Every cloud engenders not a storm

One of the lesser-known facts regarding the Antarctic is that it is actually a desert. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of desert states: “adj: Arid, dry, parched, scorched, torrid”. Not your typical words used to describe this land. As a continent though it has very little precipitation, making it in fact the planets largest desert! Living here on the Antarctic Peninsula however things are a little different, with a healthy yearly accumulation of snow, and in mid summer even a little rain. It rained this afternoon.

Dark menacing storm clouds approaching give the land a very dreamlike ambiance. The majority of colour in this environment does actually derive from the sky, the deep azure blue and fiery red sunsets give the landscape their incredible looks, but with a gray and full cloud covered sky, the entire landscape takes on a monochromatic look. The snow and icebergs somehow maintain their brilliance, while the exposed rock and ocean dim to a dark gray, verging on black.

It is a very surreal feel, like you are moving, living and breathing within a black and white movie.

Hear Hear

As already touched upon, this season has seen a large and varied group of visitors to Rothera, many VIP types including Royalty, MP’s, media folk, Lords… and tonight we had a current government minister. This in itself is quite interesting; he as an individual, and how the base meets and greets such personalities, but it’s the accompanying entourage that always provides the most fascinating conversations. One lesser-known story of MP’s visiting Rothera was regurgitated and has become, in my mind, a classic.

In 1995 a MP visited the then current BAS base of Faraday. The unnamed MP arrived on a tourist cruise ship – and was therefore on unofficial duty – holiday we generally call it. He then proceeds to tour the base and, of course, later that evening enjoys the prerequisite beer in the bar. Conversation flows, beer sunk and the question asked to the winterers “What do you miss most about home?” A common question to anyone away from home for prolonged periods of time. The answer at that particular moment by the base FIDS was “Heinz baked beans”.

Point of Information: Baked beans, and uniquely Heinz baked beans, are instilled in the Limey blood as essential to life from within the womb, an American equivalent is maybe, say… peanut butter. Anyway, the food order had been filled, but when it came to the unloading, unpacking and storing the food, alas the baked beans were nowhere to be found.

That was it, a harmless passing comment over a beer in the base bar… to a Politian!

A while later, in the heart of London, during Prime Ministers ‘Question Time’ in the House of Commons. Said MP stands up and (in politician tones) states: “I ask the honorable gentleman, why... yes why are our hard working scientists down at the south pole are not only sent to endure the hardships of being away from home in the planets toughest environment, but have to do so without the provision of any Heinz Baked Beans anywhere on their base. I ask the honorable member of Parliament to answer to this travesty”

Now, not been a politician myself I cannot answer this with any personal experience. BUT, one thing I do know is that any good Prime Minister does in fact have an answer to any potential question that can be thrown at him during Prime Ministers Question Time held within his large folder, as he stands up to the plinth.

Can you imagine the surprised and the clandestine quick glance back at his aides when asked to answer the mighty “Baked Bean v BAS Government Let Down Scandal” had occurred and thrown in his face, while he knew nothing about it.

This, of course, caused great glee for many. The media got hold of it, BAS Cambridge got hold of it, and naturally Heinz got hold of it, and milked it! In a big public show, crates of beans were dispatched to BAS Cambridge, with instructions to send south to all the bases. Due to further shipping ‘issues’ the beans still did not arrive in time for Faraday, which was at that time about to be closed. But with BAS back filling the horrific negative baked bean order, along with the Heinz supplying a mountain on top of the BAS order… it all came to Rothera. I swear we are still eating that same batch of baked bean from that era. Still, I’d take ten-year-old Heinz Baked Beans over none any day of the week!

"Hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!"

From Ruskies to Royals

One fact that initially surprised me about living on base is the amount of visitors we get here at Rothera. Knowing you’re going to live in Antarctica gives you the mental impression that you are going to be pretty well isolated from the world, but in summer as it happens Rothera is a positive hive of activity… I just left working next to the real UN only to find a pseudo UN attempt at the South Pole!

But with a small amount of neuro-crunching it’s not surprising. Rothera has a 900ft crushed rock runway, a wharf capable of mooring 1000ft ships, fuel to run a small country, damn fine bacon butties and location location location. We are half way up the Antarctic Peninsula, and so the perfect stopover locale for any nationality entering or leaving Antarctica.

It’s also very amusing watching the different nationalities character traits when they arrive on base either by ship or plane. Stereotypes are very much alive and well in the 21st Century. When asked what their plans are for duration of stay, accommodation needs, etc, etc, the Canadians, for example, will look at you implying “I haven’t got a clue… not thought about that yet”, while the Germans have an itinerary printed and will be leaving at 07:23 the next morning. They left at 07.23 that next morning. The Russians had us drinking vodka in the bar until 4:00am after arriving in their 1960’s beat up ‘ole choppers. Seriously, state of the art is a necessity down here, and so it took me a while to work out what was so familiar about the Ruskies aircraft… then it dawned on me: OMG… they’re flying over the pole in a camouflaged Mr Blobby!

And then there are the Americans. They fought long and hard for their freedom, and are very vocal and proud of that status… so what do they do with this liberty. They become the only nation on the planet to ban beer from their ships. A dry ship, at sea for months, comes into contact with British stocked bar… carnage, carnage I tell you. I am still not 100% convinced there are not some hammered Yank scientists still wandering aimlessly around Rothera point singing a half tempo, slurred Bon Jovi ode.

Good night for the band though, ever need to book an amazing cover band in the Antarctic, look no further than Ratchet Death!

The Crowd goes wild !!!

The visits this season had and have a very eclectic feel to them. BAS operates two ships; The RSS James Clark Ross and The RSS Ernest Shackleton. In case you’re interested James Ross was one of Britain’s most successful early polar explorers, discovering the magnetic North pole in 1831. He then proceeded to make three trips down south.

And Ernest… as instilled in all British school children; Ernest Shackleton is up there with Scott as ‘The Man’ when it comes to Antarctic exploration. He first traveled to Antarctica in 1902, but is best known for his survival tale of

when his ship (the Endurance) was trapped and eventually crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915. His journey from there to South Georgia remains one of the greatest survival journeys in human history.

HMS Endurance also is a regular in Marguerite Bay, and is the official Royal Navy presence in the Antarctic waters. Her helicopters provided some amazing research opportunities and are used extensively by BAS to reach locations that are inaccessible by Twin Otter or would take too long to arrive at by Ski-doo. The arrival of the Endurance also heralds the start of the Antarctic Winter Olympics. It’s a very peculiar site, to be dragged up the glacier on a sledge with helicopters blazing overhead, round the final corner and see this… sort of a M.A.S.H. on ice! Big burley navy boys sculpting mermaids in the ice, igloo-building competitions, you name it we race, build or crafted it! By the way… we won the Olympics!

However, one single event courses through the base upon the visit of any ship… the game of Football. Do not underestimate the importance of these games. Bragging rights travels along way on short-wave. We started this season with a record of played three, lost three! It hurt. They were close against our own kind, the BAS crew. But the Navy won 5-0… we don’t talk about that.

Look at this formation, how could we lose.

So optimism was high with the arrival of the Gould. Surely we had to win this one. We had too… they’re yanks! They can’t play “soccer”. Plans were in place to uplift the team back to the UK should we lose, the shame imposed on us would make our staying here untenable. But, we didn’t. A decisive victory in the end it has to be said. What is said a little less is that half the team was girls, and they were their best players!

And… we had Royalty. The Princess Royal visited Rothera as part of the International Polar Year. I was able to chat on a few occasions, including escorting the Royal party from HMS Endurance to the base, and can say that her and Rear Admiral Lawrence are cool people. A real pleasure to talk to. I won’t mention any more details for fear of men suddenly crashing through the ceiling on ropes to pull me away.

The final message though is that visits from the other nations ships and ‘planes are incredibly looked forward to by the base personnel. It brings news faces, new conversations (and in the case of the Russians, new alcohol) and makes you realize the politics of the “real” world carry no weight here. Collaboration down South between the world’s nations is 100% forthcoming and absolute.

A mass of incandescent gas

This week the sun set! This may seem an odd statement, but it was first time I have seen the sun dip below the horizon since I have been in the Antarctic. It was only for a few minutes, but it’s the first sign that the days will now start to get gradually shorter and shorter until May when we will commence the 24hr darkness!

This is due to the Earth’s rotational axis is not being perpendicular to the plane in which it orbits the Sun; it's offset by approximately 23.5 degrees. This tilt is the reason we have seasons and why anywhere below the Antarctic Circle (latitude 66° 30’ S) we have 24-hour darkness in winter and constant sunlight in the summer. A wonderful quirk of Antarctic life.

With the sun nearing the horizon it also means that when you go to draw your curtains at night, you are greeted with sights like this… Oh my!

Bluffville, the season finale!

Life at the Bluff was pretty good. There were times it was hard work, and times when it was just enjoyable, and surprisingly enough times when it was both! When the flying resumed it brought about a significant increase in the workload. Hourly met observations ate the day up, not to mention the hike around the glacial melt water lake to get to the ski-way. But it was fun work. Rewarding, and you were away from the regulations and rigidity of base life, which was a nice change.

The work mainly consisted of the The Meteorological Observations (Met Obs, or actually just Obs), and are an essential part of depot life and are generally required hourly 12 hours a day. The information on the cloud type, level, oktas, temp, humidity, etc, etc, is given to Rothera and is then used as the basis on which to make the Fly-No-Fly decision with! Let me repeat that "!" So it’s instilled in you pretty quickly to get it right.

Getting the information back to base, or the planes, you have to enter the world of ‘Radio Buff’. It’s a scary place I kid you not. It utilizes short wave, which without going into radio wave properties and layered atmospheric physics, basically means it can be heard, under the right conditions, anywhere around the world… people wait up all night to get a snippet of BAS speak! So, as a result, I have now learnt to speak ‘radio’, of which the biggest shock was that the expression ‘Over and Out’ does not exist! What! That’s like hearing that Captain Pugwash’s shipmates’ names were simply Chinese whispered folk law! But either way, I will go to my grave muttering in my sleep the immortal lines of “Rothera, Rothera… this is Fossil Bluff on the 5’s. How copy? Over.”

The final reason for living is in the role of glorified petrol pump attendant. The perfect time for receiving all the latest news from base and passing back the latest news from the deep field parties. We may be over 10,000 miles from home, but gossip can make it onto the King George Sound from Cambridge quicker than a Twin Otter can make it from Rothera! Anyway…

Being part of a Hub-Spoke model The Otters then proceed to support the field parties further south, where research is occurring all season long. I will post details and results of this season’s research in a post to hit this Blog very soon, but one of the field parties of most interest to me personally is the Ice Core program. The Antarctic is not a scientific curiosity, but a key component in global climatic systems. The processes taking place here today affect the entire world’s climate and it’s oceans.

The Antarctic plays a crucial role in understanding global change, as locked up in its 4km thick ice are trapped air pockets dating back well over half million years. These trapped bubbles can then be analyzed and the scientific evidence captured for determining the precise chemical composition of the atmosphere at the date the ice froze. Results can then be deduced to calculate trends in the atmospheric change. I LOVE supporting this research, work that can actually save the planet – providing the politicians and mass public actually listen to our (and other Antarctic research organizations ) discoveries and predictions! But if the ‘Ozone Hole’ is anything to go by, then at least the mass public listened, which then forced the politicians hand. Nicely done humans, good work. Keep it up.

But to finish my Bluff stuff. The most enjoyable times were done exploring Alexander Island. The trail behind the hut looked seriously steep and pretty uninviting, so with my FIDS inner strength upwards and, well upwards! The climb on loose scree was the most physically challenging endeavor I have every made...

...but Hang on ‘ole chap… we are British don’t you know! Always time for a quick brew and an English classic, even on a 45° moving slope.

But from over 2,000ft up the scale of the Sound becomes apparent, as this 25km wide white highway passes gracefully between the Antarctic mainland and Alexander Island.

Once again Antarctica provides a scene which is simply breathtaking, and I would challenge even the Poet Laureate to deliver the words to do justice to the sight.

Reaching the top was pure bliss, involving the prerequisite hunt for the BAS cairn for my rock addition. It took four hours to place that rock on that pile! Worth every second.

However an even greater feat was achieved in my last few days down Bluffville. Although there is debate currently on-going as to the legitimacy of this fact, well I am actually being told it is NOT the case, but I am having none of it. I do hereby claim to be the world’s most southern rower! Now hear me out. The fact that I am in a Fisher Price look-alike green toy rowing boat, which is not exactly in Antarctic icebreaker design, is neither here nor there. I am at 72° south, I am in open water and I am rowing! I state my claim Mr. McWhirter. My points being there cannot be a great deal of open water any further south than this, it is just too cold, and even if there was, why on earth would you have brought along a rowing boat! Why I ask you, why would you do that! (We have one to cross the melt lake water… Ah Ha!) Until proven otherwise, with photographic evidence, the claim is mine.

If you have to ever spend Christmas and New years day away from family and loved ones, I totally recommend The Bluff… a unique and wonderful experience. And on that note…

‘Rothera Rothera… this is Fossil Bluff, going clear’