Preparations are underway to clear a landing strip for planes at Davis station. In the field, unpredictable Antarctic conditions slow down science. Rob celebrates a stellar birthday and expeditioners share photos of some recent stunning sights.

Work on the ice skiway commences

Work has commenced on clearing the Davis skiway landing area with the Prinoth snow groomer and drag beam. Corey and Craig will be working on the skiway for the next month to ensure the landing strip meets all requirements and is ready for operation by the end of October. They seem to be enjoying doing lines at the moment — certainly beats working in a workshop every day.

Groomer on the sea ice on driving along a cleared section of the ice
Snow groomer on the sea ice, ice bergs in the background
Two snow groomers driving towards each other on the sea ice

In the field

During the week Alyce, Sarah, Lesley and Ali left station for Watts hut. Alyce and Sarah had planned to spend four nights away from station using the hut as their base. The primary purpose of their trip was to take water samples from lakes and bays close by.

Ali and Lesley had planned to restock the emergency food bins and change over bedding items at Crooked Lake apple hut, Marine Plain apple hut and Watts hut. Unfortunately they didn’t get too far — when they reached Ellis Narrows they noticed the immediate area past the narrows was under water. The higher than normal tide (1.7 metres) caused the ice to break out close to the narrows and the remaining sea ice was covered in salt water.

Plan B

After taking a number of photos the team returned to station. Keen not to waste time, Alyce and Sarah set up the mobile science tent on the sea ice directly off station and commenced sampling. Hopefully next week the Ellis Narrows will be back to being passable and our resident scientists can revert back to Plan A.

Expeditioner on a quad bike on a frozen lake
Expeditioner sitting amongst snow and rock with a camping stove
Two quad bikes parked up at base of hill open water in sections of a frozen fjord
Close up photo of expeditioner with flooded frozen fjord in the background
Salt water lying on top of frozen fjord
Still water on top of sea ice land in the background
Footprints in the snow along the edge of the flooded fjord
Open water section on frozen fjord
Looking through a gap in the rocks

Celebrating Rob’s birthday

We celebrated two birthdays on station this week.

A few days prior to Rob’s birthday, Stu circulated an email to everyone on station (excluding Rob of course) inviting the team to sneak over to the ANARESAT Dome after work on Tuesday with a few refreshing ales. To ensure the birthday celebration remained a surprise we were under instruction not to wish Rob a happy birthday all day. Stu was kept busy ensuring Rob didn’t notice the masses walking towards an area very few people go to later in the day. It worked! Rob had no idea, or so he says.

There was another birthday celebrated on station during the week. One of our quieter community members tried to have his birthday go unnoticed but a few of us are in the ‘know’ — happy birthday ‘X’.

Two expeditioners posing for a photo in the middle of a dome
Two expeditioners posing for a photo with a few people in the background joining in
Light coming through small holes in the dome
Expeditioner dressed in yellow jacket inside a large dome
Two expeditioners having a beer in a large dome
Two expeditioners having a beer in a large dome
Two expeditioners having a beer in a large dome
Group of people enjoying a few drinks in a large dome
Rob cutting a chocolate cake while Stu looks on

Photo gallery

Bright green aurora australis above station buildings
Leaf like patterns of ice crystals on a window
Leaf like patterns of ice crystals on a window
Side of an ice berg lights up as the sun sets
Quad bike rider with icebergs and a sunset in the background
Sun setting between icebergs
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