Hollinger in Antarctica

As you read this I should be either in Chille or on a plane heading back towards Chille! With the arrival of the glorious Antarctic sunshine, that moved gently into place yesterday evening, our spirits rose. The whole camp hummed into action, with a massive attempt to clear the 2.8 kilometre blue-ice runway, which was under several centimetres of snow and impossible for the aeroplane to land until it was cleared. A huge snow-blower systematically shifted this colossal volume of snow in the hope that it would prove to be possible to fly the jet in and out. This is a job that has been running on for many hours through the Antarctic night (which, of course, is as bright as day here). This is an extraordinarily beautiful Antarctic day, with the new snow lit by the brilliant sunshine, little wind, and views in all directions to the horizon. In some cases this is over 100 miles. The good news is that as I write this I am looking at the plane being loaded up with all our kit ready for us to fly back to Punta Arenas in Chille and home in time for Christmas!  Happy birthday to Jamie 13CH, Hannah 10DN, Mohamed 9AB, Jenny 8RG and Thomas 7PL.

We have now been stranded in Antarctica for a week due to the weather. It’s hard to think of too many other places in the world where it is impossible to get any form of transport in to rescue you within seven days. It’s a little bit like being in Big Brother. We are confined to a pretty small place with the same people and each day we have tasks to do to try and keep people entertained. We even have video diaries to video how we are doing. I guess it is all part of the ‘polar experience’. At least we have comfortable tents, a warm mess tent to go to and delicious food to eat (thanks to ALE!). There could be worse places to be stranded. At least I don’t have to eat any more Chilli con Carne. Our latest travel news is that there is a possible weather window tomorrow when they could get a plane in if they manage to clear the runway of more than 6000 tonnes of snow in time. If that doesn’t work out we will most likely be here another week on top of that. That means that for the first time the possibility of Christmas in Antarctica is looming. At least we would get a white Christmas. It will be very difficult to be away from friends and family at Christmas though. We are feeling a little depressed about the prospect so any jokes or stories to cheer us up will be gratefully received!

Today I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about all the background support that is needed to carry out science research in Antarctica. Whilst we are have been here at Patriot Hills we have been helping out the staff here a little and it gives me a better idea of all the effort that is needed to run a basecamp. The tents have been drifted in with up to six feet of snow and we have spent a lot of the day shovelling snow. We’ve had the help of a Sno-Cat – a big snow tractor that Chris, the driver, is amazing at manipulating so he can move the plough at the front in and out of tent guy ropes. There has been such a thick layer of snow on top of the tents which has started to melt. This means that it has been raining inside the tents for most of the day and there has been lots of mopping and buckets out to catch drips. There are so many different jobs that need to be done here, cooking, mechanics, communications, guides, builders… The staff need to be able to be really inventive about all that they do. Using minimal equipment it is amazing what they are able to achieve. You certainly need to have lots of creative enterprise skills if you want to work in Antarctica. It would be virtually impossible to carry out a long term science project in Antarctica without all of this support. I’d like to say a big thank you to all the staff at Patriot Hills for all their hard work in supporting our expedition. Happy birthday today to Jack 13CM, Joe 9WW, Connor 9JB and Hayley 8AF.

 By the time most of you read this you will no doubt be starting your last week at work before the Christmas break. For all those at Tapton School I hope you enjoy the last week starting with the Christmas Carol service on Monday night in Ranmoor Church. I remember going last year - It always feels as though Christmas has begun on that night. This is followed by the A level presentation evening for last year’s Upper Sixth next Thursday and the staff Christmas Do at the Bristol Hotel. However the event of all events will no doubt be the staff production of ‘Joseph’ next Friday – I wish I was there!

As you know we were due to fly out on the 10th of December but the harsh weather persists and we are still here in Patriot Hills. Although the weather has improved a little today it still isn’t good enough to bring a plane in and the blue ice runway is under a good depth of powder snow. I am sure you are all getting ready for Christmas. It dosen’t feel like Christmas here, except for vast quantities of snow, which I suppose is not Christmas is the UK anyway. We have spent the day eating well  as we are now allowed to eat three cooked meals a day in the mess tent (thank you ALE!), digging out the mess tent and organising the Polar Olympics 2007. The Olympics were an incredible event which tested the participants to their limits through welly wanging (done with a mountaineering boot), a coconut shy (done with insulated mugs), hoop-la (done with buckets and frozen sponges), tug-of-war, a blindfolded sledge hauling race, an egg and spoon race and a treasure hunt.

Thanks to Bob for his messages and James who sent an answer to the question - How can we reduce the wind speed and turbulence experienced by our tent with a snow wall? He has suggested two overlapping walls at 45 degrees to each other forming a v-shape. Phil is going to construct the walls tomorrow and we will let you know the results. Thanks also to Susan for the “10 things you can do when stuck in a tent in Antarctica!” Alex, your contribution was appreciated too (I am not sure if Cara contributed but thanks to her anyway!)  and I think most if not all have been tried. Anybody with any other ideas please send them in. Happy birthday to Ben 13BW, Claire 10WL and Nadia 7CC. Finally I hope those who took part in the Dark and White trailquest today enjoyed themselves. I look forward to seeing you all at the next event in Jan.

What do you do in Antarctica when you are confined to your tent for yet another day? As the focus of one of my science projects (cryoconite holes) is buried under thigh deep snow I decided to use my day productively and bring together some of the data for my second project – to determine the ecological footprint of the expedition. The ecological footprint is a measure of consumption of resources and quantifies the environmental impact of our transport, food, clothing, equipment, waste and fuel use. I am quantifying it by using data from when we left Heathrow until we return there again, although there will be the impact of training weekends and of getting to Heathrow itself. I have entered data into a spreadsheet and will have the help of Best Foot Forward (an organisation that specialises in ecological footprinting) when I return to the UK to standardise and interpret the data. Probably the biggest impact is on the global environment through CO2 emissions from our air travel in actually getting to Antarctica. We flew from London to Madrid, on to Santiago in Chile then on to Punta Arenas before flying into Antarctica. In Antarctica we took one Twin Otter flight on 16th November and since then we haven’t used any motorised transport. I often ask myself, ‘how much motorised transport would I have used in this time period if I was back in the UK?’ I feel we have had a relatively small impact on the local environment. Water use is minimal; the last time I flushed the toilet and used water to clean my teeth was on 10th November, the last time I had a shower and washed my hair was on 9th November and the last time I used a washing machine to clean my clothes was 29th October. I think of the amount of water I would have used had I been at home. The last time I turned on a light switch was 9th November and I can’t even remember the last time I watched the TV, changed the thermostat on my heating or charged my mobile phone. How much energy do all these activities consume? In contrast, in Antarctica our energy use has been minimal; we have used 68litres of fuel for all our cooking, (heating?) and melting snow for water. Finally, over the last month how much waste have you put into your wheelie bin? We have generated 15kg of food rubbish and 65kg of poo! Now when I flush my loo at home I will give more thought to where it goes.

I haven’t been working on the footprint all day; other activities included watching ‘The Ladykillers’ and planning for the Antarctic Olympics. The events had to be postponed today due to bad weather (something to so with 20cm of snow and 30 knot winds) so watch the update tomorrow for more details! Happy birthday to Lewis 8IA and Aliyah 8RG.

Thanks for the messages from Ian, Anna, Bob, Alison and Kenneth. I have just spent another day at Patriot Hills confined to my tent and wandering the short distances between the mess tent and toilet tent.  The weather has been particularly bad again (poor visibility, lots of swirling snow) so I have been helping some of the Patriot Hills staff with general duties.  I helped put up a clam tent this afternoon to house some competitors for the Antarctic marathon.  The marathon is due to be held on 14^th December but the competitors are stranded in Punta, unable to get to the start line.  We are due to fly out on the flight that they are due to fly in on.  With all this waiting around I have taken some time to reflect on my experiences, rather than worry about the fact that we could be stranded here for at least another week (given the weather conditions).  So in this update I thought I would tell you what I will miss most about Antarctica when I eventually leave! The top three things I will miss are firstly the spectacular views that I get out of the tent every morning and evening (assuming that there is not a blizzard!). Secondly, I will miss Amy’s company in the tent after a hard day of man hauling. There is nothing more satisfying than being in a warm tent, with the stove roaring, preparing dinner, drinking a hot drink and having a good chat. Although we didn’t know each other before the expedition, Amy has become a very good friend and it is great to have such good company given the difficult mental and physical conditions. Thirdly, I will miss the tranquillity (assuming the wind isn’t blowing and Phil isn’t talking!). Unlike back home, there is nothing to mark the start of the day. Imagine you are lying in your bed at home – you know it’s time to get up when it starts to get light or you begin to hear traffic outside or the sound of the birds singing. With 24 hours of daylight, no traffic and no birds there is nothing to tell you that it’s time to get up. Happy birthday to Sarah 13CH, Jennifer 12BF, Leo 11DV, Alison 11LB and Abigail 8DY

I’m just about to start on my first chilli con carne dinner. We will be eating this for the next four days. It is such a disgusting meal that we all left it right to the end hoping we would never have to eat it. What a mistake to make! We were due to fly out two days ago but are currently experiencing a huge Antarctic storm. Snow, wind and very low visibility. The weather forecast for the next few days is not looking good. The peak of the storm is expected to arrive on Friday. If this isn’t the peak I don’t know what the peak is going to be like. Our tent is starting to look a little bit bedraggled. It’s now become a waiting game and it is a little bit like being in prison. There is very little to do and we are wondering how long it will be before we start to go mad. We are in good company here though. Our inmates at Patriot Hills include a famous film director and a TV presenter from Kazakhstan (not Borat). Today we strung together some aviation nets and played a game of volleyball at -10 degrees. It was quite difficult to stay on your feet but was a really fun way to spend some time. We are all now nursing hand injuries from using a frozen ball though. These injuries add to the catalogue of other minor injuries that we have endured. Sunburn, chilblains, blisters, bruises, coldsores, split thumbs and Ian has a minor cold injury on his nose. I’m sure there will be some injuries as a result of eating the chilli too. I’ve only had two spoonfuls and my mouth is already on fire!

I hope that you all enjoyed the Tapton School Christmas concert earlier this week. I believe tonight the current Y12’s are having their GCSE presentation evening so I hope that goes well. Happy birthday today to Nicola 13BW, Charlotte 13CO and Rebecca 10WL.

We are still very stuck. The winds have dropped which has reduced drifting, but there is still complete cloud cover, the contrast is low, the forecast is poor and the runway will need two days of clearing. Thursday is now looking optimistic, with maybe Sunday a more realistic date for flying out. The team have spent their time sorting stuff, helping out around camp, visiting the ice cave (where the food stores are kept – see photo below) and becoming pupils at the regular lectures that are put on here. Since the lecture on Scuba diving we’ve learnt about Andree, a Swedish Adventurer, who tried to balloon to the North Pole and that Amundsen was the first person to see the North Pole (and he was the first person to the South Pole, beating Scott); we’ve also learnt that these adventurous types tend to perish before their time. Andree’s balloon came down before the Pole and, despite surviving the crash, the team died from illness (their bodies were found 33 years later). Amundsen died when he attempted to rescue another ill-fated balloon expedition. It’s a strong hint that we should stick to teaching, not get tempted by the expeditioner’s lifestyle. By the rules of camp we have to live off our own rations for the first six days of delay and then we can go and eat in the staff mess tent where they are provided with three, incredible cooked meals a day. We have enough food, but the problem is that we’ve been trying to avoid the chilli con carne throughout the trip. Everytime we pulled the chilli out of the bag – it went straight back in again and we chose something else. Unfortunately thishich means that the next four days are all chilli con carne … oh dear!

So now, as promised yesterday, to answer some of your questions…… I have four pairs of pants with me on the trip although I only have three of them in Antarctica. I have one clean pair waiting for me in Punta (when we eventually get there!). There are four teachers and two guides with two people in each tent. If you used the tents back in the UK you could probably fit three people in them but because we have so much kit with us here in Antarctica it would be too cramped for any more than two per tent. We have enough rations with us for 36 days on the ice and we have currently been here 31 days so we still have plenty of food left although it is mostly Chilli con carne which is my least favourite. The highest temperature has been 2 degrees and the coldest recorded air temperature has been -21 degrees. However if the wind is strong it makes it feel much colder. The strongest wind we have had is 68 miles per hour. If you click on the “weather comparison” page on the right you will see the updated weather stats. Yes we have got 24 hour daylight which is strange making it hard to get to sleep sometimes. We have two solar panels and a small generator which we use to power the laptop and the satellite phones. Happy birthday to Nia 12BF, Andrew 12HB, Meriem 11VB, Joe 11VB, Tom 10TB, Matthew 10JH and Kay 7KA.

I’m writing this update listening to the wind whistling past the tent. As a look out of the small window I can’t see another tent which is little more than 100 metres away. The wind is swirling at the door and every so often we get up and shovel snow to allow us in and out. After 30 days out on the ice, we are back in Patriot Hills and have had our first real food that is not dehydrated (it’s only a one off at the moment to welcome us back)! We were due to leave Antarctica yesterday but as I have come to learn over the past 5 weeks, nothing here is certain and as I mentioned in yesterdays blog the plane can’t land in bad weather. The current prediction is for better weather on Thursday so we have been (and will be) looking for ways to entertain ourselves. I was hoping to do more science but the weather has prevented that. Instead, last night we earned our dinner by giving a presentation about our expedition to other clients at Patriot Hills. It was really well received (both the presentation and the real food!). Today we have occupied ourselves with the game Balderdash, a lecture about Scuba Diving in Antarctica and Die Hard 4 on a rather small laptop screen! Now it is a question of waiting and keep our fingers crossed we will be home for Xmas! Many thanks to Susan, Tina, Beth, Emma, Sam and the CASTMAS Team for your messages. I look forward to having a look at your website when it is ready and I hope to be able to answer your many questions tomorrow. Happy birthday today to Naima 13CH, Levi 10DN and Toni-Jo 7ZN.

After a tiring few days it is great to catch up with some of your emails and questions. Patriot Hills is a permanent base in so far that there are people here all year round. However there are no permanent buildings and everybody sleeps in tents. There are a couple of communal tents for meeting and eating in. While we are here we are still using our own tents and we remain self contained. The air strip where the Ilyushin Jet lands is created naturally by the high winds that blow snow off the ice leaving a natural blue ice runway! The Ilyushin Jet takes off from Punta Arenas in Chile on a standard concrete/asphalt runway and using wheels (not skis) but then when it comes to landing here it needs almost perfect conditions to land. Unfortunately the wind that keeps the runway free of snow will also blow the plane off the runway and if the visibility is not good the pilots are unable to distinguish between land and sky. There is no air traffic control to guide the pilots and there are no indicators to show where the runway starts/ends or what direction they should land in. Fortunately, the Russian pilot and crew are experienced in landing on snow and ice. The ice runway is almost 3 KM long and in order to stop the plane the pilots shift two of the four engines into reverse and use their anti-lock brakes. Happy birthday today to Michael 12NB, Aalia 11GD, Anisah 11DV, Antony 11JI and Georgia 10PJ

Yesterday evening we set up camp knowing that it would be very brief. The fine weather and continuous daylight giving us the opportunity to reach Patriot Hills before the unpredictable Antarctic weather changed again, perhaps trapping us for yet another day on the Glacier. We ate and drank as much as we could and bedded down for about two and a half hours before striking camp and setting off towards the still-distant line of Patriot Hills at about 11.50 (just before midnight). This time we walked in Mukluks, rather than using the skis on our sore and blistered feet. Of course the weather did deteriorate. A phenomenon of low contrast – sometimes described as being in the inside of a ping-pong ball – causes difficulties seeing any features on the glacier. Heaving heavy pulks over sastrugi that you can’t see until you fall over them is a pain. However, we had the incentive of the end of our journey and pushed on through the night, leading in turn through the murk, until at last we got our first clear view of Patriot Hills camp when we were about 5 km away. Eventually, we all walked into camp at about 5.00 am. We had dragged the laden pulks over 32 km in 17 hours (including our break for food and sleep). We all now have an enormous sense of achievement and relief. In spite of fearing that weather and terrain would not allow us to do it, we did indeed walk all the way back to the base.

After lots of hot drinks, we all caught up on a few hours sleep and then started working away packing up the gear that will need to be flown back to Punta Arenas. We have also been weighed by Phil for his project and we have nearly all lost some weight. We are now trying hard to put it back on as we will spend the next few hours catching up on more sleep and eating! Tonight the staff of A.L.E. at Patriot Hills have asked us to tell them all about our expedition, so preparing that will be our next job. In some ways this marks the end of the main part of our expedition but there is still a huge amount to do – and some time to go before we will make it back to the UK. I will try to carry out some further research on the blue ice near Patriot Hills tomorrow. Our scheduled departure from Patriot Hills back to Chille is tomorrow however the poor weather is unlikely to allow this. Carl has just pointed out that this could be our home for the next ten days as we wait for a weather window to enable the plane to fly in. Right now we are all dreaming of a proper wash and the flight home. Let’s hope that the weather is good to us!

To answer your question Neill – Yes we melt the snow for cooking and all our drinking water. Happy Birthday to Elizabeth 13CO and Robert 11DV.