Aug 20th – Sep 3rd
For the past 7 days I have been on traverse. After a few false starts where a blizzard delayed our departure from Casey we set off. A party of 5 had headed out 5 days before us and were already at Law Dome. We were off to change over and head to Law Dome East which is 120km inland; South-East from Casey. Law Dome is 1395metres high. It is one of several Domes in Antarctica, though a minor one.
Once there, an AWS (Automatic Weather Station), which has not been reporting accurate data back to the Meterological office at Casey, was repaired. It was here that I met up with the first crew and we did a change over of people. After that John, Shane, PJ, Lloyd and I traveled a further 80km East-Southeast to Law Dome East. Our job here was to locate a second AWS which has not been reporting any data back to Casey at all. Our biggest fear was that this second AWS had been buried under many meters of snow and would be unrecoverable, but we lived with a small hope that we would locate it. As luck would have it we located the AWS immediately. It was sitting 50cm above the snow. This meant there was 6 metres of AWS buried in the ground which needed to be dug out. What should have been a simple job of removal and inspection soon turned into the usual Antarctic debacle.
I need to explain the “A” factor before I continue, as I don’t think I have mentioned it before now. The “A” factor is the “Antarctic” factor. It is a thing that turns a simple 30 minute job into a monumental task taking a full day or more. It happens constantly down here and is the biggest source of frustration to us all. One of the many things I have learnt down here is the value of patience. It is a trait I possessed in only very small quantities prior to this adventure. I still can not attest to having an overabundance of patience, even now, but I am more able to stand back, take a deep breath and realise that some things are simply out of my control and I need to find a new workaround to achieve my initial goals.
The “A” factor came into play constantly over the rest of our trip unfortunately.
It started with digging out the AWS with the big D7 dozer – a normally fabulous and reliable machine. All went well for the first few hours. John had successfully started bulldozing a brilliant pathway down to the bottom of the AWS. Darkness started falling so we packed up for the evening to continue the next day.
That evening I stood outside under the most amazing sky I have ever seen. The Milky Way hung low and bright and stretched across the heavens in all its glory. The last time I saw the sky this magnificent was many years ago, lying outside under it in +30 degree heat in the middle of the Australian desert. This time round I was standing in Antarctica in -35 degrees – totally opposite extremes! As I watched the sky, an Aurora started to form. It was the most magnificent one I have seen so far. It danced across the sky brightening then waning: sending out massive fingers of green light like search lights from its fringes, then withdrawing them back again. Huge steps of white and green formed like the entrance to a magnificent doorway and then faded away to slivers of white cloud. I stood watching for as long as I could, fighting the cold to watch this magical display, knowing I may never see its like again. I wish I had the words to describe it more adequately. Watching the energy in the sky and actually witnessing the pulse and rhythm of the atmosphere was truly awe inspiring. We are such insignificant specs of creatures, we humans, in the overall scheme of the things and our constant self absorbed arrogance astounds me when faced with the power of the universe.
The next day dawned clear and blue with little wind, though at -35 degrees it was still freezing cold. The day commenced with the dozer refusing to start. That led to our two diesel mechanics having to pull the starter motor out of the engine and repair it with minimal tools in the middle of the cold Antarctic wasteland. Not a pleasant job in the best of conditions. While they worked on the dozer the rest of us dug the AWS out by hand down another 4 metres. Shane came over with the chain saw to cut away blocks so they could be shoveled out. It wasn’t long before the chain saw froze in the cold and ceased to work. More cutting and digging by hand. The “A” factor was still in play.
I had a lot of trouble working outside because my hands were going off very quickly and painfully due to my frostbite earlier in the year. The tolerance of my hands to cold in these hideously low temperatures seems to be quite low still. I was forced inside to warm up a lot more than the boys were. I felt quite inadequate because of this, but as the boys pointed out, there wasn’t anything to be done about the situation. So we effected the removal of the AWS and the boys fixed the starter motor of the D7.
One more day down.
Another day dawned and the previous days blue sky had turned into white out conditions. PJ – the Met tech - and I began testing the AWS to work out why it was not working. The electronics were fine, the cables and leads were fine, the batteries were still being charged by the solar panels and held full charge. So why was there no signal? There was only one possibility, the transmitter was broken. We did not have the parts to repair it in the field or a spare. Again the “A” factor caused us frustration. There was no choice other than pack up and return to Casey. But the “A” factor wasn’t finished with us yet. Once more the starter motor on the D7 had ceased to work and then we received word that the AWS at Law Dome – the previous stop – had ceased transmitting accurate data to Casey once more.
The diesos had to affect repairs yet again and this time the dozer, once started, would not be turned off until we reached Casey. Pulling out and rebuilding a starter motor not once, but twice, in the cold of Antarctica is enough for anyone.
I have so much admiration for these two boys, it was a bloody gutsy effort having to work outside and do all they did to get the dozer repaired and not once did either of them complain at all. They simply soldered on and got the job done as quickly and fuss free as they could. They build these boys tough who come down here.
Now fuel now a concern; we had enough to get back to station - if nothing else went wrong. So we set off back the way we had come in whiteout conditions. The pace on a Traverse is very slow, averaging only 7kph. We stopped for dinner and a sched with Casey then continued on. Soon after we set off yet another debacle befell us. Lloyd and I noticed the train sleds behaving erratically. We tried to signal John but he had inadvertently switched his radio to the wrong channel. Then the accelerator cable on the Nodwell got stuck on full throttle and took off at full speed along the rough snow with me trying desperately to get the thing under control. Finally we caught John’s attention and he stopped to check out our concerns. The chain holding the generator van in the train had snapped. Botheration!!! We used the Nodwell to drag the sled back in line then the placement of two massive D Shackles made a temporary repair that we hoped would hold for the reminder of the trip home.
Off we set again. PJ and Shane had stayed in the Atazi van and we kept power to it to keep the heaters going. They slept while John and I drove on - John in the D7, me in the Nodwell. I had Lloyd for company beside me and at midnight we changed over driving. By then my eyes were hardly staying open. We reached Law Dome at 3am. PJ looked at the AWS and unfroze one of the wind cups. Hopefully it will continue working for a long while to come now. That took less than 30 minutes. John, Lloyd and I went to the Atazi van and slept and the other two boys continued driving.
We stopped for a morning sched and a quick breakfast at 8am and then continued. I took the controls of the Nodwell once more. We were still in white out conditions. We had nil visibility and blowing snow. I was guided by GPS and Radar, which are brilliant when combined together for navigation. There was literally nothing to see through the ice build up on the windscreen.
But the road to home was not going to run any smoother this day. A few hours later Shane radioed from the dozer that the alternator was not charging and he had lost all power. The temperature gauge was going through the roof and he had to stop. An inspection of the engine found the fan belt broken. Replacing it was a simple 10 minute job, but the dozer had to be turned off to perform it. We all crossed our fingers that after running for a few hours the starter motor would be warm enough to fire up again. The repair was done in record time and the good old D7 fired straight up. What an old workhorse this beast is!
In the mean time PJ had gone into the generator van: on coming out again the wind had caught hold of the door. It ripped it straight out of his hands and tore all three hinges away from the door frame like they were tissue paper. FFFFFaaaaaarrrrrrkkkkkkkk!!!! What the hell else could go wrong on this damn trip?! So the door was hauled up from the snow where it had landed near the Gen van and tied into the generator room.
We set off, not defeated, but certainly with our arses severely kicked by this cold desolate place. We were all tired and very glad to be only a day from home. The distance was slowly covered by our traveling caravan train at a steady 7kph. We reached Casey station at 10:40pm that night and were safely in the Red Shed a little after midnight, having shut all the equipment down one last time and putting the dozer into the workshop.
Once again, another adventure to add to my memoirs.
We didn't quite reach the ends of the earth, but bloody hell, I reckon you could see it from where we were!
The trip had been filled with debacles, more than we really did need, but they were all overcome. There was a lot of frustration as well, but amongst it all was the eccentricity that is Lloyd our doctor, the twisted humor of PJ, the “Doodlehead” factor that is my mate John, he is such a sweetie, and the ever present sense of calm and serenity that is my mate Shane. I admit that John and Shane are two of my favourites amongst all the boys on station. John is my next door neighbor in the Red Shed and we have become good mates over the time we have been here, which is nice.
Till next week – and a shorter update – have a good one
Trace :o]
Once there, an AWS (Automatic Weather Station), which has not been reporting accurate data back to the Meterological office at Casey, was repaired. It was here that I met up with the first crew and we did a change over of people. After that John, Shane, PJ, Lloyd and I traveled a further 80km East-Southeast to Law Dome East. Our job here was to locate a second AWS which has not been reporting any data back to Casey at all. Our biggest fear was that this second AWS had been buried under many meters of snow and would be unrecoverable, but we lived with a small hope that we would locate it. As luck would have it we located the AWS immediately. It was sitting 50cm above the snow. This meant there was 6 metres of AWS buried in the ground which needed to be dug out. What should have been a simple job of removal and inspection soon turned into the usual Antarctic debacle.
I need to explain the “A” factor before I continue, as I don’t think I have mentioned it before now. The “A” factor is the “Antarctic” factor. It is a thing that turns a simple 30 minute job into a monumental task taking a full day or more. It happens constantly down here and is the biggest source of frustration to us all. One of the many things I have learnt down here is the value of patience. It is a trait I possessed in only very small quantities prior to this adventure. I still can not attest to having an overabundance of patience, even now, but I am more able to stand back, take a deep breath and realise that some things are simply out of my control and I need to find a new workaround to achieve my initial goals.
The “A” factor came into play constantly over the rest of our trip unfortunately.
It started with digging out the AWS with the big D7 dozer – a normally fabulous and reliable machine. All went well for the first few hours. John had successfully started bulldozing a brilliant pathway down to the bottom of the AWS. Darkness started falling so we packed up for the evening to continue the next day.
That evening I stood outside under the most amazing sky I have ever seen. The Milky Way hung low and bright and stretched across the heavens in all its glory. The last time I saw the sky this magnificent was many years ago, lying outside under it in +30 degree heat in the middle of the Australian desert. This time round I was standing in Antarctica in -35 degrees – totally opposite extremes! As I watched the sky, an Aurora started to form. It was the most magnificent one I have seen so far. It danced across the sky brightening then waning: sending out massive fingers of green light like search lights from its fringes, then withdrawing them back again. Huge steps of white and green formed like the entrance to a magnificent doorway and then faded away to slivers of white cloud. I stood watching for as long as I could, fighting the cold to watch this magical display, knowing I may never see its like again. I wish I had the words to describe it more adequately. Watching the energy in the sky and actually witnessing the pulse and rhythm of the atmosphere was truly awe inspiring. We are such insignificant specs of creatures, we humans, in the overall scheme of the things and our constant self absorbed arrogance astounds me when faced with the power of the universe.
The next day dawned clear and blue with little wind, though at -35 degrees it was still freezing cold. The day commenced with the dozer refusing to start. That led to our two diesel mechanics having to pull the starter motor out of the engine and repair it with minimal tools in the middle of the cold Antarctic wasteland. Not a pleasant job in the best of conditions. While they worked on the dozer the rest of us dug the AWS out by hand down another 4 metres. Shane came over with the chain saw to cut away blocks so they could be shoveled out. It wasn’t long before the chain saw froze in the cold and ceased to work. More cutting and digging by hand. The “A” factor was still in play.
I had a lot of trouble working outside because my hands were going off very quickly and painfully due to my frostbite earlier in the year. The tolerance of my hands to cold in these hideously low temperatures seems to be quite low still. I was forced inside to warm up a lot more than the boys were. I felt quite inadequate because of this, but as the boys pointed out, there wasn’t anything to be done about the situation. So we effected the removal of the AWS and the boys fixed the starter motor of the D7.
One more day down.
Another day dawned and the previous days blue sky had turned into white out conditions. PJ – the Met tech - and I began testing the AWS to work out why it was not working. The electronics were fine, the cables and leads were fine, the batteries were still being charged by the solar panels and held full charge. So why was there no signal? There was only one possibility, the transmitter was broken. We did not have the parts to repair it in the field or a spare. Again the “A” factor caused us frustration. There was no choice other than pack up and return to Casey. But the “A” factor wasn’t finished with us yet. Once more the starter motor on the D7 had ceased to work and then we received word that the AWS at Law Dome – the previous stop – had ceased transmitting accurate data to Casey once more.
The diesos had to affect repairs yet again and this time the dozer, once started, would not be turned off until we reached Casey. Pulling out and rebuilding a starter motor not once, but twice, in the cold of Antarctica is enough for anyone.
I have so much admiration for these two boys, it was a bloody gutsy effort having to work outside and do all they did to get the dozer repaired and not once did either of them complain at all. They simply soldered on and got the job done as quickly and fuss free as they could. They build these boys tough who come down here.
Now fuel now a concern; we had enough to get back to station - if nothing else went wrong. So we set off back the way we had come in whiteout conditions. The pace on a Traverse is very slow, averaging only 7kph. We stopped for dinner and a sched with Casey then continued on. Soon after we set off yet another debacle befell us. Lloyd and I noticed the train sleds behaving erratically. We tried to signal John but he had inadvertently switched his radio to the wrong channel. Then the accelerator cable on the Nodwell got stuck on full throttle and took off at full speed along the rough snow with me trying desperately to get the thing under control. Finally we caught John’s attention and he stopped to check out our concerns. The chain holding the generator van in the train had snapped. Botheration!!! We used the Nodwell to drag the sled back in line then the placement of two massive D Shackles made a temporary repair that we hoped would hold for the reminder of the trip home.
Off we set again. PJ and Shane had stayed in the Atazi van and we kept power to it to keep the heaters going. They slept while John and I drove on - John in the D7, me in the Nodwell. I had Lloyd for company beside me and at midnight we changed over driving. By then my eyes were hardly staying open. We reached Law Dome at 3am. PJ looked at the AWS and unfroze one of the wind cups. Hopefully it will continue working for a long while to come now. That took less than 30 minutes. John, Lloyd and I went to the Atazi van and slept and the other two boys continued driving.
We stopped for a morning sched and a quick breakfast at 8am and then continued. I took the controls of the Nodwell once more. We were still in white out conditions. We had nil visibility and blowing snow. I was guided by GPS and Radar, which are brilliant when combined together for navigation. There was literally nothing to see through the ice build up on the windscreen.
But the road to home was not going to run any smoother this day. A few hours later Shane radioed from the dozer that the alternator was not charging and he had lost all power. The temperature gauge was going through the roof and he had to stop. An inspection of the engine found the fan belt broken. Replacing it was a simple 10 minute job, but the dozer had to be turned off to perform it. We all crossed our fingers that after running for a few hours the starter motor would be warm enough to fire up again. The repair was done in record time and the good old D7 fired straight up. What an old workhorse this beast is!
In the mean time PJ had gone into the generator van: on coming out again the wind had caught hold of the door. It ripped it straight out of his hands and tore all three hinges away from the door frame like they were tissue paper. FFFFFaaaaaarrrrrrkkkkkkkk!!!! What the hell else could go wrong on this damn trip?! So the door was hauled up from the snow where it had landed near the Gen van and tied into the generator room.
We set off, not defeated, but certainly with our arses severely kicked by this cold desolate place. We were all tired and very glad to be only a day from home. The distance was slowly covered by our traveling caravan train at a steady 7kph. We reached Casey station at 10:40pm that night and were safely in the Red Shed a little after midnight, having shut all the equipment down one last time and putting the dozer into the workshop.
Once again, another adventure to add to my memoirs.
We didn't quite reach the ends of the earth, but bloody hell, I reckon you could see it from where we were!
The trip had been filled with debacles, more than we really did need, but they were all overcome. There was a lot of frustration as well, but amongst it all was the eccentricity that is Lloyd our doctor, the twisted humor of PJ, the “Doodlehead” factor that is my mate John, he is such a sweetie, and the ever present sense of calm and serenity that is my mate Shane. I admit that John and Shane are two of my favourites amongst all the boys on station. John is my next door neighbor in the Red Shed and we have become good mates over the time we have been here, which is nice.
Till next week – and a shorter update – have a good one
Trace :o]
posted by Tracey in Casey - Antarctica at 12:15 pm
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