Antarctica 2017-18: Ohio Mountains

One of my favorite place in the Transantarctic Mountains, the Ohio Range and Bennett Nunatak. This range is quite small and the blue ice is magnificent. 

It was quite a cold day out. After spending hours trying to dig a seismic sensor out, in -25C temperatures, we abandoned the site and went to my GPS site, about 10 miles away, near the rock. Still cold, but easy work and time to enjoy the stunning landscape.

We made another stop to refuel the plane and went back to Siple Dome, on time for dinner.

Bennett Nunatak.

For once someone took a photo of me!

Mark Whetu teaching us how to use crampons in blue ice.

Back to the plane.

Refueling at the Ohio Mountains fuel cache.

I love those boots!

Mark Whetu, amazing mountaineer from New Zealand, and fun person to have around.

Antarctica 2017-18: Siple Dome

Welcome to Siple Dome! We spent 2 weeks there early December. We went there with the expectation of being stuck and not being able to work at all, due to the notorious bad weather in these parts... Well.. Siple Doom (as we liked to call it) did disappoint! 2 weeks of incredibly beautiful weather! We worked 6 days straight and finished our work, spending the second week in tshirt weather (McMurdo weather being bad, no plane could come and rescue us...!).

The dome is 100km x 100km located on the East side of the Ross Ice Shelf, off the Siple Coast. Originally an ice core camp, Siple Dome now is a refueling camp for science parties traveling Marie Byrd Land. In 1999 the science team at Siple recovered the deepest ice core at 974m... for a climate record of 97,600 years!

The mess tent and the Tucker used to groom the runway.

The mess tent where we eat and hang out. Small but very cool!

Nice after fieldwork snack made by our great cook.

Scissors do well with pizza.

Yummy food. Rob Teasdale from NZ.

Every year, a new game is learnt. Carcassonne is pretty fun!

Emily, our amazing cook - and seismic instruments shoveler.

When you climb Mt Everest every year - and other 8000ers, you relax in Antarctic. Richie Hunter from NZ.

Is Mark Whetu getting tired sometimes?

Home Sweet Home

Antarctica 2017-18: Leaving for Siple Dome on board the legendary Douglas DC-3!

After a week being delayed because of bad weather near McMurdo, we finally flew to Siple Dome to get some work done!

What a pleasure to fly this classic Douglas DC-3 built in 1943! This flying icon was remotorised with new Pratt & Whitney Turboprops to match today's safety and performance needs. Apparently there is still about 15,000 DC-3 planes around the world as candidates for the Basler conversion. Glad to know this beauty still has some years in the sky!

More info on Basler conversion: http://www.baslerturbo.com/

Refueling the DC-3 with Mount Erebus in the background.

Classic look.

Refueling.

Refueling.

Fly by when leaving Siple Dome.