; it is the month when the days are at their shortest and the sun remains below the horizon. During this month we celebrate the Midwinter solstice, with a weeklong holiday on base centred around Midwinter’s day, the shortest day of the year and one which is full of tradition for Antarctic winterers all over the continent.
Rothera in June
For us at Rothera, June continued where May had left off, with strong winds and drifting snow. This combined with the short daylight meant that outdoor activities were heavily curtailed and some of the more active base members were beginning to get cabin fever. Most folk though were still being kept busy with other tasks, namely completing their winter gifts ready for Midwinter’s day. For myself and several others we were kept especially active by taking part in ‘Race Antarctica’, a challenge within BAS to travel the equivalent distance from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to the opposite side of the continent; a journey of 6000km, to be covered as teams of six by running, cycling, rowing, skiing, etc. So throughout June the gym got a lot of use as the miles were racked up.
There were also four birthdays celebrated this month, those of Bruce Maltman, Mike Stainer (AKA Smiler), Jon James (JJ), and Ben Tibbetts.
Creative birthday cakes
On the 10th June we marked the point at which the sun had set below the horizon (although we had lost sight of the sun several weeks earlier behind the mountains that surround the base). We congregated at the flagpole for Alan (our oldest base member) to lower the flag. This was by now rather worn and tattered (the flag that is not Alan), and back in the canteen, with a cup of tea to warm up again, it was raffled off. Mike our comms man won the flag and it is now his to keep as a memento of the winter.
Flagdown
With Midwinter imminent, plans were made for midwinter’s week and production was stepped up a gear to complete winter presents. All too soon for many, who were still putting on last coats of varnish and polish to their gifts, midwinter arrived and the day began with the illustrious Base Commander (me) delivering breakfast in bed to the folk of Rothera.
After digesting their breakfasts many folk emerged from their beds an hour or two later just in time for brunch. Never known to miss an opportunity to eat, the team sat down and powered through another helping of bacon, egg, sausage, beans, and tomatoes.
Their appetites finally sated it was time to move on to the next task on the agenda; the long standing tradition of watching ’The Thing’, probably one of the finest pieces of cinematic genius ever created, and a true representation of life in the Antarctic. Obviously we no longer have the dogs down here but I am glad to say that the flamethrowers, cupboards packed with explosives, and battling alien foes, are still a daily part of life in this barren wilderness.
At 4pm the evening’s festivities began in the bar with Champagne and canapés as we each gave our midwinter’s presents to their recipients. There were some fantastic and beautifully crafted presents to be seen; I received a framed, hand drawn panorama of the Ellsworth Mountains, a great reminder of my time spent down there. Other presents included an electric powered model skidoo, a handmade quilt, and potentially the oddest present was a framed set of fishing flies, each one made using the hair from each one of the winterers – strange but very nice.
The Midwinter presents
With the Champagne drunk and the presents given it was time for dinner – a lavish affair laid on by Justin our chef, it consisted of eight courses. After the starting courses we had a break from eating in order to head over to the comms tower where we could listen to an HF broadcast by the BBC World Service with a song of our choice (we chose Times Like These by the Foo Fighters) as well as messages from friends and family back home and even a special message from Rolf Harris saying hello to all us Antarctic winterers on the BAS bases.
Then it was back to the dining room for the main course of Marinated Ostrich Steaks with Red Wine Lentils (it really is tough out here in the wilderness). Dinner stretched on for several hours, what with deserts, cheeses, port, coffee, and more wine.
Justin at work and the first course
Midwinter’s Day dinner
The winter Olympics was organised by the GA’s during midwinter’s week and included such events as ski and snowboard slalom, ice climbing, javelin (using bog chisels), skidoo time trails, and box stacking.
Winter Olympics; Ice climbing and Box stacking
Midwinter’s week was also the first outing for the new Rothera band called ‘Snow Rhythm’. Despite the band name they certainly did have rhythm and performed some great covers.
Colette, Alan, and Justin
The last big event of midwinter’s week was the pub crawl, when all over base bars spring up for one night only and the tour takes us from the Bonner Lab to Fuchs House and from the Electricians workshop to the Food Bays, each bar with its own theme, which this year included a casino bar, Texas penitentiary, and the bungee bar.
For me another winter is passing its halfway point and again I am wishing there was more time left. This is a very special place and each winter team shares a great experience, I am lucky enough to be wintering with a fantastic group of people whom I look at as being much more than just friends and workmates.
Dickie Hall
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Winter begins – winter trips
With the departure of the last aircraft and ships we can now settle down into winter; with shortening daylight, colder temperatures, and few distractions from the outside world.
Throughout the first few weeks of winter we have regularly had four or six folk off base for a week at a time on their winter trips. This is an opportunity to get out into the ‘real Antarctic’ away from the modern comforts of base, going climbing, skiing, or sightseeing during the days and spending the nights in a tent. The camping equipment we use is probably something Scott and Shackleton would recognise; pyramid tents, Tilley lamps for light and heat, and primus stoves for cooking.
Pyramid tent
I was out on the last round of trips before midwinter, which was the second week in May. At this time of year the daylight is fairly short, dawn arrives at about 10am and it is dark by 5pm. This was still more than enough time to get out and about during the day which is exactly what me and my GA (called Cheese) did. Once we had set up camp next to a peak called Trident we spent the first day of out trip ice climbing in the gullies nearby.
Looking up
The second day we aimed for something a bit more adventurous and set out for an ice climb that had not been recorded as having been climbed before. The photograph below is of the peak but it doesn't do it justice as this is a 450 meter route and took us about five hours to summit.
Our route up the first gully on the right of the picture
Walking off the summit
The next day we had a lie in to recover from the exertions of the day before and climbed another of gullies close to our campsite in the afternoon.
By this stage of the trip the weather was beginning to deteriorate and the forecast wasn't looking great so on our fourth day out we did a spot of ski touring and reckied some other possible climbs for other days, but any hopes of further climbing were dashed because as the day continued the wind rose and blowing snow drove us back to our tent, the stormy weather set in properly that night and continued blowing for the next two days. At times we estimated that it was gusting at 60 knots – enough to keep Cheese awake thinking that we might loose the tent, and enough that whilst going outside Cheese was blown clean off his feet by one strong gust.
Ski touring
Digging out the tent
Eventually the weather did allow us to break camp and after a lot of digging to uncover the tent we packed up and headed back to the comforts of Rothera.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
End of the Summer
The summer has now officially come to an end now that the last visitors we will see for quite some time have been and gone. These came in the form of two ships, we had the RRS Ernest Shackleton here at the end of March and the RVIB Nathaniel. B. Palmer here at the start of April.
The Shackleton was the last of our own ships to visit Rothera, she conducted ‘last call’, bringing in cargo and supplies for the long winter as well as the last two members of our winter team. She also loaded our cargo and wastes to take north to the Falklands or all the way to the UK.
The weather turned in the days leading to the ships arrival and we had a lot of early snow on station which covered the depot lines of cargo, neatly arranged on the wharf ready for loading and made it very difficult to get the large vehicles and trailers full of delivered cargo up the hill and into the base.
Shackleton at the wharf as the weather deteriorates.
Here's the 2010 winter team – the first picture of all of us together, taken on the Shackleton just before we sat down for a meal together. With the departure of the Shackleton there is now only the wintering team of twenty two left on station.
The Palmer was an unusual visitor for us at this stage in the season, normally once last call has taken place we wont see any other visitors until the aircraft return in October. This season though a team of American scientists have been working out of Rothera on the Avery plateau and the ice cores they sent back have been stored in freezers on base. The scientists left Rothera some time back and only the ice cores remained to be picked up by their science vessel.
Palmer at the wharf
With the departure of the Palmer we wont have any visitors to base until the aircraft return some time in October, so now we can settle down as a winter team and enjoy the peace and quiet on base after the busy summer season.
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