Progress Report

This photo taken by Brian Newham this morning is of a “nacreous cloud” which graced the team this morning. Repairs to the GPR and Cat appear to have been successful and the vehicle tent is now packed away. The Cats have been warmed and are about to be started so that the team can start to move some scoots around locally and think about winching in the final two scoots 150m away.

It was -50C this morning and with winds at around 30 knots, the wind chill factor had it feeling more like -70C. That’s the coldest it has been so far and is pretty difficult for us back home to imagine! At the time of the last reading at 1800 (GMT+2) the temperature had crept up to a comparatively balmy -42C. If Spencer and Richmond had hoped for a lie in the comfort of their bunks this…

The GPR is still not working, I am sorry to report. The team have not been able to get advice from the providers of the equipment because it is a Sunday and so they have not been able to work on it today. Spencer and Richmond on the other hand, have been getting busy trying to fix an as yet unidentified problem with one of the Cats which has resulted in power loss. Given the moderate winds and…

It’s minus 43C with 28 knot winds this morning, so things are certainly starting to get a little chilly with the Ice Team right now. Progress has been hampered by mechanical issues with the GPR which is still not fixed. The team have been working closely with Allied Associates over email and are hoping that they are now very close to resolving the problem. Combined with the slow progress of t…

As you may have read yesterday, the team is currently winching back six fuel scoots which had become stranded beyond the reach of the Cats because of severe crevassing blocking their path. Yesterday, they pulled back two scoots, today they did the next two, and if all goes well, all six of the scoots will be alongside the Cats and cabooses by this time tomorrow, ready to head out of this…

The Ice Team are camped in the middle of a hideous crevasse field with seemingly bottomless cracks up to 4m across and big enough to swallow a 25-tonne without it even touching the sides. Needless to say this is a very stressful place to be and it is keeping the Ice Team on their toes at all times. Making matters worse the Ground Penetrating Radar is not working, which effectively means the team…

With the sun having now set on them for the next three months or more, the Ice Team find themselves in an especially inhospitable area of terrain with severe crevassing being exposed in all directions. The team are making extensive use of the ground penetrating radar to help them find these holes and identify the safest route south; however, this is taking a lot of time and they are yet to find a…

In improving conditions the cabooses and remaining scoots were moved 1.2km forwards to join the scoots that we ferried ahead yesterday evening. This put everything on the northern edge of another area of disturbance. With someone leading on foot we then moved six scoots a further 5km through this area. The final 1km was the more difficult with sizeable crevassing. It is thought that our furthest…

The Ice Team have broken free from the blue ice field at last and are now making their way south again, which any reader will know is very good news. The Ground Penetrating Radar was deployed for the first few kilometres yesterday and thankfully no evidence of crevassing was detected. This is key, as encountering a similar patch of blue ice or crevasse field as the one just covered would hav…

Two days of good progress have put the Ice Team in a strong position to finally break out of the blue ice field once and onto the next stage of the journey. Yesterday, six fuel scoots were moved approx 2.2km west along the marked route, with the first 1.3km done by winching. Today, the team moved the cabooses and two of the remaining eight scoots 3km and they are now beyond the nasty area. So…