The Ledingham's Experience - Day 2 to the Stillwell Hills

I don't have a map for you this time, sorry. I'll try and wrangle one for you with Day 3.

Day 2 began with coffee and fruit-toast. People adapt amazingly quickly to new levels of "normal", and down here, in the field, a slab of buttery fruit-toast is the absolute pinnacle, complete perfection. There is nothing better. We couldn't bask in luxury for long though, there was more progress to be made, so after breakfast we broke camp and took off quick-smart.

Prior to this expedition my record for furthest traveled west (in the South...) was Proclamation Point (more on Proc Point in Day 4), on the west side of the Taylor Glacier. In fact, none of we six expo's had ever been past that point before, so we were heading into truly unknown territory today.  

Which turned out to be hours of soul-destroying, back-breaking, 8km/hr sastrugi. Hurrah.

Evidently the sea ice is normally smoothest closest to the plateau edge. Unfortunately, navigating around protruding glaciers means heading waaaaaay out towards the sea edge, and the provided GPS travel routes are placed a bit off shore to protect us from the risk of calving ice. So: sastrugi. 

This time round our patience lasted two, maybe two and a half hours... after which we kicked it straight back inland and found the sweet sweeeeeet smooth ice to bring our average speed back up to 30km/hr. Sastrugi really is genuinely unbearable in a Hagglund.

In hour four of the drive we made a short stop at Tilley Nunatak (another helo fuel depot - apparently they're everywhere) to check on the drums (yep, still there) and enjoy the wind.

Auto-focus on blowing snow.

As uncomfortable as they are on the rough stuff, I love the unstoppable little nuggets.

Cinema.

From Tilley it was a steady trip along the coast into the Stillwell Hills and past the Dovers Glacier. This is where things got really interesting for me; the geography out there is completely different from the Antarctica that I'm used to. Around Mawson the Antarctic plateau dominates, there are distant mountain ranges, and a few small islands. In comparison the Stillwell Hills are a large group of taller hills right on the plateau coast, with islands of a similar size all around. 

The landscape blew my mind.

But there was still a ways to go before we could settle down. We paused at one point to try out the Hagglunds HF transmitters, were met with abject failure, and retreated to good ol' sat phones. ANARE expeditions are a precision machine.

After the whole HF fiasco was thrown in the "too hard" basket we finished the last six kilometers to the Ledingham's Depot site, and were rewarded with the most spacious field accommodation any of us have ever been too. Good god was it comfortable.

Of course, we were here to get work done! So work we did. There was some very minor maintenance to be done by electrician, although things were generally in good working order. The plumber set about replacing and pressure testing gas regulators, and the chippy started stripping and resealing the joins in the fiberglass structure. His was the biggest job of the trip so everyone not too attached jumped in to assist... I spent a lot of time scraping silicone on this trip.

We also spent some time pitching a polar pyramid. I hate the polar pyramid (although I've never had to use one in anger). Pyramid shaped tent, very sturdy, reasonably warm. Getting in and out of it is like being born. We brought two of them with us in case we needed extra sleeping space on the trip, but there was also a pyramid left at Ledingham's that was the designated "toilet tent". Doing your business in Antarctica can be an inglorious business, but on a five day trip it is a bit of a necessity. Yes, it gets cold.

Polar pyramid right of screen.

As evening set in I took off by myself for a walk to enjoy the surrounds. We had noticed a huge-huge-huge bizarre snow wall nearby that I was keen to check out. I spent a bit of time at the edge of the wall enjoying the spectacle, and eventually JB came out to join me. We took some spectacular shots that night.

We finished the day off with another gourmet (frozen) meal sent by Kim and the nightly sched, after which I set about building a nest. The hut may have only had three beds but it also had plenty of space, and there was a camp bed available so I stashed it under a trestle table and built it up with bear rugs and sleeping bags.

I slept wonderfully.

Accommodation at Ledingham's Depot: melon has three beds and two on the floor, JB sleeps outside. 

Misc photos:

The Ledingham Experience - Day 1 to Colbeck

Trip map with GPS route. Travelling west

The day of departure finally arrived. Previous plans had dictated a 0600 departure time, but promising weather and lengthening daylight meant that we were able to postpone leaving until 0900, which is a time that I actually recognize. Great success.

Horizon here we come.

So, 9am sees us off into the great blue white yonder. My enthusiasm for wide-open spaces and spirited application of throttle led to the blue Hagg taking an early lead.... until the radio squawked and I was reminded that we were meant to keep about 300m between vehicles, the other Hagg was towing a sled full of fuel, and it was not in fact a race. I was disappointed to have my fun spoiled so early into the venture, but slowed enough to allow the more sedate crew to keep up.

Our first stop of the day was for brief detour to a remote camera setup in the Rookery Islands, a popular Adelie penguin nesting site. The island is an ASPA (Antarctic Special Protected Area), so it is illegal to visit without a science permit. We kept the stop very short indeed as everyone was keen to make some real progress, but one thing really struck me here: when temperatures only rarely climb above freezing the Little Facts of Life don't disappear like you expect them to back home. The island is home to hundreds of Adelie penguins over summer - hundreds of birds living, crapping, and dying. And then freezing and never, ever going away.

The lighter brown is not rock...

The island is covered in a very thick, spongey, all-encompassing layer of penguin guano. And spread through it, coated and camouflaged, are ex-Adelie's from all stages of life.

See if you can spot the deceased Adelie

There were no vital penguins on the island at the time that we visited, but I am sure that it would be a raucous ruckus over there at this time of year, with the males getting readily into the business of stealing each-others rocks to make the most pretty nest.

Dramatic reenactment courtesy of a recent Bechervaise trip

Like this but by thousands

From Rookery Island we continued west to Forbes Jelbart Glacier, where we stopped for a very short picnic lunch. Unlike the other Australian stations, at Mawson we are permitted to traverse past the terminus. In fact, we passed 3 (4? so common that you lose count) on the Ledingham's trip.

I love the glaciers. They are intense. Enormous. Bigger than I can possibly explain with words and photos. Breathtaking, beautiful. Ages old. And a haven for Antarctica wildlife as winter starts to fade. The movement of the masses of plateau ice over and through the sea ice opens plenty of large cracks that provide the penguins and seals access to the air and food they need to survive (but also makes things a little more risky for we land-lubbers). They were my favourite break to the monotony of the drive through the trip; admiring the ice, the shapes, and the seals.

Definitely not my most beautiful shot, but it demonstrates my point.

Time to stretch the legs.

Some are happy to sit and it. I prefer to eat on the run so I can admire the ice.

'cos glacier ice sure is purty.

So much drama.

From Forbes it was near continuous run to our first-day rest point, Colbeck, but on the way we crossed two tide cracks big enough to intimidate the Hagglunds. Our fearless leader (JB) has a private trick he has developed over the years for checking that these cracks are safe for travel: after close visual inspection and much prodding he proceeds to jump up and down on top of them. So far he has had a 100% success rate :)

Cracks form near bergs and islands.

After JB confirmed the crack was safe we joined him for some posing.

And the Haggs joined in too.

Eventually we did (safely) make it to the hut. In total this 90km trip took us 6 hours, 20 minutes of travel. Colbeck is the field station that is used for observing the Taylor Glacier penguin colony, which is unique because it is the largest of only two land based Emperor penguin breeding sites. Every other Emperor spends its entire life on the sea ice and in the ocean.

I had been to Colbeck once before for a midwinter Emperor census, but at that time of year we were lucky to get an hour or two of good daylight in a day. This time around our early departure and the lengthening summer days allowed us a few more hours of good light to play with.

Pete the chippy got stuck straight into one of his operational tasks and set about the delicate (bang) procedure (bang!) of removing an old cracked window (BANG! *crash*) and setting the new, double glazed replacement in the hut. JB and I went for a short scramble around the local hills while then sun set, and after a gourmet dinner and operations-normal sched via sat phone we settled in for the night to get a good rest before another big day tomorrow. 

Accommodation at Colbeck: the hut sleeps 4 (midgets); permanent RMIT van sleeps 4; outside sleeps JB.

Misc photos below :)

Such art.

Pete hops to.

This is the RMIT van. Sled based accommodation that sleeps four. This one is a permanent fixture at Colbeck.

Colbeck hut, Haggs, hills, and a van.

Cinema shots from my scrambles.

More cinema.

Breath-taking vistas in every direction.

Fastest, easiest way down a sleep snow covered slope is to just let gravity have you and sliiiiiiiiide :)

Walking route for reference. Another hill to the left not pictured. Pete for scale.

JB, my hero. Travels in all his frippery. 

Obligatory awkward big-camera sun-in-the-eyes selfie :)