Ice ice baby

A blog about a year in Antarctica would not be complete without some discussion on ice and water.  For those that don’t know less than 1% of Antarctica is free from snow and ice so it pretty much defines our lives.  

At Davis throughout the summer we have beautiful water views but through winter the sea and most of the lakes freeze and becomes ice.  While the change of scenery is nice the real value is the ability to drive a Hagglunds vehicle on the ice.  As much as I enjoy the hiking, once the temperature drop below minus 20 its no longer comfortable to be outside for too long and a noisy bumpy Hagg quickly becomes the preferred mode of transport.  It also allows us to pack a little less lightly and load eskies full of delightful treats and keep them from getting too cold – yep that’s right the esky prevents the cheese, wine and beer from freezing!  There are upsides to the cold too, as we’ve been able to transport ice creams and ice cubes (for gin and tonics of course!), on the roof of the Hagg and a bottle of bubbles only takes around 10 mins in a snow bath before its ready to drink.

Now a Hagg floats but its not something any of us really want to test out as recovering it from an ice breakthrough we are told takes upwards of 5 hours and that is not anyone’s idea of fun.  So religiously we go out and drill holes in the ice to make sure it meets the safe standards, 20cm to walk, 40cm for a quad bike (sadly the fun police limit their use to Search and Rescue), 60cm for a Hagg and 1.3m to land a small plane.  

In addition to sea ice we also get lake ice and that is some of the most spectacular with varying colours of blue and incredible patterns of trapped frozen air bubbles. Walking on these lakes can be very slippery so you either need to put spikes on your shoes or walk like a penguin, which is my preference. 

A couple of the team brought purpose built ice skates and have been attempting to skate all the lakes in the area.  I can barely stay upright on the slippery ice without spikes, am not good on skates in a rink and would be a recipe for disaster if I were to try skating on dodgy bumpy ice but I have followed them in a warm Hagg so they can skate downwind – not a bad way to spend an afternoon.  Its also pretty fun to drive on as the Hagg slips and slides around a little.  Of course I would never do anything as silly as a ‘donut’ in a Hagg on the ice but that’s not to say I haven’t thought about it :). 

Icebergs are common place around here as is carrying an ice axe, throw bag, survival pack and radioing every hour you are on any frozen water.  Driving on a road at anything more than 30kms an hour not having to avoid bergs, penguins and snow mounds will feel very strange for the first little while at home as this has become my normal.  Throughout the year the bergs can change shape and colour depending on the light.  White is obvious but they can also be the brightest of blues, jade green, grey under the clouds and hues of pink and purple under the sun.  Iceberg cruising is a popular pastime both on water in small boats early in the season and weaving in and out of them with a Hagg throughout the winter.

There are many Glacier’s on the continent but only one on the edge of our operating area The Sorsdal which on first sight took my breath away it was that beautiful.  I was lucky to see it from a helicopter and have returned to it recently on foot.  As close as we can get to glaciers and icebergs you still can’t get close enough to touch them as there is always that risk of part of it breaking away.  I’m told that the Sorsdal glacier moves up to 1metre per day.  At one stage a few of us planned to camp out near it in the hope we might see or at least hear the movement but the weather wasn’t kind enough and the time just passed. 

I remember being blown away by the volume of blinding white fluffy snow in Canada and Japan after only ever having seen the Australian ski fields but this place is next level.  It doesn’t snow that often but when it does it dumps!! And more often than not it comes with scowling winds of 40+knots which blows the snow in all manner of places, including through the smallest of cracks in doorways while also forming some beautiful blizz tails (snow build up downwind of a building or a vehicle).  This is where Tim our very talented plant operator becomes the most important person on station clearing our roads and finding places to put this ridiculous amount of snow – a problem I never considered before this year.  

While there are no children here there is definitely childish behaviour with the throwing of snow balls, jumping into fluffy snow only to find out it’s quite hard and sliding down blizz tails.  Bosco even built an ice cave in one of our blizz tails and slept in it several times.  We have very different ideas of fun!!  We even do science with the snow including probing it, measuring the weight and assessing the crystals. Fair to say it’s not an exact science but I love doing it.    

You would be forgiven for thinking that water is abundant here and I guess it technically is.  But practically it’s not, so we have been living on 2 minute showers daily and 1 load of washing per week each.  We have 3 large water tanks, 1 is not finished and 1 has a leak so not ideal really.  In summer we pump water from a salty tarn and use a reverse osmosis plant to remove the contaminants and make water fit for human consumption.   So for around 6 weeks we get to have 3 minute showers – pure luxury.  It has become second nature to turn the water on and off throughout my shower but I’m sure this is one habit I will kick immediately.  

In the field we melt snow for water and here’s a fun fact it seems to nearly always taste like chicken noodle soup which is particularly strange as no poultry products are allowed in the field.  It’s entirely possible it could just be an old pot from the kitchen that has held on to the chicken flavour but let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story. Where possible I avoid the chicken water and stick with the soda water I carry from the civilised post-mix machine on station.