A glimpse into the world that keeps drawing me back for more...

Ice and Sky

Cirrostratus delight over Reptile Ridge

Looking back at base

My Met Towers

Some Things Never Change

Here's a link to my account of the month of June here at Rothera, recently posted on the British Antarctic Survey Website:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/diaries/rothera/2011/06/index.php

Winter Team 2011

Take a look at the mad men and women I'm stranded with for the next dark months! Should be interesting...
Left to right, back, to front we are: Dave (Communications Manager), Rod (Base Commander),
Curly (Vehicle Mechanic), Nick (Plumber), Lorna (Chef), Vicki (Doctor), Malcolm (Field Assistant), Mike (Field Assistant), Cheese (Field Assistant), Tom (Field Assistant), Tamsin (that's me...Meteorologist), Terri (Marine Biologist), Frazer (Electrician), Dave (Dive Officer), Simmo (Marine Assistant), Tomo (Generator Mechanic), Ross (Electronics Engineer), Dave (Boatman), Gavin (Carpenter, Ian (Field Assistant).

Winter Trip

Admiring the view from the summit of imaginatively named peak N26

My humble abode

Another Antarctic summit, this time I descended in style, snowboarding

View across the bay. We travel around the island two by two, each driving a snowmobile and pulling a sledge carrying everything we need to survive, all tied together by thick ropes just in case we are unlucky enough to drive across a crevass.

ANTARCTIC HIGHLIGHTS

People are always asking me why I keep coming back to Antarctica. Well, as much as I love my job, it's the lifestyle that really has me hooked. The perks that these images hint towards are definitely a big part of the appeal.

Exploring the incredible shades of the ice, up close. That's me at the helm.
The glacier front of the Sheldon glacier, source of many of the icebergs in the bays around the base, as it retreats.

Tom roping up on the ramp above base ready for some survival skills training.

Tom enjoying one of the first rock climbs of the summer.

Rockhoppers

Yesterday I added a ninth species of penguin to my collection and they rate pretty highly on my coolest penguin leader board. The funky rockhoppers with their crazy hairdos and bright red eyes were a joy to watch as they bounced up the cliffs then danced about the colony until they found their nest. The only way to get to this remote spot on the deserted Falklands coastline was via landrover. We took what our guide called 'his local high street', zigzagging across peat bogs and craggy outcrops until we arrived in the middle of nowhere . It was worth the ride as not only the penguins but the scenery was stunning and it may be some of the last land I see that isn't hidden beneath a blanket of cold white lovliness. Mmmm, snow, powdery fresh snow, how I miss it. Can't wait to get even further south and it shouldn't be long now. Hopefully departing on the Dash 7 tomorrow morning at 4am! Bring it on...

Southward Bound Once More

Yes, I’m off again.

But before I go on, first please let me apologise for my online absence. Now that I’m off to the back of beyond to resume my adventure in the name of science, I plan to write much more frequently.

The first time I went to Antarctica most of my friends and family were really excited for me. I think they shared in the nervous anticipation of the unknown. Each step I took on my adventure was thrilling.

Now though, a lot of them seem quite puzzled. Why do I feel the need to go back, again and again? Haven’t I seen what I need to see, had my adventure, had enough of the cold and the snow?

I must admit it feels different now than it did when I was planning my first trip. And my motivations have changed. Now I want to go so badly not to find out about another world, another way of life, but because I know I love that way of life and the freedom it gives me. Here's a poem I wrote last time I was south that might help explain what I'm talking about:

ANTARCTICA

To be here, to come here

This place with its view

Means so little to so many

But so much to so few

Who’ve been here, who’ve seen it

Who’ve felt it and lived it

Who’ve kept it inside them

And can’t live without it

Who know its uniqueness

Its whiteness, its bleakness

Who crave its togetherness

And love its remoteness

Who live with the secret

That others can’t know

That this place is special

More than rocks, ice and snow

A world in its own right

That floods all the senses

Such that nothing else matters

Outside of its fences

And each day I wake up

And feel it take hold

There’s beauty in isolation

And there’s warmth in the cold

And I know I’m in love

As each time I depart

All that I think of

Whilst we are apart

Is the day I’ll be back

On this floating ice shelf

Or this snowy mountain

And I smile to myself

Certainly not a work of literary genius but it does talk of that feeling that keeps drawing me back to Antarctica, the feeling that there's nowhere I would rather be in the world!

Christmas Eve: Mulled wine, mince pies and a spectacular view out across the bay...

Happy Christmas!

Launching the Rothera weather balloon on an icy Christmas Morning

Fabulous Antarctic Videos

OK, so I know I haven't posted any Antarctic action lately (that' s because I'm currently based in Cambridge, UK and as far I'm concerned, if there's no snow, it's not worth writing about) but Kirk Watson, one of the team down at Rothera, has been making some
WONDERFUL VIDEOS OF ANTARCTIC WINTER LIFE

As for me, I'm off back down south in just a few weeks time so watch this space for more photos, stories and snowy science from the start of November...

Travels

A few photos from my recent travels up the Antarctic Peninsula to Tierra del Fuego and into Patagonia...stories to follow...

Out and About

Last Sunday afternoon, as the sun broke through the clouds at last, I clambered up Stork Ridge and looked down at the glacier below.

Monday night at Rothera's very own ski resort...

Wildlife

And even wilder scenery...

From the window of the plane when I was lucky enough to venture further afield:

Happy Christmas and a very Merry New Year!

A 'Dingle Day' at last!

When the sun finally comes along and lights up this place after days spent under a giant white blanket of cloud and snow, it feels like the curtain has been lifted on a world inconceivable only hours ago. Days like today are beyond description in English but in Antarctican we call them 'dingle days'. When the snow sparkles and each face of a mountain is glowing in a different shade. The sea shimmers and, around the base of icebergs, takes on an incredible turquoise colour that could never be mixed. When everywhere you look, you find yourself staring transfixed and unable to take it in. When the thin strands of high ice cloud appear as if they are trying to frame the view. When nothing quite looks real. When the scene in front of you is so breathtakingly beautiful that you can't think beyond the present moment.

I set off from the base, below, to marvel at the raw beauty that surrounds it...

A lonely penguin dwarfed by the icebergs that act as a safe haven for it to escape the lurking leopard seal.

A seal sunning itself on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

After a day out enjoying the stunning weather, including carving some turns on my board at the local ski resort - Vals, I prepared for a night spent weather watching. The recent bad weather has left us with a back logs of field parties to fly out so today 24 hour operations were called for. I'm duty met tonight and it suits me just fine as I can enjoy a few more shades of magic as the light slowly shifts and the clouds start to roll in. Soon the splendour will be hidden behind a veil once again so I'm happy to catch every moment.

I'll try and write a bit more about my job here soon.

Underground, Overground...

Welcome to the one or two extra followers my blog seems to have aquired of late, hope you enjoy a glimpse of this slightly otherworldy corner of the earth.

After all those photos of the mindblowingly beautiful crevass just up the hill from Rothera, here's a photo of me slithering my way through said ice cavern:

Below you see me making the most of a sunny interval amidst what seemed like a neverending storm. The high winds that day were creating some excellent flying saucer like 'lenticular' clouds over the ridge behind the base. I skied out for a spot of wildlife watching around Rothera Point and bumped into (almost literally) a few cuddly Weddell seals and some Adelie penguins, waddling their way through life in what appears to be a charmingly oblivious fashion.

I'm currently featured on a women in science blog, have a look if you want to find out how I ended up here.

Easy Come, Easy Go

My first voyage to Antarctica involved 10 weeks on board a ship, crossing the equator then on southwards via various little known islands and eventually bashing through ice nall the way to the ice cliffs of mainland Antarctica. This time, I left the UK on Wednesday afternoon and touched down on the Antarctic Peninsula in time for lunch on Friday.

The photo above shows the Dash 7, the British Antarctic Survey's 'passenger jet' that brings people in and out of Rothera Research Station from late October to early March. It lands on wheels on a runway kept clear of snow and can even make it further south to land on blue ice runways. This morning the Dash 7 left Rothera bound for Punta Arenas in southern Chile. Amongst it's 14 or so passengers and crew was Matt Balmer, who's just finished 2 and a half years working as an electronics engineers down here without once leaving. When the plane returns tomorrow morning, it will bring the Dutch crown Prince and Princess, on a weekend trip south as part of their world tour monitoring the effects of global climate change.

Wow...