[Dale Andersen]. Hi Keith – We’ve continued our first job of the season which has been digging snow. Drifting snow around the base resulted in quite a few people at the airbase working on the ice runway and moving snow around the facility to remove snow from around the various buildings and other infrastructure.
Our five snowmobiles and their sleds were among the items that needed to be recovered from the massive drifts. We dug out three snowmobiles yesterday. Today we freed the last two, along with two of our snowmobile sleds. Between digging sessions, we have been in the hangar organizing equipment and packing the sea container.
The second of the two large cargo sleds that will haul our gear, supplies, and equipment was brought over this afternoon. Tomorrow we will pack both sleds and finish the sea container.
Ultima will then connect the two sleds and the sea container, and on Thursday they will hitch them to the Prinoth Everest tracked vehicle that will tow them to Untersee. Meanwhile, we will check our personal gear and fuel up the snowmobiles so everything is ready for the traverse on Thursday.
The weather has been poor for the last few days, with flat light, blowing snow, and a little more light snow this evening. The wind has dropped, though, and less snow is moving around the airbase which is pretty helpful. Tomorrow should be much better, and the forecast calls for sunshine to return on Thursday.
That timing matters for the traverse. In flat light the snow surface loses all contrast, so the rises, dips, and slopes ahead of the snowmobiles are almost impossible to see. With sun we will be able to read the terrain as we drive to the lake.
Cheers from Queen Maud Land, Dale
My snowmobile was in the hole where Miles is digging (foreground)… we then pulled out the sled – a sliver of which can be seen on the right side of the image. — Dale T. Andersen
Keith’s note: You can see all of the status reports and related articles from this field season and past seasons here at Dale Andersen’s Field Reports
Astrobiology, Exploration, Antarctica,
