8 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician).
Weather at DCN: • Air temp: -28 ˚C • Wind speed and direction: 2 knots, W 270˚ o Forecast next 24 hours: Partly cloudy. Winds: Variable below 10 knots, becoming N/NW 5/10 knots in the evening. Min/Max: -33/-25 ° C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
Julius, Chris Y and Chris R spent the morning making some adjustments to the drill tower after noticing the screw jacks were not evenly taking load when the tower approaches the limits of rotation. Following the tower work, the drip tray guttering was fixed down to the tower subframe. In the afternoon the drill team started putting together drill barrel assemblies for wet drilling, including the hollow shaft and the intricate drill chip pumps. These pumps were built by Chris Richards in the AAD instrument workshop and are quite a work of art. It’s excellent that we have Chris here for their assembly and first use outside workshop testing!
Our much anticipated container, on its way with the French traverse, is closing in. We expect to great the French Traverse tomorrow at the cross-roads of the Australian and French traverse route, which is 2.5km from our camp before they roll on the final 10 km to Concordia Station. Our container will be collected from Concordia on Thursday. You’ll read more on that over the next days.
The Traverse team pre-assembled the arches for the Weatherhaven mechanical tent, installed four power poles across the camp, performed repairs on the Traverse generators, and continued clearing and spreading snow piles away from station.
9 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician).
Weather at DCN: • Air temp: -26 ˚C • Wind speed and direction: 2 knots, NNW 340˚ • Forecast next 24 hours: Partly cloudy. Winds: W 10/15 knots. Min/Max: -32/-25 ° C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
This morning the team drove out to the junction of the Australian and French (IPEV) Traverse, 2.5 km from our camp, to greet the French/Italian traverse team who have left Cape Prudhomme 10 days ago.
Their traverse brings cargo to resupply nearby Concordia station. This season it also brings a container holding essential components for the next stage of our drill system set up (including drill winch, sonde motors and gear boxes and drill fluid handling equipment). Unpacking the four tonne winch from its container will be done in cooperation with Concordia using a combination of our assets and their telehandler and is scheduled on Thursday.
For folks wondering why we didn’t bring this gear ourselves, the answer is that it would have required delaying the AAD traverse by around three weeks, meaning the work we have achieved to date this season would have been delayed by that time. The cooperation on logistics between IPEV and AAD extends across many parts of their respective programs. MYIC is very grateful for the effective three-week extension of our science season that was coordinated between AAD and IPEV.
Back at camp the cutting heads and cutters were installed on the drill inner barrels, with some hand filing by Chris R they look hungry for ice.
Lenneke and Julius were out for the afternoon completing re-surveys of three ApRES sites and setting up a new site further up the ice flow line toward Concordia. It was perfect conditions for this work in the sun and low wind.
10 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician).
Weather at DCN:
- Air temp: -27 ˚C
- Wind speed and direction: 4 knots, 280˚
- Forecast next 24 hours: Partly cloudy. Winds: W 5/10 knots. Min/Max: -32/-27 ° C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
- Lenneke and Julius made four additional ApRES (autonomous phase sensitive radio echo sounding) surveys this afternoon, completing the main set of experiments. Additional surveys will be completed with a prototype (dualDDS ApRES) unit on loan from British Antarctic Survey that is designed to be even more sensitive in deep, cold ice.
- Eddie and Dave completed assembly of the mechanical tent barn doors, and started on installing the end covers.
- Tomorrow 6 of us will travel to Concordia to collect the deep drill winch and other drilling equipment and the team put together lifting and other gear that is needed for this cargo run.
- Chris Y and Chris R made some adjustments to the guard rails around the tower end of the drill trench.
- Andy and Thom continue with power pole installation and have now neatly suspended many of the cables off the snow and out of range of damage by vehicles. The extreme-cold-rated cables are left to hang a little on the loose side as the extreme cold in winter will shrink and tighten them.
- The ice core processing team along with colleagues back in Kingston are working to plan the ice core processing and storage workflow and layout.
11 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician)
Weather at DCN: • Air temp: -31˚C • Wind speed and direction: 4 knots, 230˚ •Forecast next 24 hours: Mostly clear. Winds: W 5/10 knots. Min/Max: -32/-26 °C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
An exciting and satisfying day today at DCN with our deep drill winch positioned in the drill tent following it’s long journey on L’Astrolabe from Hobart and then on the French/Italian traverse from Dumont d’Urville. It’s been quite a feat of logistics to get it here and a great example of logistics cooperation between the AAD and international partners.
A team of eight of us travelled to Concordia to collect the winch and other critical equipment to complete the drill system. Two traverse challenger tractors with cranes, a 20ft and 40ft sled, and small skid-steer loader, were used for the work.
After loading the winch and other bulky items onto out 20ft sled the container itself was lifted onto the 40ft sled and the teams returned to DCN after a fine lunch and some Italian coffee with the generous folks at Concordia.
We also had a tour of the French/Italian traverse assets. AAD adopted some technologies from the French in designing our own traverse and sent AAD members on traverse with the French in the early stages of that design process. These ongoing exchanges are valuable for both sides. Like us, the French use a fleet of Tasmanian-made Elphinstone sleds.
The drill winch was positioned in the drill shelter just before dinner. Final placement into its position on the tower assembly will be completed tomorrow along with careful inspection of the winch and other key components following the long journey.
Meanwhile at DCN we had the pleasure to return some of the hospitality and host the French/Italian traverse team for lunch and gave them a tour of the AAD traverse equipment, the Inland Station assets, and the MYIC drill shelter and drill system.
Other activities during this busy day included fitting of an end cover to the mechanical shelter. The main cover will go over tomorrow.
Lenneke completed some additional sensitivity tests with the ApRES radar at the site closes to our drill shelter.
12 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician).
Weather at DCN: • Air temp: max -25, min -28.1 •Wind speed and direction: 6 knots, 270˚ • Forecast next 24 hours: Partly cloudy. Winds: SE 5/10 knots. Min/Max: -36/-25 ° C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
The big-ticket task today was to position the ~4 tonne drill winch in its final location, and bolt it down to the drill tower. Kris was on the controls of the challenger crane and Dane directed the lift from the drill shelter. To allow more range of movement for the crane Damien pushed snow away from the back end of the drill tent allowing the tractor to sit lower with respect to the barn door entrance. Kris and Dane did a fine job in the tight space, stepping it in and then lowering precisely over the base frame to where we could drop in the bolts.
Our relief that the winch is now in place is tempered a bit by two issues. First, the winch drum had moved some 20 mm laterally on its shaft. Chris Y and Chris R used a jack to push it back into place. Second the cheek plate of the winch drum was touching the fork pocket. It's well known to us already back in Kingston that the clearance between the cheek plate and fork pocket was only a few mm. We suspect that during loading or transport the fork pocket has been deflected (better case) or the shaft has moved down (worse case). We did not use the fork pockets at all during unloading so it seems unlikely any deflection of that pocket occurred here. Chris Y and Chris R again used the jack to bend the pocket down a few mm to re-establish clearance.
We will not be in a position to power up the winch and check if these issues require further work until later next week. Before then power needs to be run to the shelter and the control panels fully installed. Lets see..
All cargo that came in the container was unloaded by the afternoon, giving us plenty to go on with while power and control systems of the winch are readied; setting up the drill fluid handling system, building the complete drill sondes and adjusting the core processing line to suit the deep drill.
In the afternoon the drill team started on the rolling bench that will move the drill barrels from the drill to the core processing line. A new beam was cut into the compacted firn for the bench to roll along on its casters.
Finally, in an AAD version of an Amish barn-raising, all free hands helped pull the cover of the mechanical shelter over the frame and secure it in place. The shelter is now complete bar some fine tuning, nice work Dave and Eddie!
13-14 December, 2025
Location: Dome C North (DCN)—MYIC Inland Station, 75.0422°S, 123.6312°E, 3239 m asl.
Personnel at DCN: Damien Beloin (traverse leader), Derryn Harvie (deputy traverse leader & drill engineer), David Holley (carpenter), Ed Maguire (diesel mechanic), Kris Keen (diesel mechanic), Andy Lewis (electrician), Meg O’Connell (medical doctor), Dane Eden (diesel mechanic), Thom Whyte (electrician), Lenneke Jong (MYIC glaciologist), Julius Rix (MYIC driller), Joel Pedro (MYIC science lead), Chris Richards (MYIC drill technician), Chris Young (MYIC drill technician).
Weather at DCN:
- Air temp: max -25 to -28.
- Wind speed and direction: 0 to 6 knots
- Forecast next 24 hours: Possible fog in early morning. Winds: S 5/10 knots. Min/Max: -36/-25 ° C
Inland Station Operations, Science, Drilling
On Saturday morning the MYIC team completed assembly of the rolling bench that will transfer the inner core barrel containing the ice core from the drill to the core processing line. A small hand winch is mounted to the bench to pull the core barrel from the drill and onto cradles mounted on the bench.
A steel basin is built into the bench to catch drill fluid so we can recycle it back to the borehole. It is important that the height of the cradles on the bench align perfectly to receive the barrel as it is withdrawn from the drill. We were pleased at the initial tests of alignment and can refine slightly if needed using shims. The casters are tracking well in the runners installed on the shelter floor beams. A shout out to Stuart Norris, AAD mechanical workshop, Luke Dennis and the AAD Instrument Workshop team, and Matt Wright for the work back in Kingston designing and building this neat solution for moving our core barrels.
Derryn continued work on the drill system software. Lenneke has had some initial processing of the ApRES data and checked in with colleagues at British Antarctic Survey, who gave thumbs up to the data collected so far. I worked on our core processing work flow and storage planning. Other team members were completing station maintenance tasks and snow grooming around the camp.
In the afternoon we welcomed two key members of the European Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice project for a tour of our camp and drill system. Carlo Barbante (Principal Investigator) and Chiara Venier (Project Coordinator) arrived in their speedy Arctic Truck, looking like they’d stepped off the set of Top Gear. The Beyond EPICA team completed drilling to the base of the ice sheet at their Little Dome C (LDC) drill site last season. Both our projects are contributing to the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences challenge to recover multiple continuous records spanning across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.
This season, Beyond EPICA are focusing on recovering samples of the subglacial bedrock and replicate coring of the oldest, bottom-most ~400 m of ice. Carlo and the Beyond EPICA team have been strong friends of our program and today shared some good advice from their practical experience at LDC on core processing workflow and considerations around sub-surface ice core storage. We start assembling our own core storage systems at DCN in the next weeks, so this was a timely discussion.
Sunday was a rest day and pretty quiet around the camp, until the afternoon, when we welcomed a visit from 12 science and logistics people from Concordia Station. We gave a tour of the camp and drill system, hit the coffee and biscuits and then had a fun all-in session of multinational ice sheet volleyball, with tunes from DJ Sparky Thom. Good fun and good community up here!
