Rosie does Rothera
Hello!!
I finally made it to Rothera on 25th November, after a four day journey via the iron quarry that is Ascension Island airport, and the windswept collection of scout huts that is Stanley (Falkland Islands). The flight from the Falklands to base took 5 hours and the views of sea ice and snow covered mountain islands were fantastic.
Rothera is the British Antarctic Survey's largest base, located on Adelaide Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, and home to up to 120 people during the busy summer season. The base is a collection of prefabricated buildings, a dock and a runway, sat on a little spit of land that emerges into the sea from under a glacier. At the moment sea ice still grips the base, holding steady a now familiar landscape of icebergs, decorated with the occasional penguin or seal. Rising up behind the base is the glacier, scarred by a line of skiddoo tracks leading to our very own ski slope, and behind that the jagged rocks of Reptile Ridge and the mountains beyond. The view in all directions is majestic. We are surrounded by imposing black mountains covered in glaciers rising out of the sea; the air is so clear you can see for miles (which makes estimating distance very hard as things appear much closer than they are).
Since getting here I've been doing lots of mountaineering training, camped out for the night BAS style, abseiled into a crevasse and started learning to ski. Isn't a job in science great? Basically I'm having a great time! Going in the crevasse has been the best thing so far, it was massive and full of huge icicles twisted around on themselves. As I swung around on the end of my rope, breaking off spikes of ice nearly a metre long and sending them crashing down, I felt like I was a clumsy intruder in a fairy story.
The only downside is that all the booze has run out apart from Cider, of which there is loads but I'm doing my best to get through it...
More soon. Hope you are all well.
I finally made it to Rothera on 25th November, after a four day journey via the iron quarry that is Ascension Island airport, and the windswept collection of scout huts that is Stanley (Falkland Islands). The flight from the Falklands to base took 5 hours and the views of sea ice and snow covered mountain islands were fantastic.
Rothera is the British Antarctic Survey's largest base, located on Adelaide Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, and home to up to 120 people during the busy summer season. The base is a collection of prefabricated buildings, a dock and a runway, sat on a little spit of land that emerges into the sea from under a glacier. At the moment sea ice still grips the base, holding steady a now familiar landscape of icebergs, decorated with the occasional penguin or seal. Rising up behind the base is the glacier, scarred by a line of skiddoo tracks leading to our very own ski slope, and behind that the jagged rocks of Reptile Ridge and the mountains beyond. The view in all directions is majestic. We are surrounded by imposing black mountains covered in glaciers rising out of the sea; the air is so clear you can see for miles (which makes estimating distance very hard as things appear much closer than they are).
Since getting here I've been doing lots of mountaineering training, camped out for the night BAS style, abseiled into a crevasse and started learning to ski. Isn't a job in science great? Basically I'm having a great time! Going in the crevasse has been the best thing so far, it was massive and full of huge icicles twisted around on themselves. As I swung around on the end of my rope, breaking off spikes of ice nearly a metre long and sending them crashing down, I felt like I was a clumsy intruder in a fairy story.
The only downside is that all the booze has run out apart from Cider, of which there is loads but I'm doing my best to get through it...
More soon. Hope you are all well.
posted by iodinegirl at 12:27 PM
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