22 December 2007
Westhaven Nunatak, Antarctica.

The goal of this field season is to deploy GPS systems on bedrock, so we can understand how the bedrock is moving. These systems are meant to be “permanent”, in that they will operate year round. We get to these sites by helicopter, and a twin otter (a type of fixed wing aircraft). When we are within 200 km of McMurdo, the U.S. base station, we use helicopter support to reach our sites. Unfortunately, weather has been bad this year. A lot of low pressure systems, which means low-hanging clouds, which means no helicopter work. We had an opportunity last week where weather was good, so we took advantage of it and flew both during the day and the night (it’s light here 24 hours a day in the summer).

We started with a site called Westhaven Nunatak. It’s about 180 km to the south along the Transantarctic Mountains. Weather was great, about -20 C and a light wind (yes, this is great weather for this location!) Every site has 20-24 batteries, which each weigh about 75 pounds. There is also an aluminum A-frame, solar panels, the GPS antenna, monument, tools, etc. Each site, not including tools, is about 2,100 pounds. In short, it’s a lot of weight to heft around at high altitudes, especially if you have to go uphill. Fortunately, for Westhaven, we were able to sling load (when the helicopter transports cargo via a cargo line below the aircraft) the batteries. A HUGE help.

Here is a photo of the site Westhaven, showing the batteries getting dropped off by the helicopter.