Friday 12th April 2013

 Well last night’s movie was quite a hit with an interesting twist at the end. The debrief afterwards was quite extensive and has left me with a bit of a head ache today. The day was fairly uneventful and I spent most of the day either working on the blue Hag or looking for parts to install on the blue Hag.

Once again it is blowing about forty knots but in the late afternoon suddenly the wind unexpectedly dropped to zero so I raced out to East arm and installed another seven ground radials under the thirty four meter vertical antenna to try and improve its performance. This was very hard work and by dinner time I was exhausted.

After dinner the long awaited quiz night was scheduled for eight o’clock leaving little time to find a costume to wear. Instructions were to wear some thing flamboyant, have clean feet and to bring your ski goggles and balaclava??? There were some great outfits worn and the night was good fun with many laughs. Some of the questions and songs were very difficult but the high tech electronic quiz machine that the host Luc built worked well.

After the quiz we played a few games such as bursting balloons attached to our feet, gherkin on a string eating contest, getting marbles out of a tub of jelly with your toes and getting a piece of chocolate out of a bowl of flower and eating it without using your hands. My team won overall and we received a gold medal and a bottle of Han wood port. It was a good night and a fun social get together and most of all, a chance for the closet trannies to frock up.







Thursday 11th April 2013

 Today is still blowing hard, but not as hard as the past few days. After doing the APANSA filter change (No exploding bombs in North Korea detected yet) I had to do my twelve day check on our hydroponics garden. I love going in there as the smell of the tomatoes is intense and it’s nice and warm and humid.  It’s a really good place to go and read your book with your shirt off for an hour or two. Pretty much all our fresh food finished weeks ago. Some, including the tomatoes and oranges were spoilt before they even got here. We are growing all sorts of things such as lettuce, peas’, tomatoes, spring onions, herbs, cucumbers, silver beet and many others. The building used to be the old Aurora lab joined to some other unidentified building both dating back to the 1960’s At least your old lab is being put to good use George !!

The hydroponics hut (Ex Aurora lab circa 1960's)



After lunch the wind dropped off and it turned out to be quite a good day. I got quite a bit done on the Hag today. It seems like everybody is talking about this week’s foreign movie on tonight. (They are always enjoyed by all, thank you Luc)

It’s called 101 Reykjavik and the plot is as follows;

Thirty-year-old Hlynur still lives with his mother and spends his days drinking, watching porn and surfing the net while living off unemployment checks. A girl is interested in him, but he stands back from commitment. His mother's Spanish flamenco teacher, Lola, moves in with them for Christmas. On New Year's Eve, while his mother is away, Hlynur finds out Lola is a lesbian, but also ends up having sex with her. He soon finds out he and his mother are sharing more than a house. Eventually he must find out where he fits into the puzzle, and how to live life less selfishly



Wednesday 10th April 2013

Terrible weather today, almost blizzard conditions and forty knots all day. After doing APANSA I spent quite a bit of time working on the blue Hag and having to walk back and forwards between the green store and the ops building. I got a HF antenna sorted for the orange Hag and the blue one. At one point I needed a soldering iron so I trudged back to the ops building and found a Weller in the draw and then trudged back over to the green store, turned it on and hey guess what; doesn’t work, (Someone had broken a pin off in the connector) so I trudged back over to the ops building, pulled it apart, found a similar connector and repaired it. Keldyn comes in for a chat and I put my feet up on some boxes left on the floor from resupply and for some reason I decided to open one and surprise surprise inside is a brand new soldering station. Hmmm, this place.

The best thing to happen was I found my blue polar fleece. After work I went down to the transmitter building as I had a 160m sched with Paul in Queensland and Rod in New Zealand. They could hear me quite well but I only got them a few times but too weak to decode their signals. We will try again early Sunday morning. I was late back for dinner (I hate having early dinner at 6pm) and worked late again on my Blog.

Saturday 6th to Tuesday 9th April 2013

Tuesday 9^th April 2013

Today, I cleared all my usual bullshit emails and there was one from Tom saying some of the information I gave him was wrong and he logged on and confirmed this. Doesn't that make you feel good after you have been trudging around in deep snow and high winds in minus twenty four. I don't think I will bother replying to that one.

Later I started work on the blue Hag with Chris giving me a hand and after lunch I had SAR training all afternoon outside in minus twenty. I had to jump start the mechies ute today as moving it out of the green shed yesterday for forty minutes while I swapped the Hag’s around was enough to kill the battery. After SAR training I completed some work on the cinema I started ages ago and then after five o'clock I spent a few hours down the transmitter shack. I missed dinner and spent the rest of the night trying to catch up on my Blog.

Monday 8^th April 2013

I got really motivated and finished the orange Hag. I fixed the wiring fault and worked out how to program the GPS. We also had the usual boring Monday meeting. By lunch time a blizzard had developed and it was bitterly cold. I took both utes out of the green store so I could get the orange Hag out and take it back down to the deisos and then drove the blue Hag back up to the green store. I moved the cooks ute back in but in forty minuted the deisos ute had frozen and wasn't going any where so I had to leave it out in the blizzard. After dinner I spent the rest of the night writing up my Blog.

Sunday 7^th April 2013

If it was hard getting out of bed yesterday, this morning really sucked. I listened to the alarm for about an hour and then laid there for another half hour with the lights on till I finally woke up enough to drag myself out of bed. I spent the morning working on Tom's drawings walking for an hour through forty knot winds and driving snow. At least it woke me up and made me feel alive. After smoko I cleaned, mopped and wiped the cold store as it was mine and Chris's Saturdays duties. I spent the afternoon repairing and finishing my 6m 400 watt amplifier which I hastily built in Perth before leaving. After work, I moved our drum kit from the library down to the Biscoe hut as I have had a few complaints from other expeditioners when I had the urge to play at 2am. They did say I sounded great, but it was just the wrong time of night. I figured they weren't going to get used sitting at that location so now the Biscoe hut is the music room and I will setup an amplifier as well and really get the place cranking. Funny, this room used to be where my step father Bill used to have meals and recreation and I bet I am the first to play a drum kit in there. At eight that night we watched "The thing", a legendary film about aliens crashing into Antarctica. "The thing 2 will be showing next week. Actually it was piss weak and they went around with flares, flame throwers, pistols and rifles and I spent the next few days hassling Cookie about where are all our flares, flame throwers, pistols and rifles kept and he wouldn't tell me. I'm sure he's holding back on me. 

Saturday 6^th April 2013

It was a real struggle to get out of bed to go to work when I was so tired and most people were sleeping in on their day off, but I have to work the weekend paying back the two days I just had off. I cleared all my emails and all the small bullshit jobs that go along with all the emails. This usually involves walking in deep snow from one end of the station to the other in minus twenty and howling catabatic wind just to get a few readings or to trace some cables so some drawings can be marked up in Kingston while they in Kingston sip their boutique coffee and read the news paper in air conditioned comfort. I hope they appreciate the trouble I go to for them while my nose and ears are burning with cold.

I seemed to be out of sync with the whole station today and missed smoko and had a late lunch and didn't see any one till dinner time. We had a really nice dinner and after I talked to the doc and Chris till late and then latter we moved up to the bar.

At 2am I had an arranged sched with Paul from Queensland who was very keen for a contact on 160m which is the most difficult HF band. 160m is basically the AM broadcast band and is pretty close to what Mawson was using back in 1913 to make the first radio contact from Antarctica to Australia. Actually they had a relay station on Macquarie Island half way between Australia and Antarctica. 

Walter Henry Hannam (1885–1965), wireless operator for Mawson expedition 1913

Our timing was wrong and I didn't manage to make contact with Paul, but I did make contact with four other stations in Africa, Bosnia and a couple of other places in Europe, so my 34m vertical that I ran out four ground radials is working very well. Apparently there were hundreds of other stations I couldn't hear calling me which sent the radio world into a frenzy and now they are all wanting to make contact. When I get some fine weather and some spare time I will run out a further four radials and improve the antennas performance. I pretty much fell asleep at the microphone and stumbled back to bed around 4 am.



Friday 5th April 2013

We got up around eight and the temperature was minus twenty four. After breakfast we headed off to the nearby wind scour which was very impressive after a long hard walk down a steep ice slope. From here we travelled in a clockwise direction around the David range hoping to check out some more wind scours as we went. This turned out to be impossible as they were so deep and steep it could only be achieved using ropes and they were just too dangerous.

Wind scour near Fang hut

Trent in the wind scour near Fang hut



We continued on and rounded Mt Coates to traverse the western side of the range. We drove through some nasty crevasses and then pulled up at a nearby wind scour for a look. We could only walk in a short distance when it stopped at a cliff. Darron and I climbed down while Trent stayed back near the Hag. The scour was very impressive and went a long way and Darron suggested we keep walking and hopefully we will get back to where we started. (Bad move) We walked a long way and Darron decided to walk high up on a ridge to see where we were. He made hand signals for me to keep going and off I went down this long ice slope. I crossed a large ice ridge and on the way down my micro spikes let go and off I went sliding down the ice slope. I figured it was easier and quicker than walking so I curled up in a ball and went as far as I could. Still being directed by Darron high up on the ridge I walked through deep snow and rounded the hill on the plateau side hoping to see the Hag. Not so, this led me into another very impressive wind scour. I started to walk in and immediately one leg fell deep into a crevasse. Oh shit, no problem, I tippy toed around some crevasses and continued to walk up the wind scour till it ended in an ice cliff. (Bummer) I had three choices, go all the way back, climb up the steep rock cliff or scale the ice cliff.

Wind scour at Mt coates

Darron giving directions from high up



Nice ice scour near Mt Coates

Nice ice scour near Mt Coates

I finally made it back to the Hag

I first had a go at the ice cliff, but without ice axes it was impossible, so then I attempted to climb the rock cliff. I got three quarters of the way up and decided to abandon my attempt as the rock was too loose and dangerous, so I turned my attention back to the ice cliff once again. I hacked steps in the snow on an angle all the way to the top but the ice was so slippery it was almost impossible to get any hand holds to pull myself up and over the edge. Using my micro spikes, I pushed my way closer to the edge and using all my effort and to Darron’s amazement; I managed to get my fat arse up and over the edge to the slippery surface above where I collapsed in a heap to recover. No sweat, now just a short stroll back to the Hag while Darron has to walk all the way back across the upper ridge and down the rocky slope.

The crevasse Darron fell into

When Darron got back to the Hag we were talking about the dramas of the past hour when he stepped and his leg fell deep into a crevasse exposing a bottomless view right next to my door of the Hag. How the hell did I get out and not fall into this crevasse? Anyway, I just seem to be lucky. We got the hell out of this mine field and headed down the western moraine line. Ice acts just like water in slow motion and all the fallen rocks get carried down moraine lines and eventually they sink into the ice due to heating from photons from the sun. These rocks can travel thousands of miles and eventually drop out in glaciers or into the sea from ice bergs. Some of the large rocks are amazing how they melt the ice and snow around them and everywhere in the ice are circles where huge rocks or tiny pebbles have sunk down.

Me and a huge rock slowly sinking into the ice

Travelling down the moraine line

My favourite rock

A nice ice formation

There is always time for one last climb before heading off. Darron & Trent enjoying the view

The view back to the coast. Can you see my rock?



We stopped at several places along the moraine line to take photos of rocks and interesting formations in the ice before heading off back to Mawson. I was so tired I fell asleep in the Hag on the way back even with all the near death experiences smashing through the sastrugi. We got back to Mawson about six o’clock and all very tired. We missed dinner with the others, but I managed to have a few social drinks with the guys before crashing out.

Time to head for home

The sun was just setting as we rolled into Mawson



Thursday 4th April 2013

At short notice, Darron organised a trip out to climb Mt Parsons and we left Mawson about 11am and were at the base of Mt Parsons about 1:30. The trip was quite slow as there was lots of deep snow from the blizzard we had on Tuesday. All the blue ice was covered in sastrugi which is snow sculptured into mounds a bit like very bad corrugation on a dirt road. The other problem was the lack of definition due to the white overcast sky making everything look bright white with no texture making it impossible to see any bumps, hills and gully’s in the sastrugi. 



Lack of definition makes driving hazardous

The climb to the summit of Mt Parsons was very steep and nearly all on very small and loose scree. It was hard work and very hard on the toes due to the angle. The screed was very loose and quite dangerous as we slipped and fell many times. If you lost footing you could in theory tumble all the way down. It was about minus twenty two and I was so hot and sweating a lot which was condensing on my beard and hair which can be quite annoying at times. Luckily there were no mishaps, but it took us a lot longer than we thought to reach the upper ridge line and from there it was much easier going but the snow was very deep in places, with a very large drop on either side and no margin for error. The last barrier was an ice sheet to cross with the steep scree slope on one side and a thousand plus foot vertical drop on the other side. Needless to say we were very cautious as we made the crossing, Trent taking no chances going across on his hands and knees. There after it was a short climb to the first summit where we dropped our packs and had a rest and a bite to eat. It was here that the helicopter dropped me off and picked me up about six weeks earlier.

Climbing Mt Parsons

Trent on the summit of Mt Parsons

The ocean is frozen for as far as you can see

Snow covered mountains in the background

The long descent

Can you see the Hag & Darron?

Cold and exhausted but another mountain conquered

We all took a stroll up to the real summit and took a few photos and took a look at the radio repeater, solar panels and wind generator at 1060 meters high. After about forty minutes we started the gruelling descent back down the cree slope. I stuck to the deep snow as much as I could as I found I could descend a lot faster without sliding and losing my balance as much as on the screed. The view was magnificent and I took a lot of photos on the descent. Most of the way down there was a small frozen lake which was very clear and you could see about two meters down through the ice which has fantastic cracks and bubbles rising up. Lakes are always interesting and interesting to look at.

Finally we reached the Hag and I was totally exhausted, covered in ice and looking forward to some warmth as my left hand had gone off at the summit and it took quite some time to get it warm again. I’m now using two pairs of gloves for my left hand and one on my right. This seems to be working and as soon as I feel them going off I whack on another pair or break out the heavy duty survival mitts.

We got to Fang hut late in the day and right away we cranked up the heater and the stove burners. It was great for a short time then they all went out. We tried for ages to light them again to no avail. None of the matches or candles would work in the extreme cold and the light was fading. The situation was getting serious and we considered heading back to Mawson when I realised I had turned the gas bottle off instead of on. Bloody idiot, I must have turned a thousand gas bottles on before and this time I turned it the wrong way. It’s bad enough when you start losing your hair, but when your eye sight starts to go that really sucks. (Or is it my mind?)

The view from Fang hut

Darron & Trent inside Fang hut

Any way we got the heater and stove going and with this we could light the candles and in no time it was raining quite heavy inside the shack. We have to melt snow to make water for cooking and drinking and snow only contains ten percent water, so it takes quite a while. After dinner we managed to dry the hut out quite well and we enjoyed a couple of beers and a nice bottle of red wine before bed. There was a nice aurora happening outside but we were all too tired to go out in minus twenty four to photograph it.

While out in the field we have to piss in a bottle and shit into a plastic bag and take everything back to Mawson for disposal. It’s really gross and quite difficult to do in the extreme conditions as you can imagine. The piss freezes right away and we empty this into our piss tank along with the grey water from cooking and washing up and this all goes into our sewage treatment plant back at Mawson.

Despite sleeping in two sleeping bags and in all my cloths I slept quite well. I think this was mainly due to the red wine.

Sunday 31st March to Wednesday 3rd April 2013

Wednesday 3rd April 2013

Today I was the slushy :(
This is the chef's assistant and general all round shit kicker and I have to do this every fifteen days.
First up, clean the steriliser, empty all the bins, sweep and mop the bar area, take out the empty bottles and glasses and restock the fridge and glasses. Clean and mop out the three toilets, vacuum the bar area and wipe down the tables and benches. Make up a bucket of fat milk, one of skim milk and one of juice. Fill all the jugs in the fridge, clean the coffee machine, do all the dishes and clean and prepare the dining room for smoko. Take all the dirty t-towels and wash them and bring back all the clean ones.

Have smoko

Wash all the dishes and help prepare lunch. Sweep the dining room floor, wash more dishes. Clean the toast, bread and cereal areas, wash more dishes. Clean up all the news papers and set the table, wash more dishes.

Have lunch

 Empty all the bins, wash more dishes, help prepare dinner, wash more dishes,wash more dishes, wash more dishes, wash more dishes, clean the dining room and set the table, wash more dishes.

Have dinner

Clean up, cover the leftovers and put into the fridge, wash more dishes, mop the floor, clear the table and take all the t-towels to be washed, take a shower, have two beers and fall asleep.

Tuesday 2^nd April 2013

Today we had another blizzard but only about fifty knots and this one really dumped a lot on snow on the station. I spent the morning working on the orange Hag and then after lunch we had SAR training. (Search and rescue) SAR training is all about using ropes, fancy knots and technical climbing gear to rescue some one. Most of us have positions on the SAR team and also the fire team and we train quite regularly. I am the fire chief also every second week. Due to the blizzard we trained inside this time. Latter I completed my monthly report and also submitted my story for icy news which you can read here;

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/mawson/this-week-at-mawson/2013/this-week-at-mawson-5-april-2013/1

Monday 1^st April 2013

Due to my previous late night I woke up very tired. As I missed my Saturdays duties and as it was my turn to clean the ops building toilet and kitchen, I decided to clean the entire building. There was so much hair on the floor I could knit some one a jumper. I don't think this building has had a good vacuum in years. I even vacuumed the bosses office so he could not whinge about me not doing my Saturdays duties :) The rest of the day was spent catching up on emails and working on the orange Hag. The highlight of the day was reading the news paper at smoko and there was a story about how North Korea tried to shoot a nuclear missile at South Korea but it blew up on the launch pad killing hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. I was very well written and at the end there was an apology from Julia Gillard to Australian Antarctic expeditioners for making an April fools joke. Nice one Chris.

Sunday 31^st March 2013

I've been a bit slack keeping my Blog up to date lately as I have been both really busy and very tired. Sunday morning I enjoyed a nice sleep in, then after I got got up I enjoyed a nice hot spa and started to read my book again. The day was mostly relaxing until I tried to investigate the problem with backing up my logging program. I ended up getting sucked into it and worked late into the night on the software problem and finally discovered the backup files were in a hidden folder. Well done Bill.