Apprent-ICE 2016 Blog #7

This weekend we were lucky enough for the Easter bunny to make it this far south! Everybody was given a bag of chocolates with a random name of another staff member, and you had to hide this bag somewhere around Base leaving a clue (or in some peoples cases a series of clues) to find the chocolate!!

We also got to finish at 12pm on Saturday which was well warranted.

This week I was on fire crew and fortunately my hose running skills were not needed as we did not have any alarms.

On Monday night we went up to a place called ‘Room with a View’ just around the base of Mount Erebus. Unfortunately the cabin that was up there over summer has been towed back to base in preparation for winter, never the less was still an amazing place to watch the sunset.

I have been hearing stories that if you throw boiling hot water into colder than – 40°C air temperature the water will instantly freeze and float away! So I thought I would give it ago with the hot water thermos we had aboard the Hagglund while at Room with View. It worked awesome and provided an amazing photo opportunity for those around.

This week saw a cold but enjoyable week work wise as the temp hit an all-time low for my stay so far at Scott Base - it was a blistering -50°C wind-chill. I have found myself battling between fogged goggles or deciding to go without getting frozen eyebrows and eyelashes. But without all this would I be experiencing the harshest continent on the planet?? I don’t think so! I love every moment of every challenge whether it be as simple as deciding what clothes to wear for the conditions or installing flashing on the underside of the two extensions (which has been pretty much our weeks work). Back home these flashing would be a breeze to install, even if you only have 800mm space to work in your not crawling over sharp volcanic rock and freezing cold ground. We find ourselves dragging 1200mmx1500mm sheets of ply around to lay on, and with a great bunch of guys to work alongside and the radio pumping I wouldn't change it for the world.

Lastly I am really loving life on Base at the moment as everyone is getting to the point where we know each other really well so we are having some awesome moments and jokes together.