Saturday, February 24, 2007

Solar Pillar

Last night as the sun was setting, we looked outside and noticed that the icebergs were a strange colour, almost a translucent blue.

We decided to go outside to investigate further, and discovered that a solar pillar had formed. It has something to do with the atmospheric conditions, and is seen as the sun is setting. The light from the sun seems to shoot up into the sky, like a pillar (hence the name). It is very beautiful thing to see. The colours that are caused by it are amazing

Come as someone else

Last night we had a "Come as someone else" dress up party. Some got dressed up as famous people, whilst others decided it would be funnier to dress up as someone else on station. Matt was coming as Chopper Read, till changed his mind and came as one of the Village People. I came as Yogi, our wintering chippie, and one of the geologists, Chris, came as me (Happy Birthday Chris!).

Matt doing the Y in the YMCA

Yogi looking a little confused

I will call him Mini-Me

More Quad training photos

As promised, here are some more photos of me from the quad bike training (thanks Tony!).
Who needs all four wheels anyway?Blue ice= no traction= great fun!Ready to get into it

My new room

I have finally moved from my temporary accommodation into by room in the Sleeping and Medical Quarters (SMQ). As you can see from the photo, the rooms in the SMQ are much larger. They also have thicker walls, so you can't hear your neighbour. Come next week though, I will have no one on either side of me, which will make it quieter still.

The other advantages of living in the SMQ are the fact that I don't have to get all rugged up to go to the bathroom, or for a feed. And I also now have my own phone, so email me if you want the number.

Birthday time

Check out this cake! I was asked earlier this week what sort of cake I wanted for my birthday, and obviously I responded with chocolate ripple cake. This is the result (of Noolie's twisted mind! Thanks Noolie, it was very well done and very funny).
Yogi doesn't want to look!The sign says "out of order", and yes, they are real pieces of corn in the poo

Also thanks to everyone who sent messages and for the pressies!

SAR & Quad training

Sorry it's been a while since my last entry, we have been flat out with training and work. The Aurora Australis left Hobart yesterday, due to be here on the 6th of March, and things are really getting busy here.
We finished our SAR training during the week, finishing with stretcher raises and lowers over rock cliffs. We then had a 'surprise' scenario, where one of the guys slipped down an ice embankment, suffering from a fractured arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding. SAR team to the rescue! All went well, we patched him up then got him into a stretcher and pulled him up the hill. So after the day was finished, we officially took over the reins from the interim SAR team.

From left: Me, Paul and Jason, with Richard in the stretcher

Today we also went quad training, which was brilliant. Riding on snow and ice is really good fun. Especially riding on blue ice, and being told to get into it. Brakes don't do a thing for you, unless you want to throw the bike into a spin, which may have happened once or twice. I will have some more photos soon of the quad session, but here is one of Hully riding up a melt stream. Note the hole in the ice on his right - I did that! That was where I dropped my bike through on the first run, making it a little harder for the rest of the time. I didn't fall off, but I know a certain motorbike instructor who did (hi Jude and Em!).

Thursday, February 15, 2007

SAR Team

Even after the bivvying fiasco, guess who made the SAR team? That's right kids - me! I have been chosen as one of four 'first responders'.

The First Responders head off asap, ahead of the team in most circumstances, to stabilise patient, or do a reconnaissance search in most likely area. Basically what we do is jump on a quad bike and get to the area as soon as is safely possible. The idea is to perform any first aid that my be required. We will also be the first teams out to do a primary search if the position of the person/people is unknown. The Second Responders follow once all equipment is sorted and might perform the technical extraction eg stretcher raise, hagglunds recovery.

So Thursday and Friday of this week, and Monday and Tuesday of next week are being spent doing further training, including further first aid, stretcher raising and lowering, search techniques and procedures and more cliff work with ropes and pulley systems. Monday should be some good fun as we are heading out to jump off cliffs. Tuesday will be 'surprise' SAR incidents all day long to test us out. Looking forward to it. (And the good news is that there are no overnight stays, so there will be no bivvying!)

Oscars and Bowls

So last Friday night we had a movie night. The idea was to show the videos made by the expeditioners on Voyages 1 and 2 on the way down here. Some of the videos are brilliant. The theme for the night was to dress for an Oscars award ceremony. A few of us got dressed up in our 'best' clothes. Well at least Richard did...Me, Richard, Glen H and Cookie


And some of the guys simply used it as an excuse to get into the dress-up department and find a lovely frock for the evening...
There are two real women in this photo. Can you guess which ones they are?


Even Noolie (summer chef) got into the spirit of the evening by supplying the popcorn and making a load of choc tops to be served during intermission.
After a big Friday night, Saturday was always going to be a little subdued. A group of us got a hankering to play some carpet bowls, but unfortunately the pool table was being used so we couldn't move it. The next best location we found was at the top of the stairwell between the LQ and the SMQ. Amazingly, not one ball was lost down the stairs during the night. We got some very strange looks, but we didn't care, we were having fun.

Nice form, Brendan

Catherine and Jim bowling from the SMQ end

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Field Training

Well I finally got out to go field training last week. It has been a bit hard watching everyone else go first and then be able to go out on overnight (or longer) field trips. But my turn finally came. There are two reasons we go field training. One is to learn skills to enable us to survive the harsh conditions down here and the other is to determine who might be suitable for the SAR (Search and Rescue) team.
The first day is spent both on station and out in the field. In the morning we made sure we had all our gear ready to go, and we also did a bit of rope work. After lunch we jumped into choppers to take us out to where we would be camping for two nights. Once we had set up camp, it was off to an ice slope to learn how to stop yourself sliding down a hill using your ice axe, and also how to traverse ice and snow slopes. After dinner it was off for a bit of a sightseeing walk.

The campsite for nights one and two

One of the "skills" we had to learn was what is known as "bivvying out". This is the most stupid idea I have ever heard. The idea is to get into your sleeping bag, worm your way into another thin wind proof bag and go to sleep. In theory this is fine, until you realise that you are sleeping on ice, the bag is really hard to get into comfortably, you can't have your head inside the bag because of the condensation build up, and you can't have it outside because it's snowing. Stupid. I think I got about 4 minutes sleep for the night. When I got out in the morning, I had ice hanging off me. The overalls I had stuffed down the end of the bivvy bag were covered in ice. my water bottle was half frozen. Stupid, I tell you. Given the choice between bivvying again and dying in a blizzard, bring on death. And as for people who say "ooh, I love bivvying" and actually do it by choice, they must have some mental problems. Did I mention bivvying is stupid?

This looks like a great place to sleep, doesn't it???

Anyway, the next day was spent learning about ice and snow anchors, and rope and pulley systems for crevasse rescue. This was really good fun, because later in the day we went over the edge of an ice cliff and the guys who were left on top worked out how to pull you back up. It was a long day, we got back to camp some time after 2000 hours.

Kirkus (Field Training Officer) making sure Tony is good to go

When we got back to camp, we had dinner and went for a walk up one of the hills to watch the sunset, which was quite stunning. The following three photos were taken all on the same night.

Me waiting for the sun to set

Sunset number 1Sunset number 2Sunset number 3, taken while doing number 2's on the outside dunny

The best thing about night number two was that I got to sleep in a tent, which was relative luxury compared to the damn stupid bivvy. Day three was our hike day. From our campsite to Watt's Hut is about 12kms as the crow flies, but of course the hike was a bit further than that. All these bloody hills and valleys and lakes kept getting in the way. It took us about seven and a half hours to complete the walk, breaks included. The best break of the day was smoko. Just after 1030 we heard a chopper heading our way. After confirming they were looking for us we directed them in. The pilot called Cookie (our Station Leader) over and handed him a plastic container. In it were sausage rolls, savoury scrolls and cake. The SL had ordered in smoko for us. It was fantastic! Certainly better than the dehydrated food we had been eating.

It was very satisfying to finally get to Watt's, dump the 20 kg packs and have a good night's sleep in a real bed. Almost 5 star accommodation!

The final day was spent doing some first aid work, till the chopper came and took us out to Rookery Lake. Out there we did some ice drilling work, and also practiced throwing our throw bags (used if anyone falls through the sea ice). Also on the agenda was a visit to the penguin colony. There were thousands of birds. Most of the chicks are in the process of moulting, getting pretty close to being able to fend for themselves. They are at an age where they are big enough to seriously annoy their parents for food, and are quite aggressive about it. The most common site was adolescent chicks chasing adults, trying to get a feed. And it is as funny as all hell! Penguins just aren't built for running. We could have stayed there all day, but our chopper was booked for a 1430 pick up, so we had to leave.

After four days in the field, I don't know who smelt the worst, me or the penguinsI think I shall call him "Happy Feet"

All in all, I had a great time, except for bivvying. Did I mention that it's stupid?

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Davis Beer Garden

Just a quick one to tide you all over for a week or so, because I'm heading off to do my field training this week. We head out Tuesday, and don't come back till Friday evening. I am really looking forward to it. I still haven't moved into the SMQ because the planes are still here, so it looks like I will be moving next week. Saturday night saw us shooting darts and playing pool again, just for something different. So a few of us decided to head outside into a makeshift beer garden. Ok, it wasn't really a beer garden, we just took some beer and chairs outside for something different. It really was quite mild, that's why I'm in without a jacket. This shot was taken at about 2300 and it was about 3 degrees with no wind, so quite pleasant really.
Here are Tony S, Trevor, Colin and Barry enjoying the fine weather.
This shot is proof that darts ability, alcohol levels and the time are all proportionate. It's just a matter of getting the levels right. After shooting quite badly for most of the night, the planets aligned and I hit 3 bulls from 3 throws. If I'm this good at 0400 and after an unknown quantity of bourbon, I should be bloody brilliant at 0600 and even more bourbon. Unfortunately though, sleep got the better of me, so I guess we will never know...