Xmas day

Pre xmas dinner

sam 

xmas dining table for 18 people

xmas meal

mechanics

Artistic shot with balloon lunch insert

From Halley to Eagle the science site

Avtar fuel drums being used for the plane

Space inside the twin otter plane. Not really a lot of space left once all of the gear is added. 

Ian potten and DJ max and me (co-pilot) in the cockpit looking out over the continental ice shelf.  Should anything happen on the return leg with just the pilot and me then the idea would be that i would be able to survive and get help although i am not sure how i would be able to land the plane if something happened in the air. Steering it at altitude and trying to keep it on course and level was hard enough.

Ian (GA) and DJ max in the back of the plane next to the extra fuel drum which increases the planes flying capacity (by 2-3 hours).

DJ max checking out one of the autonomous LPM (low powered magnetometers) sites at condor at about 6000 feet. Beautiful clear skies with a cool breeze.

Sleeping on the twin otter at the Eagle site at 80 degree, 10 degrees off the south pole, just another 600 miles. The temperature was a little colder than Halley (-12 oC) but the sheepskin rug and the heavy duty sleeping bag help. Quite warm actually but didn't sleep to well, might have been better off in the tent for the night.

Digging the site for the tent on the plateau with the Shackleton mountains in the background.

Breakfast time with hot tea and Alpen.

The Shackleton mountains that he never reached due to his ship being caught in the ice and crushed and were so named after him by fuchs's who made the journey in the 50's?

The twin otter coming into land at Halley.

Thats me in the co-pilot seat, strictly hands off and just looking.

The new Halley VI site

The main red module

Corridors to the bedrooms

The new Halley dining area

The new laboratory office space

The new Dobson room with mike rose

Halley VI from a distance

The share radar

me driving a snocat

Out with the old and in with the new

The old MET Andy Dixon on his way out after spending the winter at Halley and training me up on the MET procedures for the past week. Somehow i think he finds my hair style and colour funny, not totally sure why but a real fun bloke to spend time with.

                                     

The new MET winterer, sam burrell. I think he will do just fine.

Sam in preparation for taking snow samples to be sent back the UK to be measured for heavy metals that are an indication of nuclear activity, be it weapons or explosions around the world. 

The Dobson spectrophotometer has been measuring here for over 40 years. Dobson measurements are performed many times each and every day and give an indication of the levels of ozone above Antarctica. It was here at Halley using this spectrophotometer that the ozone hole was discovered.

Every day at Halley a balloon is launched carrying meteorological instruments that transmit data back to base on humidity, temperature and pressure etc as the balloon ascends up into the stratosphere. Here, i am preparing the sonde (instruments) for the balloon flight.

Tying the sonde to the balloon after it has been filled with Helium gas.

Up, up and away. Letting the balloon go from the back of the BART platform. On a clear day its progress can be monitored from the ground. On a windy day the take off can be a bit of a challenge.

Up up and away. The idea is to get it to 20km around midday, so that all the balloon flights over the world can be synchronized to roughly the same time period. By this time the balloon will be the size of a double decker bus and at some stage it will burst and fall back to earth to be lost in the Antarctican wilderness.

Route to Halley

The Elusion left Cape town at 1130 that night, and arrived at 0600 at the russian base, NOVO. The Elusian is a bit like a cargo plane in that all the luggage is stored just behind you, and the toilet is a porta-loo that is strapped down, never used it so not sure what state it was in. Earplugs and sandwiches are handed around pre take off and the movie is on a screen at the front with no sound so you can imagine the noise and comfort and every seat was full. An hour before landing people rush to the pack to egt their bags and get their antarctic gear out because when we land the temperature will drop by about 40 degrees.

 A russian snow vehicle for people and baggage transport.

 The ALCI DC10's ready for take-off. Ski's attached for a soft landing providing that the contrast is good. They carry up to 18 people but on our flight only 3 people with a shed load of other construction equipment.

Accommodation and shelter at NOVO(russian base). Only stayed a couple of hours before we took off to Neumayer (German base) and then on again to Halley. There were 5 of us from Cape town but we then split into groups and left on different days for Halley. Thank god we were the first to leave, there is nothing worse than hanging around someplace you do not want to be, So after 13 hours of large and small comfortable planes with constant earplugs in we finally touchdown at Halley to a small crowd of welcoming people.