HAGG TRAINING: 31/05/2020

Hey Hey Everyone,
So it’s been a fairly quiet and easy week. Monday night we started off down in the brewery bottling 200 litres of the latest batch of larger. About 7 of us dove in and got it all done in a couple hours after dinner. Still pretty tough lifestyle. During the week we were all going out in groups of three (plus mark, the FTO) and going through our Hagg navigation training. I was originally supposed to do it last Friday with Frank our doctor but the weather turned at about 9am and we had a lot of blowing snow coming through so we made the decision to put it off until Monday. We had really nice clear weather over that weekend and then in true Antarctic fashion it blew up again on Monday so we had to put it off again. Since we had now been branded as the cursed group, Frank and myself were put at the end of the line and set to do our training after everyone else so we set out for ours this Friday just gone. Though perhaps it was Darren, one of our weather observers, who bought us good luck and clear weather as he had to rotate into our group to suit his work schedule. We headed off after smoko as the sun doesn’t really rise until about 11am at this stage. Mark had to teach us how to set up & use our GPS navigation and follow set way points and routes to navigate our way up the plateau and keep clear of crevasse fields. Everything went smoothly as Darren drove the first leg of the trip as we were going to make our way to Hendo Hut. A little over halfway I took over driving and with the Hendo range clear in site we could see snow blowing between the two peaks known as ‘the Gap’. I was having a little chuckle to myself as inside that blowing snow is where the hut was situated. Interestingly enough out in the clear of the plateau there was not much wind but because the Hendo range funnels air through ‘the Gap’ often turning it into a massive wind tunnel it had created a small localised blizzard. So off we went straight to the base of the range and followed the route round to the back of the mountains. Here was where we started to lose visibility as we got up onto the up wind side of Hendo and the blowing snow made it hard to see and read the ground. Taking it slowly I just crawled the hagg along staying within a couple metres of where the GPS told me where the route was, conscious that a couple hundred metres either side of me were big wind scours with quite a large drop off them. Even though 200 meters is a fair way, when we could barely see 10m into the blizz it was slightly stressful. Eventually we found our way to the base of Hendo and navigated our way slowly through ‘the Gap’ and from there we still had about 200 meters to actually make it to Hendo Hut. The winds were very strong at the choke point of ‘the Gap’ and we couldn’t distinguish the ground in front of us. Mark made the decision to turn around and make our way back out. Also to note doing a three point turn when all you can see is a giant wall of white, still slightly stressful. After we made our way back past the gap and a little further away from the mountain, Frank and I had to practice changing drivers while not leaving the vehicle, which was very cramped and awkward but also reminded me of everyone getting into position in the plane before we jump out when skydiving back home. Now the pressure was off I could just relax a bit in the back seat of the hagg as Frank drove us back down from Hendo onto the plateau. Before heading home Mark also had each of us drive while he blacked out the windows with a couple foam mats so we could each experience driving with no visibility and navigate purely off the GPS. We all had a laugh when I turned to Mark when it was my turn saying “Seriously? I JUST did this for real?” but its all good practice.
Other than that I’ve just thrown in a couple pictures of during the week. Shane and I had to get our D6 dozer up and running as we will soon need it to clear snow and we haven’t even started it since we got here. So you can see we had to have a Herman Nelson (a fuel burner/heater) to melt out the snow from the engine bay and clear the fan and belts. A small honda generator charging the batteries and a slightly bigger generator to plug into the block heaters to warm up the engine oil and coolant before we even try to start it. Also we bought our larger Cummins Gen set in side the work shop to check it over aaaaannnndd it was full of blizz. HA! HA!
For those who remember the whole ‘Mawson Assassin’ thing and remember I put a note on my targets door to try and freak him out a bit, I noticed the other day he still has the sign on his door so I thought you might get a laugh from the picture.
The following link is to a video the Division made about the huge blizzard we had here a couple weeks ago from GoPro footage some of the guys sent in. It was pretty full on but it’s worth a watch. https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/mawson-weathers-wild-antarctic-storm/ I would like to Thank those who supported me through out the Push Up challenge. Your support towards the cause is greatly appreciated. 👍😎