October 2013

Current position: S72 13′ 30.5″, E023 25′ 00.2″ Altitude: 2070m Today’s action: Met obs. Snow sampling. Eight fuel scoots in two loads of four were taken down the descent into the valley which splits the mountains. The lower part of this route requires a braking Cat at the rear of each load. No problem with the route and it is good to get the tracks laid whilst the weather is so good.

We had another local foot excursion yesterday to a small area of ice seracs to the west of camp. A four hour outing which got us amongst some impressive scenery. Grins all round. If you look very closely you can just see camp right of centre – a small dark spot out on the plateau. Gives a great idea of the scale of this place. More pics on Flickr (as always!)…

Having spent four months holed up inside at one of the most inhospitable camp sites in the world, the Ice Team did not need much persuading to get their walking boots on… Check out this and dozens of other images taken over the last few weeks on our Flickr site here.

A week or so ago we asked you all to offer up your best captions for this picture – and were absolutely inundated with responses both here and on Facebook. Poor old Brian was given the task of creating a shortlist and, after not an inconsiderable amount of time one night, he whittled more than 150 suggestions down to just seven to put before the rest of the team to vote on independently. After…

  Photo by Brian…

Today We were extremely fortunate to have had such good conditions yesterday and to have taken full advantage of them. Whilst the weather wasn’t bad today, the visibility has been quite limited and it would have been hard to do a meaningful reconnaissance of the route ahead . With that already done and some of the loads already moved through this tricky section, as we did yesterday, we had good…

Every morning and every evening Brian our Ice Team leader braves the cold and windy conditions to take meteorological observations as part of our very many scientific projects during the expedition. These then get sent back to the Met Office in the UK for analysis and archiving. Below you will find the bulk of Brian’s findings in the form of  four interesting graphs charting the temperature,…

Ian’s latest video from Antarctica was shot over a few days as the team were finally able to move camp. Having spent the last four months overwintering in the same spot, there was much to do before the Ice Team could finally get under way. This video encapsulates Ian’s good mood at getting back on the road and heading homeward at last. Treacherous crevasses and blue ice fields await them…

by Brian Newham Visibility wasn’t great this morning but it looked to be improving so we made a move. All four loads made it 5km to our old summer depot site. The edge of the mountains are now tantalisingly close and as the conditions improved they were a feast for the eyes. Soon we will be back amongst them. This afternoon we broke the loads down from four to seven in readiness for the tricky…

  Expedition news update: Following days of digging out the snow and ice that has built up around the Cats after a long Antarctic winter, the machines are finally clear and the expedition team are now ready to attempt the long return journey of the expedition. A long awaited improvement in the weather conditions have helped the ice team begin the preparations to move north and with som…