A Few More Photos...

Hello people! A few more photos, since words aren't flowing as freely today as my nose was last week... In the last 2 weeks there have been a few really nice days, one up Stork Bowl again, and then a few from base. I also had my winterer's local area familiarisation flight - basically on a really nice day 10 of the winterer's got to go up in the Dash 7 and get a guided tour around Adelaide Island and a few close by islands, to help us realise where we are, and also to aid in the planning of winter trips which will be happening in a little over a months time. I spied with my little eyes quite a few brilliant looking places for ski mountaineering. Some of the views are pretty breath-taking on a good day. I'll have to work on my fitness.


Here me, Simon Herniman, Riet, Penny (summer dentist) and Disco Pete (don't ask) get ready to skin up Stork Bowl to where the brightest sun is in the picture.

This is a spot quite close to the previous picture, looking the opposite direction. The snow, which has been receeding like the hairline of a serial bleacher, reveals amazing bright orange rocks (i guess there's lots of iron in there, but i haven't asked a rockologist yet). Anyway, it looks great in the dipping sun.

Simon and Penny getting close to the top of the safe part of Stork before the crevasses start. In winter i should be able to ski right from the top after loads more snow falls on everything.

Disco Pete (don't ask) went for a jump off the smooth edged cornace at the bottom of Stork Bowl on the last run down, landed hard, snapped off the break on one of his skiis, which came off and calmly began accelerating down the slope towards a bloody great crevasse field and the sea. Thus rendered half-skied and thoroughly cheesed off, he tried to ski mono back to the skiidoos. Bad luck...

A nice sunset at Skiway Col, at the top of the emergency runway (skiway) which the planes use if the crosswind is too high at Rothera. A twin otter got flipped onto it's back during the 2003/4 season in a crosswind so they're really careful now about things like that.

The only known picture of me in the co-pilot's seat in a twin otter in Antarctica in existence. I just put it in because it was pretty exciting being in the jump seat and landing at Fossil Bluff when i took this picture. After we'd refuelled, Doug the pilot took a scenic and topography-hugging route for a while as we headed back towards Rothera. The topography could be described as undulating by an understater.

The order of these photos is slightly skewed in favour of whichever order the computer arranged them in. Here Pete and Riet are skinning up the last bit. You can just see Simon and Penny nearer the botttom.

I went for a wander last night around the point with Matt, and the light was really nice, so here's a few photos of that.

And this last one was pinched from a powerpoint presentation that my boss gave at some point, and i thought i'd throw it in because i keep going on about Fossil Bluff and Halley and Sky Blu, and i forgot that there's no particular reason why you should know where they are! Here's a nice simple map of the Antarctic Peninsula. It's about 2 hrs flight between Rothera and Fossil Bluff, and another 2 to Sky Blu - that gives a bit of a sense of scale. Sky Blu is at 75 degrees South, and the South Pole is roughly where the "a" of "about Fossil Bluff" is in this paragraph.

Anyway, things are going fine here, i should be heading back out to fossil bluff again on Sunday but will mayeb post again before then. Cheers, Rob

Couple of Photos...

Hi again, nothing very out of the ordinary (at least not out of my new and slightly odd ordinary) has happened since the last post, but there was a really nice sky towards the Arrowsmith Peninsula to the East, and to the South last night (2nd picture) about midnight so i thought i'd post a couple of pictures. You'll notice that the sun is not far away from setting!

This one was taken by Alistair the doc on Gould Night (when an American marine biology ship came alongside for 1 night a couple of weeks ago). There Matt on guitar (left), Me on other guitar, Riet van der Velde (Belgian chef) on drums, and Matt Brown (dive officer) singing. We are pretty crammed onto the tiny little stage in the sledge store.

My Postal Address

Just in case anyone was wondering - it's possible to get post into the Antarctic pretty easily, but only during the summer, which means between November and March. If anyone fancies sending me anything at all then they need to do it in the next 2 weeks at the latest if it's going to get to me this year since it has to get picked up by ship from the Falklands and taken down here...


Rob Webster
Rothera Research Station
c/o British Antarctic Survey Office
Stanley
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
F1QQ 1ZZ

It would be very nice to get anything at all. Cheers, rob

Some of What? and Where?

Hello again! I've had quite a few requests from people interested in where i actually do all this "work" that i claim to be here to do. This varies and most of the little places where we work our little bits of meteorological stuff look really dull in photos so i won't bore you with them. At some point i'll do a post on "recreation" which sounds like something someone who's detained at Her Majesty's pleasure is allowed to do for 1 hour every day. Or something that God did after he'd crumpled up the first Universe and chucked it in his very very large bin. So here are the main rooms that make up my working day:

This is the comms/ops (communications/ operations) tower, which is where the communications guys work from. Its pretty much the comms and planning hub for everything that goes on thats not at the base and quite a bit of the stuff that is. It basically consists of banks of radio equipment and computers, charts and a box of biscuits, wheelie chairs and an almost 360 degree view. There's a balcony running round the edge of the tower which is where i go to do my hourly observations, unless doing them from the top of the hill if specially requested by the pilots (fog can start forming over there and then creep round with little warning).

My desk! Where all the incredibly important worldclass meteorology happens...(?) and also where im writing from now. Notice the trademark two computer screens next to each other which is evidence of professionalism, and the wheels on the bottom of the chair which allow me to get to where im most needed almost instantly, cutting wasted standing up then walking time by up to a half. Note also the clock on the wall. That is there to let us know the time, and the caldendar white board is there to inform us of the date and day of the week, lest we forget where we are in Time's great line...

Here is Ags, my predeccesor sitting at her desk which will shortly become my desk, as it is better than my current one. Points of interest include the 50 bunnyrabbit tails on a string which is draped on the door handle to ward off evil spirits, and the open door, signifying our openness and willingness to come to anyone's aid in times of crisis. It's also so we can get some air in, since none of the windows open.

This bank of slightly ancient computers, with some new ones added is the bulk of the ARIES system (some acronym for something or other.. The "I" is for image i think) which is the satellite tracking system which provides us with about one satellite image an hour of a big chunk of Antarctic, and which is the main tool of the forecaster for dictating aircraft movements on the continent. This system has been giving almost endless problems since i got here, and it keeps breaking in new and ridiculous ways. But we've also installed a new version in the last month which seems to work better. Which is good because it's my responsibility for the next 2 years.




This is our met workshop where we prepare all the instruments and generally try to make things work by moving wires around and cutting things and attaching them to other things. It's usually a bit of a mess but i can safely claim that that's because it gets used a lot...



This is the Physical Sciences Division Engineering Lab, which is where at least some of the electronics gets done. This is also Matt's office, and i'm supposed to be able to cover his job when he's away, like he is at the moment. Which is kind of scary because i know nothing about electronics, and almost nothing about Unix which is the operating system that runs all the servers which are behind my back as i took this picture. These are also my responsibility in Matt's absence. I'm just hoping nothing goes wrong!

Here's the "Met Office" which is where the actual visualizations are for all of the meteorological instruments, and where the actual work of the observer (stroke technician) is done.

And here's Mike the forecaster on the other side of the room, where he looks at cryptic images all day and tells people where they can and can't fly. He gives this info in the daily met briefing at 7.45 every morning. He's a pretty hard-working sort of chap, up at 5 every morning and working till 9 at night or later every day of the week.... Thats why they rotate the forecasters halfway through a summer season.

I've been doing a bit of climbing on the climbing wall recently, and im getting quite a lot better at it - Matt is a very good climber and has been giving me pointers - its pretty satisfying when you make a move that a week ago seemed impossible! Anyway, theres the 1 - 50 challenge (each hold is numbered) and then back again - Matt reckons i'll nail it at some point during the winter with a bit of practice. Might need some more upper arm strength though, although he insists that it's "all technique"...

Here's me having a go. It's great to have little challenges like this to help occupy the quiter times and give you something to focus on. I'm not so sure about transferring to an actual piece of vertical rock hundreds of feet above some more (but this time horizontal) rock though. I think it would hurt quite a bit falling on that. Much better to stick to foam mats at the moment. Or maybe i should think like the people who make those daft t-shirts which say things like "it's not the fall that kills you - its the sudden stop at the end" and have "no fear".... easier said than felt.