basagix field notes

On Saturday morning I hiked the high route to Lake Bonney. My pack was full of meteorological sensors, warm clothing, a sleeping bag, pee bottles, and lots of high calorie food. My path went up Andrew's Ridge, across the upper valley, over to the Marr Glacier lakes, then down through the ventifact gardens to Lake Bonney camp. My favorite part of this hike is coming off the high route where you can opt to walk along a thin black dike protruding from the granite. The view of Taylor Glacier winding its way up toward the polar plateau is spectacular. My purpose to head up to Lake Bonney was to meet with a BBC film crew. The group was shooting footage for a bit on climate change and the role of Antarctica. Two other LTER groups were already busy at work when I arrived at camp. The BBC crew were interested in what we were all doing, but were most interested in collecting footage to tell their story. I was interviewed while working on the L. Bonney weather station. Then again that evenin...

Liz, Danny, and I have completed the glacier measurements on Commonwealth, Howard, Canada, Seuss, Hughes, and Taylor Glaciers. The work went very smoothly and we had good weather (clear to overcast, temps around -10 C, calm winds). We didn't find much new snow accumulation from last year. Most all of the new snow was from the recent October storms which was heavily reworked by the wind. a typical day during glacier measurements… wake for coffee and bagel make lunch and suit up helicopter pick up, fly to glacier drop survival bags off at base of glacier then fly to the upper glacier and get dropped off measure stake heights and snow density while walking down the glacier ~6 miles(preferred over walking up glacier) helicopter pick up at end of day transfer data into field notebook enjoy a delicious meal. From Antarctica 20...

worked on Commonwealth glacier today making mass balance measurements with Liz and Danny (FSTP). Good day out. The katabatic winds that have been blowing for the last 3 days let up. The winds blew out all the snow and warmed the temps to -4 C. I just got good news that my luggage has arrived on the continent. One step closer.

Wednesday morning was white with blowing snow. With all the poor weather, it was looking unlikely that Liz and I would be able to make it out to Lake Hoare on our scheduled helicopter flight. Rae surprised us in town and was scheduled to fly out with us. After lunch, the snow ceased and visibility improved a little. Just 30 mins after our scheduled time we received a call notifying us that they were going give it a shot. We loaded our helicopter and were on our way. Our pilot, Paul, navigated out to the ice edge and then over to the valleys. An unusual sight welcomed us into the Dry Valleys... several inches of snow cloaked the valley floor all the way up to the peaks. It looked like a different place. I was quite happy landing at Lake Hoare. Sandra welcomed us and we began to unpack. Later in the evening I was overcome with joy.. eating some of Rae's famous pad thai, sipping a GnT and finishing the evening with a very fine moist German chocolate cake that Sandra made. Its good to...

4 days after our arrival in MCM, Liz and I are ready to head into the field. We have completed our refresher courses on cold weather injury, radio and communications, drill and augers, and an environmental course that highlights ways to reduce the impact on the fragile environment of the Dry Valleys while working there. We have also completed preparing our cargo. While our project is far from"fast and light", our project strives to keep things simple and by Antarctic standards light. That said, I have just completed organizing and packing 1200 pounds of cargo which will be flown to the field with us. Personal gear for Liz and I is about 150 pounds. The remaining is camp gear, lab and meteorological equipment including car batteries, sensors, dataloggers, etc. There is a large amount of work and many tasks which must be completed before heading into the field. What make its possible to complete is the amazing science support. The folks down here are amazing at what they do. ...