Yeah, you better believe it. The wind has been ferocious here. It is hard to describe just what a physical presence it has, its own personality each day. One day its a continuous ground blizzard that makes getting between the tents “fun.” Some nights you can barely sleep because the your tent is being rocked about, with gusts occasionally bending it completely out of shape. You lie there wondering if you’re about to blow away. When the lulls come they are glorious, the silence is absolute, much more so than anything you can find around McMurdo, where there is always the noise of a generator or a vehicle backing up somewhere.

The people here are a nice bunch. They seem pleased to have scientist in their mix. The staff are regular explorer types mostly, with a few hardy mechanics and such thrown in. The tourists are somewhat different, I guess when you are charged thousands of dollars a day to stay in Antarctica you don’t get just anyone coming here. One person is alleged to have a seat booked on a spaceflight, not chump change in other words. Adventurers mixed in with lawyers, doctors the odd emir and royalty seems to be the crowd. Although you have to bite your tongue when you hear the staff being asked to make the snow outside “less slippery.” It also amazes me somewhat that these folks, although the food is brilliant, don’t complain about the complete lack of running water, flushing toilets or any of the other tribulations that are just facts of life here.

Your tent is cold, outside is cold, going to the bathroom is cold. There are one or two heated tents, but mostly if you want to stay warm you have to just put on more and more clothes. Sitting still typing at a computer – cold. Getting into your sleeping bag first thing at night – cold. Getting up in the morning and getting out of your sleeping bag – cold. Thank goodness for the food. Its fantastic. Fresh vegetables flown in on each Illyushian and a good mix of deserts (which have been brilliant) and snacks. Tea and biscuits in the afternoons round out the days when we’re not out in the field.

Oh yeah, work. Its been going well, really well, almost unbelievably well. After 6 days of being here we have installed 3 sites completely and one just needs more batteries. I’ve been to a couple of the sites, at Wilson Nunatak (80.039S, 80.557W) and Howard Nunatak (77.528S, 86.767W). Wilson is close by, only about a 10 minute flight from Patriot Hills. It is, if anything, windier there than at Patriot Hills. I guess the wind generators will help there then!! We installed a new monument high up on the ridge, right in the wind. It was cold, cold, cold work. None of this wandering around in T-shirt work like in Greenland, though it was gratifying to see Thomas still wearing one of his signature Hawaiian field shirts.



A couple of days late we went off to Howard Nunatak. This involved flying past the Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica. We got the twin otter up to about 14,000ft before we started feeling the effects of altitude. The mountains are very different to those of the Transantarctics. The Transantarctics look like a tilted layer cake around southern Victoria Land where I usually work. Here they’re much more jagged and rough looking. Pinnicles and spires are much more common, with sharp arêtes between peaks. Howard was a beach, easy to get batteries to, easy to install and easy to work at. There was absolutely no wind, the first real time its been complete calm for days. One of the co-pilots (his first time down here) was a little enthusiastic, almost found himself in trouble a couple of times wandering too close to cornice edges and skidooing over crevasses. Thankfully Peter kept a watchful eye on him, and kept him safe.

So its now Saturday night (movie night) and we finally seem to have a reliable, but painfully slow, internet connection. Its also movie night, so I am about to go check out the happenings at “the Patriot Hills Beach Resort.” Our herc of gear should come in in the next hour or two which will let us continue installing sites. We could get out of here early! I hear that shower calling!

Cheers

Mike