Traverse Day 14 Update

Day 14 Progress:

Day 14 - 8 December 2013, 1330UT
Position reached: E 113° 44.405' S 71° 12.614'
Elevation: 2652 m
Distance covered so far: 1269 km
Distance remaining: 85 km
Temperature (evening): -24 °C

Remarks:
We are hopefully at our last night on traverse, with only a modest day's
travel remaining. Progress was once again good - we have had
fairly consistent conditions since turning off at D85.

After a relaxed meal, we sat down and watched a short old film that Noel
had, of a 1960s traverse from Wilkes to Vostok, 900 miles inland. Wilkes is
now abandoned, but is an old US station that passed to Australia before
being closed once Casey was established across the bay.

It was remarkable what 4 men in a caravan of small sleds hauled by two D4
tractors achieved. We were struck by how our modern mode of transport is
essentially the same, yet different in speed, comfort and safety. The film
was particularly apt, because the ABN site we have selected is on the old
Vostok traverse route. So while we are assuredly the first people to pass
over much of the ice we have traversed in the past week or so, we are very
much pre-dated as visitors to GC40 (the formal location of the ABN site).

Tomorrow, all going well, we reach the site. We will park the traverse
caravan a kilometre or so short, and if time allows do an initial survey to
establish wind direction, drill site, basic camp and skiway layout. Once
these things are determined, we will be set the following day to bring in
the traverse and start the work of setup.

Traverse Day 13 Update

Day 13 Progress:

Day 13 - 7 December 2013, 1330UT
Position reached: E 116° 36.488' S 71° 09.289'
Elevation: 2664 m
Distance covered so far: 1166 km
Distance remaining: 188 km
Temperature (evening): -20 °C

Remarks:

Break out the Hawaiian shirts - we arrived to still, sunny conditions and
-20°C this evening. Refuelling and outdoor chores were very pleasant, and
in fact most of us were a little over-warm because the tractors got pretty
hot in the sun while travelling.

Not much news today - everything was normal, apart from a false start which
bogged one tractor at the start of the day, and which was rectified pretty
smartly with some rehitching and towing. It did underscore to me the skill
involved in synchronised starts to get a couple of hundred tons sliding in
unison.

We had better get to the destination soon, as I'm getting through my 25
episodes of ABC Conversations - I'm getting about 58 km per episode!

Traverse Day 1-12 Update

Day 12 Progress:

Day 12 - 6 December 2013, 1330UT
Position reached: E 119° 32.665' S 71° 08.654'
Elevation: 2678 m
Distance covered so far: 1059 km
Distance remaining: 295 km
Temperature (evening): -25 °C

Remarks
The last two days we have covered very good distances of 108km and 105km
respectively, so we are really starting to think about arrival at ABN.

Not surprisingly, given the good progress, the surface has been great for
travelling.

There was no report yesterday because we drilled a core during the evening,
before/after dinner and didn't retire until well after midnight.

Otherwise there is not a lot to report - the routine traverse life
continues, with a convivial group. The Australians are picking up a little
more French, and enjoying good cheese and occasional French wine.

Today's natural highlights were some more diamond dust snow, a new crescent
moon standing right up on its end as it follows the sun around the sky, and
some spectacular polarised highlights reflecting from the snow. Just as we
were driving right into the sun, glazed areas ahead were sparkling in two
shades - a bright phosphorescent white, and an iridescent pink - it looked
like some sort of gem-like deposits coating the sastrugi in patches. Small
things, perhaps, but one gets adjusted to seeing small changes after a
thousand kilometres at such a leisurely pace!

Is a picture worth a thousand (or 1300) kilometres?

Here is a map of progress so far. In an attempt to make it small enough to
fit the satellite email, it may be barely legible, so excuse the
experiment.

Anyway, the take-home message is the red line showing progress so far.
Waypoint markers on the red line are end-of-day markers. Waypoint markers
between the red line and ABN are the intended route we will follow over
coming days.

Traverse Day 10 Update

Day 10 Progress:

Day 10 - 3 December 2013, 1330UT
Position reached: E 125° 23.287' S 70° 59.893'
Elevation: 2863 m
Distance covered so far: 846 km
Distance remaining: 506 km
Temperature (evening): -27 °C

Remarks
A routine day, except that 95 km is better than we expected to cover. In
fact if it wasn't for some minor hiccoughs with getting the snow radar
running, we may have hit the 100km - a slightly sore point around camp in
a good humoured way.

We were going to drill a shallow core (10m or so) tonight as one of 2-3
short records to look at recent variability. As it happened, the surface
in the area we travelled through looked unsuitable for a good climate
record. It was marked by strong glazing from wind-drifted snow and
erosional features (scoured lumps and bumps) rather than nice depositional
drifts and sastrugi. Since exact location is less of an issue than getting
a good climate record, we will try at the next opportunity. Interestingly,
by the end of the day, the worst of the wind-glaze was past, and the
surface was improving, so maybe tomorrow.

Speaking of the area we traversed today, we were a little surprised that
the route passed through even higher elevation than yesterday, reaching
2889m at one point, and then decreasing slightly. The weather was cold
most of the day, -29°C with around 50km/hr winds at lunch time. Mercifully
it was milder by day's end when we were refuelling etc.

We are past half way in distance (as indeed we were yesterday), and with a
bit of continued good travel, arrival by mid next week is looking
feasible.

Traverse picture

Here is picture of the majority of the traverse on the move. It is a bit
difficult to get a shot of the whole caravan, as it isn't always configured
as one train, and besides, once moving, all occupants are generally on
board.

Anyway, this picture is missing the Kassbohrer and the tractor Manu and I
are in, which is towing 3 fuel tanks (about 40 tonne). As we are making
snow radar measurements, we aren't connected to the rest of the caravan.

I think I mentioned earlier on that the traverse was hauling 90 tonne, but
I've since found out that is an incomplete subset of the whole. Including
vehicles (the 4 Challenger 65C tractors and the Kassbohrer) and fuel as we
were a few days back, the entire traverse is around 230 tonne.

Traverse Day 8-9 Update

Traverse Day 8-9 update

Day 9 Progress:
Day 9 - 2 December 2013, 2300UT
Position reached: E 127° 56.663 S 70° 49.591'
Elevation: 2836 m
Distance covered so far: 751 km
Distance remaining: 601 km
Temperature (evening): -27 °C

Remarks
Yesterday was a long and busy day, and despite a good day for the raid we were saddened by the news of the helicopter accident on the Amery. Our thoughts are with all
those involved. Consequently today I'll give a combined 2 day update ...

This is another iPad under-way attempt, I must say battling at the limits of dexterity as we bounce along at 8-9 km/h. Blame the sastrugi and autocorrect for any
typos!

We covered 87km yesterday and 84km today, which is excellent progress now we are off-roading. Yesterday we parked the caravan around our usual time of 2030 under
ideal conditions: scarcely a breath of wind, and clear sunny skies making the -24°C air temperature seem mild. It was a case of doors flying open as vehicles came to
a stop and everyone scattering to make the most of the weather. Manu doing another radar transect, Olivier doing snow pit work, while I got our Kovacs shallow ice
corer out to do some testing in preparation for some genuine coring in the near future. This frenzy of pre-dinner science activity was aided by the rest of the group
who picked up our common end-of-day tasks. While on the topic of science, a clarification regarding Manu's snow radar during traverse. I think I said it covers the
upper several tens of metres; in fact it extends to about 150 m, somewhat deeper than I thought.

The clear still weather brought a cold night. I'm noticing a distinct difference between temperatures of -30° and below, and the more congenial -10° to -20°
temperatures we encounter in previous work near the coast and at Law Dome. Each day little tasks requiring dexterity, Iike tying up radiator covers on the tractors,
are compounded by clumsy gloved hands or very cold fingers. I expect we will really be challenged at the ABN camp when it comes time to put up the 7 or so large tents
and 20+ polar pyramid tents. I'm putting in an order for more windless weather!

The surface today was rougher than yesterday and Sharon pointed out the difficulty in operating the kassi when some sastrugi scrape off smoothly at a reasonable
speed, and others bring the vehicle to a shuddering stop.

Now that I've had confirmed the fact that I can blog pictures, I'll throw in the occasional bit of eye candy if future posts, although I dare not clog the satellite
link, so they'll be sparing and low quality.