Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 5 January 2026: Preparing to Leave Cape Town For The Ice
Keith
The team and all of our gear and cargo made it to Cape Town, which feels especially welcoming right now—warm, bright, and easy to settle into. Over Table Mountain, a steady cap cloud drifts to the edge and spills down like a soft waterfall, then thins and vanishes as it warms while descending. And the Waterfront is its usual lively mix of locals and visitors, all moving at that unhurried pace that makes it a perfect place to spend a day or two before we head south.
The flight to the ice takes about five and a half hours to six hours—straightforward by Antarctic standards—and the forecast looks decent: little wind and temperatures hovering around freezing.
Novolazarevskaya Station, Antarctica — Wikipedia
After we land at Ultima Antarctic Logistics’ airbase at the ice runway, we will spend a couple of days preparing for the traverse inland. That means sorting polar clothing and staging gear, packing and loading the cargo sleds, going over the snowmobiles end-to-end, and making sure communications, check-in schedules, and emergency procedures are locked in—before we leave the logistics hub that serves as our primary lifeline for check-ins, weather updates, and support if we need it.
Here is a webcam view of the Ultima Airbase landing strip at Novo earlier today. FYI, the webcam self-updates may not always work.
Once everything is staged and we’ve put a few test miles on the snowmobiles, weather pending, we will start the traverse toward Lake Untersee (71.342° S, 13.473° E), an isolated oasis tucked into the mountains of Queen Maud Land. We will be working hard to get into the field and begin our program of research as soon as our camp is established and we have settled into our new home.
Making The Traverse From Novolazarevskaya Station to Lake Untersee in 2022 — Dale Andersen
When we reach the lake, we will spend the first couple of days building the camp—tents up, everything squared away and prepared for high winds or bad weather.
Getting the Starlink up and running is high on the priority list, both for routine safety check-ins with Ultima (at least twice daily) and for weather updates, messages, and a robust link back to the rest of the world.
Stay tuned—once we are on the ice, I will send more updates!
-Dale-
Related links.
- Previous reports
- Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: Preview: 2026 Lake Untersee Field Seas
- Keith: Dale and I have been proving research updates – from Antarctica – since 1996. We think we actually had the first webserver (located in my old condo) updated from Antarctica. More details here: Dale Andersen’s 1996 Antarctic Field Research Photo Albums
Astrobiology
