This week at Davis: 22 August 2014

On Wednesday Sarah and Alyce, with help from Stu and Josh, relocated the mobile science lab (affectionately known as the ‘caravan') from station to Ace Lake. With a weather forecast predicting nil winds for the following days the ‘caravan’ was secured on the lake before Sarah and Alyce commenced water sampling. They returned to station late that night and repeated the sampling process each day for the next few days.

Certainly beats working from the science building on station — fresh air and stunning views.

On Monday Val, Layla, Alyce, Adam, Corey, Dave, Sarah and Craig departed station for an overnight training trip to Woop Woop. This was a dual purpose trip. The first purpose was to create a suitable path between Davis and Woop Woop (high up on the plateau) for transporting fuel on a sled, and to deliver serviced plant equipment. The second purpose was Rauers traverse training for eight personnel.

Camping at Woop Woop gave the team the opportunity to practice setting up a polar pyramid field camp in trying conditions but in very close proximity to the Woop Woop accommodation vans if temperatures dropped too low or winds picked up to an uncomfortable level — it’s always good to have a plan B. Fortunately for the team the temperature and winds were exactly what was predicted: −35°C and 10 knots. Now that may sound very uncomfortable for most but when you’re well prepared, and have the right gear and equipment, you can pretty much eliminate all risk associated with cold injuries. Now that may sound very uncomfortable for most but when you’re well prepared, and have the right gear and equipment, you can pretty much eliminate all risk associated with cold injuries.

The team also tested the operation of the HF radio set, simulated crevasse travel probing unknown snow areas, and tested the operation of Iridium handsets.

The two days were a huge success and everyone returned to station with many fun and interesting stories.

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Radio Davis provides breaking news on and around Davis station as it happens. Keeping listeners engaged and informed when the jocks feel like it, Radio Davis reaches up to 20 listeners each time they go to air. Content is delivered from Radio Davis's own newsroom.

First broadcasting back in April this year, Radio Davis 107.1 FM prides itself on being the oldest non commercial radio station within koo-eee of the Sørsdal Glacier.

Listen* in to Stu and The Kernel interview special guest Nick this week about life in general along with a collection of Nick’s favourite tunes. Targeted mostly at bearded people aged 25 to 65, it’s a segment not to be missed.

*Not available outside of Davis station, Antarctica.

After many months of near perfect weather, when winds rarely exceeded 20 knots (yes Macca, Mawson and Casey you heard us correctly, this is why Davis is compared to the ‘Riviera’), we finally experienced what Antarctica is capable of dishing out.

After a three day blizzard and blowing snow coming in from many different directions, the weather finally settled and we opened our doors to a very different looking station. Roads had disappeared, new mountains and valleys had appeared from nowhere, doors were buried and we even found the wind scours looked more like waves.

A great little playground for many!