"No more adventures" -- C-3PO

So they sent me away. I managed to spend a few weeks at Sky Blu Runway, a deep field station south of Rothera. This was part of the work I have been doing for a project run by Newcastle University, but through BAS, whereby a network of global positioning satellite receivers have been setup to monitor how the Antarctic surface moves over time. Sky Blu is a perfect location for me to base myself while flying out to these sites.

This summer only base is generally manned by only one or two people, who have the job of clearing the blue ice runway of any snow, in order for the BAS aircraft to land. For the small Twin Otter planes, and their fitted skis, snow is not much of a problem, but for the larger Dash 7, the clearing of the runway is essential. Weather at Sky Blu is harsher and colder than at Rothera, and living is definitely more basic, but there is something appealing about this "frontier" outpost. We were reliant on the aircraft for our food supplies, and found ourselves switching to possible 24hour work patterns in order to get jobs done to make this happen.

The base lies in the shadow of Mount Lanzarote, (shown in the photo) and is an area of nunataks: mountainous areas whose peaks just rise up above the snow. The base was set up around twenty years ago when a survey flight identified the blue ice area as a possible site for a runway in order to facilitate deep field science insertion. Since then the base has developed to accommodate three living and sleeping melon huts, two underground garages for the over-winter storage of vehicles, and a history of happy campers travelling to and from the deep field.

After a few weeks out there, waiting for the right conditions to get out to visit my sites, we finally managed to get the work done. Not only that, but we also managed to get a trip out to Site 8, one the field fuel depots on the Ronne Ice Shelf. These fuel depots are setup for the Twin Otters to refuel in the field, but get covered with snow over the course of the year. Our job was to go and uncover Site 8. Our triumph at moving the 20-odd full drums of aviation fuel to higher ground is amply captured in this photo.

And it has Winnie the Pooh too.*

(*Winnie the Pooh, the most well traveled bear in the world, courtesy of Mike "Smiler" Stainer)