So the winter begins- "We live, as we dream-- alone"

Coming Home From Work

The last fortnight has seen the complement on base dwindle as the summer season wrapped up with the last joining the Shackleton a week ago, leaving the wintering team alone on base. Unsurprisingly the last few days of the summer became a frantic rush to finish jobs and ensure everything that needed to leave was packed and ready to go.

The Long and Winding Road


The Ernest Shackleton returned for second call, having been back to the Falklands in the interim, along with undertaking a science cruise in the Weddell Sea. On this occasion it also carried a dentist, Burjor, whose main role is to perform check-ups and sort out any dental problems on those who are wintering for two consecutive years. It is also an opportunity for those about to winter to have a further check-up to ensure all potential problems are sorted before the winter begins, for though I received some emergency dental training as part of my time before coming South, problems are much better sorted by a true dentist before they get out of hand.

Return to the Shackleton at N9


Given that the surgery on the Shackleton is equipped to double as a dental surgery, it meant that we all had an opportunity to travel up to the ship. I stayed overnight to sit in on all of the dental work and improve my skills, meaning that I got to enjoy the luxuries on board of lettuce, a long warm shower and bottled English bitter- missed even over the six weeks since I was last on board.

Challenger 1 and 2 Ship-side


It also resulted in a fantastic ride on the back of a sled pulled by the large Challengers that have been brought in this year in preparation for the heavy plant work required for the Halley VI build, serenely crossing the 50 kms of the Brunt Ice Shelf to the ship with a limitless expanse of ice to the south, bright sunshine overhead and the ice sparkling as if covered in thousands of diamonds. A journey much more comfortable than the five hours back by Sno-Cat, whose suspension fails to deal with the sastrugi with comparable ease.

Jim (Z-Carpenter) Out Digging


After five days of waste and other out-going cargo being exchanged for incoming drums of fuel for the winter, time came for the last of the summerers to be taken up to the ship, which with a pyrotechnic display of expired flares, slipped its moorings and disappeared off into the fog.

The Last Summerers Leave Base


They were, however, not the last outsiders to leave Halley before our nine months of isolation. The skiway provides a refuelling stop for those planes looked after by other Antarctic operators, going to other destinations within the continent, particularly Queen Maud land. The German operated aircraft Polar 2, departed through here a few weeks ago and this left the last plane, a Basler, which services the large number of international bases to the east (a long way to the east!- see map), to depart; it arrived here just as the Sno-Cats were leaving so I stayed behind to provide fire and medical cover for the ski-way. Its arrival around the beginning of November will mark the break of our isolation.

As the Basler Takes Off, Winter Begins


I also had the opportunity to escape off base again to help with some exciting science work. Tom, who as part of a collaborative project between a University in Braunschweig, Germany and BAS, will be spending his winter flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a first in the Antarctic. Packed with both meteorological kit and infra-red sensors, it will be flown over the sea ice during the winter to enhance understanding of the physical processes that underlie sea ice formation (read more here).

Tom, Alex and the UAV


In the interim, the priority is to get it flying autonomously (under auto-pilot guidance) along a GPS determined itinerary, easy enough in Europe but sastrugi and cold temperatures conspire against that here- resulting in a few hiccups. For safety reasons the UAV is flown several miles off base with operations run out of the back of a converted Sno-Cat, which provides a warm haven when the ambient temperature is around -20ºC, as it has been since the ship departed.

Assembling the UAV on Site


With a two metre wing span and a weight of 5 kg its not a small thing to get off the ground, which is achieved by the use an elastic bungee and two lithium battery powered motors.

"Airborne!"


The absence of the summer team and the withdrawal of the ski-doos as the temperature drops, has meant that the base is suddenly much quieter. The eighteen of us that are here for the winter can all sit around one big table for meals. Before long, however, the numbers on base will drop off further as groups of four all leave for the pre-winter trips for a week at a time. I leave in a fortnight but before that there is plenty of organisation of the medical supplies to take place and medical research projects to sort out.

Sunset Over the Piggott
As winter draws in, sunsets return

Summer Days Drifting Away

Though the sun has yet to fall below the horizon since my arrival at Halley, there is a noticeable evening which was not present a month ago, indeed the sun will set for the first time this year in a few days time if only for an hour or so.

The Laws With a Silhouetted Kite-Surfer


The temporary disappearance of the sun coincides neatly with the end of the Halley summer season, for the ship is already keenly waiting for second call to begin and the long shifts of sledge towing Sno-cats will make the journey to the coast but on this occasion taking out the waste (including all the building materials) produced over the last six or so weeks. More importantly the bulk of the winterers from last year, apart from six who are staying for a further year, along with the summer team will also be leaving.

Aerial View of Halley
The main platforms from L to R- Simpson, Laws and Piggott


We have all been fortunate to spend some time up with the plane- I, particularly, since I had the opportunity to sit up front as co-pilot. All BAS flights require a second person to fly, as there is no solo flying by any of the pilots, all that the co-pilot training involves are basic field skills including pitching a pyramid tent along with lighting Primus stoves and a Tilley lamp, so that there is somebody to assist the pilot should poor weather force the plane to land in the middle of a storm. No flying skills or knowledge are required!

Biggles in the Antarctic
In the Twin Otter's co-pilot seat


Unfortunately, despite taking far too many photos, the poor contrast that has blighted a lot of the summer meant that there were few of great worth. However, the aerial photos of the base should mean that I can give a quick guided tour of the base, though I intend to elaborate on most of these over the winter.

Aerial Map
Again from the north-east as above but further away


From Left to Right:

CasLab or Clean Air Sector Laboratory- (off the map) it sits almost 2 miles from the base towards the plateau and is surrounded by a large no-entry sector allowing ultra-clean chemical sampling to study the chemistry of the interaction between the atmosphere and ice-sheet.

Simpson platform- one of the three main platforms at Halley, it houses the offices of the meteorology team (known ubiquitously as MetBabes- Kirsty, Tamsin and Dave) along with some of their equipment. Thomas also works from here running an exciting project to be covered another time but involves flying an unmanned aerial vehicle.

SHARE- there are seemingly innumerable acronyms within BAS Science and I cannot remember what this stands for. Basically, it is a long structure dominating the southern portion of the base involving a sequence of large pylons used to study the upper atmosphere.

Part of the SHARE Apparatus in Fog


Piggott platform- the second of the two science platforms, along with the Simpson. From here Alex, Jules and Chris look after the many upper atmosphere experiments (including the SHARE), that run around the base and further afield.

Laws platform- the centre of the base and the largest structure. It houses all the accommodation and living areas (including kitchen and dining room), as well as many of the technical services workshops (into which category the surgery should probably also fall). The Base Commander's office, Comms (communications) office and Field store are also all here.

Drewry- though the Laws can accommodate up to 40 people, this is exceeded substantially in the summer, for which the Drewry provides further accommodation along with a mess room and kitchen (complete with cook). In a few days it will be closed down and its generator switched off, though it provides a back-up should a catastrophe wreck the Laws.

Flying Over Crevasses


Garage- life at Halley would be difficult without the large vehicle fleet, which are maintained all year round from the garage. Like the Drewry, it is a large building on skis and is annually dug out from the large windtail it accumulates and moved to a new site.

Container Line- given the reasonable but limited space on the platforms a long chain of containers provide alternate storage year round, which extends at the northern end to the winter dump line, where vehicles and large objects not needed for the winter are placed on large mounds of snow so that when the summer returns, they should be level with the snow again.

Skiway- the airstrip for Halley (see Planes, Cranes and Ski-doos)

Fuel Stores- the various fuels, the large majority of which is Avtur, is stored in large bulk fuel tanks or in its original 45 gallon drums, well away from the main area of base for obvious reasons.

There are plenty of other smaller buildings and features around the base, which fail to appear in the photo above.

The Piggott Platform
At around 20 knots snow blows across the ground like a sheet


The three platforms are built up on stilts to allow them to be raised frequently to keep them away from the snow surface, which would result them in being buried. The previous Halley bases, were abandoned as they sunk deeper under the ice surface and were crushed by the accumulated weight. The raising of the Laws platform usually provides a labour intensive and painful focus to the summer, given the imminent re-location of the base in probably three years, this happened for the last time last summer.

Lenny and Gaz Jacking the Laws


However, all still the platforms need some tweaking given the different snow accumulation around each leg and the resulting strain on the buildings, which the steel erectors (steelies) have spent at least a week rectifying.

A large proportion of my time in the last few couple of weeks, has been spent planning the base Major Incident Plan (MIP) exercise. Given that the base during the summer has only a single doctor, an accident involving two or more seriously injured people would stretch the capabilities of the base; this is in stark contrast to the much larger scales of disaster required to trigger a MIP for a hospital in the UK.

Preparing the Incident Site the Night Before
Andy Warner (outgoing Z-Met) secures the gas stillages


The purpose of the exercise was to test the logistics that should support the response should such a disaster occur here. The scenario revolved around a welding accident resulting in a loose gas cylinder acting as a missile- a not unforeseeable though unlikely disaster wherever welding occurs. Given that only myself, the casualties and observers were aware of the nature of the scenario- though the rest knew the exercise was going to take place- it was important to make both the incident site and the casualties as realistic as possible, while ensuring the risks of a real accident were minimised. Hence- beware pictures of fake blood below!

The Incident Site
Note the empty upturned oxygen bottle- photo by Pat McGoldrick


Alongside myself the medical response is provided by a handful of advanced first aiders, who in addition to the extensive Antarctic first aid course that everybody who goes South attends in Cambridge, they spent some extra days in Plymouth covering a variety of advanced skills, including cannulation and suturing prior to coming South. Doc School, which all the Docs run at the various bases through the winter, will give everybody a chance to learn more as well as stopping me getting too bored!

Transferring a Casualty On a Sno-Cat Pulled Sled
From the back of the Laws looking north with the Drewry in the background- photo by Simon Coggins


The exercise had four simulated casualties, though not all at the site of the initial incident, all of whom were made-up and acted out their injuries- they all did a great job and the exercise would not be as realistic without them. As the photo below hopefully shows, a lot can be achieved with golden syrup and red food dye.

Kirsty (Met) Finds the Fourth Casualty
Photo by Pat McGoldrick


The whole thing lasted a couple of hours and then took almost as long to tidy away. The most noticeable problem here is hypothermia, even in the UK MIP exercises frequently note that hypothermia is a significant problem, a feature exacerbated in the Antarctic, even when one is aware before hand that it is a problem and try to keep the casualties as warm as possible and is despite the weather being not inclement on the day of the exercise.

The Worst Casualty Arrives In the Surgery
photo by Simon Coggins


The whole exercise was certainly useful not only for myself but also the first aiders and refining the base Major Incident Plan, should the worst happen. As the summer draws to a close, there is frantic activity preparing for second call and the long winter that lies beyond it.

A Pyramid Tent Pitched on the Perimeter
Black fuel drums mark the base perimeter- a safe crevasse free area

Planes, Cranes and Ski-doos

Bravo-Bravo at the Ski-Way
Dave Kully (Air Mech) guides the plane in, the Laws platform is in the distance far left


The summer proceeds to pass very quickly and there are only three weeks left now until the ship returns again for second and final call. Though, in some ways fortunately, there is not much medicine to be done at the moment, the whole base is working 11 hour days for six days a week to get the essential work done prior to winter. These include preparations for building Halley VI, the replacement for the current station (Halley V) which has lasted longer than expected since coming into operation in 1990 but whose fate is sealed by the inevitable and foreseeable calving of the Brunt Ice Shelf- more about which another time.

Camping Within the Perimeter


A large proportion of my time during the summer is spent at the ski-way- an aircraft runway on a snow substrate- which at Halley is located about 2 km north of the base. BAS operate five planes running mainly out of Rothera, which being built on rock has a proper runway. From there they transport field parties further south and re-supply them during the season as well as carrying out survey work. Most of this work is carried out by twin-engined Twin Otters, while the larger Dash-7 ferries goods and passengers from Falklands to Rothera and occasionally slightly further down the Antarctic peninsula but is unable to land on snow, unlike the ski-equipped Otters.

Halley International Airport


Halley is only accessible by air from mid-November until mid-February, so it will not be long before the plane that is stationed here leaves, outside these times the darkness, weather and cold forbid flying. To give an idea of how remote the station is, should the unfortunate situation arise that somebody needs medical evacuation from here (medevac) during the summer period, once a reasonable weather window arose, which even in the summer may take several days to appear, the flight to Rothera alone would be over six and a half hours, a distance of 900 nautical miles. For all intents and purposes, this is not an option come the winter.

Getting Ready to Re-Fuel


The role of the plane while it is here, apart from ferrying a few important passengers in and out of Halley during the summer and with no major field parties operating out of Halley this summer, is to work on the Low Power Magnetometer (LPM) sites dotted deep into the continent as far south as 85°S. These are sensitive instruments capable of detecting minute fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field caused by the effects of solar radiation in the earth's upper atmosphere, which is a particular area of study at Halley. Furthermore, a large proportion of the work is maintaining stocks of fuel at depots throughout the Antarctic, which support the complex logistics of deep field work. Fuel comes as 45 gallon barrels of Avtur (AViation TURbine fuel), of which a person can carry an empty drum, moving full drums is best done by machine or when loading them into planes with at least four people rolling up a shallow incline.

On Ski-Way Duty
The Doc's ski-doo with the fire sledge attached


The ski-way for take-off and landing is always staffed by two people on the ground. The doctor is present to provide first aid cover and staff the fire sledge, as well as assisting the Air Mechanic (Dave Kully- a Canadian with a lot of experience with Twin Otters) to re-fuel the plane, tie the plane down and various other jobs as necessary. Avtur, which is used not only for the planes but also for all the vehicles (bar the ski-doos), cranes and generators given its great performance at low temperatures, has the ability to permeate all materials and wicks away heat very efficiently, hence it is easy to get very cold hands while re-fuelling!

Operating the Fassi Crane on the Container Line
This sledge mounted crane can lift up to about a ton- the containers are used for storage


Away from planes, there is plenty of things for me to do, the last few weeks have meant the opportunity to learn to use cranes, of which there are a fair few types around base to assist with moving all the supplies and scientific goods. There is a rapid learning curve in not only how to operate the crane but also as a banksman in learning to strop cargo safely and crane signals. Relief being a busy period results in all of the incoming cargo being placed in a line, nigh on 200 metres long on the snow, all of which must be distributed and packed away before it requires too much digging out or even worse disappears under accumulated snow and ice that is constantly burying things as it is blown around by katabatic winds.

Sno-Cat 'K19' Towing a Sledge of Cargo up the Laws Windtail


While the Brunt Ice Shelf, upon which Halley lies, is exceedingly flat, as the photo above illustrates there are some contours which provide some interest and relief for the eye. Along with the eponymous sastrugi, which at Halley are rarely higher than about six inches, any object generates a wind tail if left on the snow for a period of time. The downwind tail is influenced by the shape of the object and the length of time is has been present. They can form a trap behind any object, particularly after a big blow or in poor contrast conditions when they may be rendered invisible. The largest however, is that behind the Laws platform forming a small hill to the east of the platform given that the wind is predominantly westerly. It is possible to get an idea of the size from the photo above.

Trying Out the Ski-Doo on the Sea Ice in December


As for ski-doos, the base occasionally acquires the appearance of a Bond villain's secret hide-away with particularly the aging Alpine II ski-doos darting around. I am fortunate as it is perceived that the doc requires a reliable easy to start machine in case of an emergency, as a result I am fortunate to whizz round on a powerful brand new 'doo.

BBQ Outside the Drewry (Summer) Accommodation



Despite all the work, there has been time to relax, including the annual Drewry vs Laws football match, which this year was fortunate not to result in any injuries, unlike previous years. Unfortunately one side decided to cheat by actually using skill to win, though any particular attempts at overt proficiency were quickly ruined by a rapidly deteriorating surface.

Summerers vs Winterers Football Match
Photos courtesy of Bob Pratt (Z-Gen: Generator Mechanic)



The weather here is relatively balmy and has occasionally even crept above 0°C, at which point everything becomes wet and unpleasant. It has hit -10°C on a few occasions, however, it is the relentless wind that adds a particular chill to the place, since in the absence of any wind, the -5 to -8 temperature that predominates is more than comfortable. In these conditions most people are happy working outside in the ubiquitous orange boilersuits. A feature of the broad horizon on the Brunt is the contrast in colour of the sky over the Weddell sea- deep blue- as opposed to over the continent where it melts into a much paler blue, a stunning effect that is difficult to illustrate photographically, like many of the subtleties here.

The Laws Platform From the Piggott Platform
The Weddell Sea lies to the north (behind the Laws)


There has also been the opportunity to start our field training; we are all fortunate that during the winter we will have the chance to undertake at least two extended field trips away from base. Prior to that and before being allowed to do anything particularly serious off base it is necessary to know how to pitch the pyramid tents, light a Primus stove, Tilley lamp and have a good idea what lives in the numerable boxes that are taken on any trip. Hence a night camping in a pyramid tent within the base perimeter (see photo above)- all-in-all not too dissimilar from camping at the end of the garden as a kid.

The Halley Post Office


Given that we all currently live in the British Antarctic Territory (BAT), it is important to be able to send mail home or elsewhere round the world. Fortunately, as an Overseas Territory (along with Gibraltar and the Falklands- more information) the BAT issues its own stamps. (Unfortunately we also all have to pay BAT Tax!) My mother fails to believe that I currently live in a Post Office but the photos of the Laws front door should prove otherwise. Hence the occasional opening hours every fortnight or so in the summer, when after dinner the box of stamps and first day covers is brought out by Alex (Piggott Computer Wizard and Assistant Post Master)

Entrance to the Laws Platform


Detail on the Front Door
From underneath the 'Laws' sign